Shopping in supermarket

Shopping in supermarket

I read Dwi Bagus' letter reprinted from Kompas by The Jakarta
Post (June 19, 1995). I can imagine how he felt when the security
guards of the Gajah Mada Plaza and the plain-clothed guard of the
Hero supermarket searched him but found no evidence of his
suspected misdeed.

Shopping in a supermarket or mini-market can be pleasant and
handy, or irritating. It is pleasant because you can move freely
from one section to another and buy different things at one go.
Also you are spared from the trying business of haggling because
all goods are exactly priced.

It's irritating because human eyes are always watching you, as
if they were adopting a self-made concept of "presumption of
crime," not to mention the electronic eyes placed at different
strategic locations.

I recall one Sunday morning a few years back when I
accompanied my wife shopping at a mini-market in East Jakarta. I
let my wife do the shopping all by herself because I did not want
to argue with her as to what should be bought for what purpose.
In the mean time I indulged myself in window shopping, hovering
about inside the shop, in the hope that I would spot an item that
really caught my interest. I stopped here and there to look at a
particular item more attentively.

Only a few customers were around at that particular hour. The
music jockey of the store played a cassette, as is usually the
case in any supermarket, apparently to make shopping more
enjoyable. In the beginning I was quite indifferent at the music
and song. But later, as the cassette was played over and over
again, the lyrics of the song seemed to be piercing into my ears
and made me aware enough of what the song was about.

Indeed, I found the lyrics humorous but I was somewhat
insulted by the humor. Part of song's lyrics, as I can vaguely
remember, goes something like this: Gaya memang keren, lihat sana,
lihat sini, tapi uang tidak punya, apa daya belanja lain kali
saja (Indeed, you look stylishly smart, looking at everything
here and there, but are short of cash, so what?, shopping can be
done next time). It was foolish of me not to ask them for a copy
of such a funny cassette.

Hearing this song, I was virtually ashamed of myself, and
hurriedly got to my wife and asked her to quickly finish her
shopping. We left the shop vowing not to come back in the future.
And I never did.

Name and address

known to editor