Giant Shout-Out

I have to give props to Giant. Grocery shopping with an almost 2 year old is a challenge. Firstly, from the minute we turn into the parking lot, Sophie starts asking for APPLES APPLES APPLES! And what is the first thing we see when we walk into the store? The produce section. Now, unlike crackers or cookies or a box of raisins, which you can open in the store, enjoy whilst shopping, and pay for later, produce is something which must be weighed by the cashier before buying. So those apples taunt Sophie the entire time we are in the store. Second, expecting Sophie to sit in a shopping cart for ANY amount of time is futile. I usually let her walk between me and the cart, "pushing" the cart with me. Thankfully she is a pretty good kid, so she will do this happily. For a while. But expecting her to do this for 30 minutes or more can be unrealistic. Even if she does, by the time we get to the (usually long) check out line she has had it.

Today's shopping experience, however, was almost a pleasure. I decided to let Sophie sit in one of those carts that has the cars attached in front. She loved it. She really thought she was "driving" us around the store, and only tried to get out a couple of times. We made it to the check out line, which was really long. I let Sophie get out and stand in front of the cart with me, preparing for a long wait. Just then, a Giant employee pushed my cart for me to a new line and proceeded to place my groceries on the belt. I looked up and noticed that this check out line had a sign that said "family friendly aisle." After I got over my shock, I thanked her profusely. The cashier then gave Sophie a bunch of stickers and Dora and SpongeBob activity sheets to play with. Sophie got back into the car part of the cart and happily played with the stickers and activity sheets.

So, THANK YOU, GIANT! I am almost looking forward to grocery shopping again next week!