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.

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