Thanks, but that's not really necessary.

I just had the best and worst grocery shopping experience.

I went grocery shopping this morning since I thought it safe to assume most people around here would be in church.

I was right. By the time I was leaving, families were arriving in herds in their church garb.

Anyway, I shop at this grocery store quite often. I really kind of love it. It's very nice and I enjoy the people it attracts, mostly. The best parts of the grocery store are the beginning and the end. The beginning is the produce and bakery, which is where I do most of my shopping. The end is all of the frozen food, which I also enjoy because I get a lot of my vegetarian items there. The other stuff is all just stuff in the middle that has very little excitement value to me. Just in case you were wondering my preferences.

The employees are always very friendly and welcoming. Today, however, by the end of my shopping experience I began to feel like the friendliness was getting quite annoying. Every employee greeted me, asked me how I was doing today, and if I was finding everything okay. As I walked along the frozen foods, I thought to myself, "I should get a t-shirt that says, 'Hi. Good. Yes. Thanks.' and wear it when I shop here." It kind of became a game and I tried to hurry past the employees before they had a chance to say anything to me. I got by one lady without the schpeel. And then I thought that she probably wasn't a very good employee.

So then I am walking by the check out lines, scanning for the shortest line. Another employee, but manager looking type, started walking with me and told me that it looked like the lady in Line 9 was just about finished.

Great...thanks! (unnecessary, but nice)

He then helped me pull my basket into the line and offers to put my groceries on the conveyor belt and before I can answer he is pulling everything out of my basket.  By the way, people down here call them "buggies". I think it's cute, but it's not natural for me so I can't do it. Kinda like how Europeans call vacation "holiday". I like that, too, but let's face it. Americans don't talk like that. We totally got ripped off in the language and accent department.

Now what happens next is typical here. The bagger always asks to take your groceries out to your car for you. I ALWAYS decline, except one time when the kid insisted. It was very uncomfortable.

Can you believe it? Can you believe how willing and eager people are to be nice and helpful? I don't even really think it has anything to do with the South (for the record there are plenty of rude people down here so don't even think about giving them credit for this). I think it has everything to do with the store policies.

Oh, the reason why it was the also the worst experience is because I'm a bit uncomfortable with people being really nice to me. I don't want any rudeness coming my way, but the over the top niceties make me really awkward.

I feel like I should give a little shout out to the store, for what it's worth. Here ya go, Publix. (I know! I thought it was just a storage place, too!)