The Commissary

Today, I found myself nostalgic for the Commissary...who knew? I was at the Sports Basement in San Francisco; it was the old Commissary when the Presidio was an Army post. Its old department signs are still up: produce, meats, frozen, etc.

I flashed back to my previous Commissary shopping experiences. Always crowded with great deals and long lines, the Commissary, for me, was kind of like an adventure...with some really great people watching. From soldiers in uniform to mothers with several children tearing down the aisles, anyone with an ID card could shop at the Commissary.

Last fall in Quantico, I had my strangest Commissary encounter to date. There are volunteers who work as baggers for tips. I didn't remember them from the Commissary at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, but Max told me they're at every military base's Commissary. Anyway, this day, I had two bags of groceries...completely manageable in my eyes. I did, after all, used to live in Manhattan, where carrying copious amounts of groceries home down long blocks was just what people did to get food to their apartments. I still remember the crevasses in my arms from the grocery bags (this was, believe it or not, before cloth grocery bags)resting on my forearms for six blocks.

Back to Quantico. OK, so I had paid, thanked both the cashier and the lady who bagged my groceries, when the latter picked up my bags to put in a cart. "Oh, thank you," I began, "but that isn't necessary. I don't need any help, it's just a couple of bags." I didn't - it was nothing!

This woman gave me the look of death and slammed my groceries bags back down on the check-out counter while shouting, "Lady, you do it yourself then."

Was she serious? She was mad at me because I wanted to carry my own grocery bags? Wasn't the help out an optional service?

Never one for a scene, I quickly picked up the items that had fallen out as a result of her rage and scurried out of the Commissary. The whole drive home, I thought about that encounter. Was this another aspect of military culture with which I was completely unfamiliar...I mean do people in the military get help out with their grocery bags?

After relaying that story to my neighbors, I discovered that most people actually do tip these people to carry their bags to their car. "Just give then five bucks, that's what I do," one friend told me. Five bucks to carry bags that I can carry with one hand?

Call me frugal, but I opted for the self check-out for the rest of my time in Quantico...no matter how long I had to wait in line. I'm all for helping people out, but I'd rather there be a tip box on the check-out counter that I could drop a couple of dollars in for bagging the groceries. Even when I was nine months pregnant, I was a carry-it-myself kind of gal!