Tianci Hu Marrero
2021-05-29
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Yesterday, Hector and I went on a Costco run at Junction Boulevard. We bought a bunch of Spindrift (bougie seltzer water) since it was on sale, and joked about opening a Bodega selling them for 3.50$ a pop.
As we approached the exit, we encountered a tall, heavy-set Costco worker checking receipt. Usually, such gatekeepers just do a quick scan of the receipt and the cart, and let you go. The whole process very rarely took more than 10 seconds. However, this gentleman read through our entire receipt, sized us up, and gave us a quiz: "How many boxes of spindrift did you buy?" We gave the right answer, and he gave us a smile that reminds me of the many Chinese public school teachers I have had.
And by that I mean I could not tell if he was fastidious or insidious.
I watched him as he took unusually long to look at our paper. He has thin, medium-length hair tied up in a pony tail. One thing remarkable about his physical presentation - he has about a dozen pins on his T-shirt, signifying allegiances to many kinds of clubs, charities, and ideologies. One of them is "ask me how you can help sick children."
Unfortunately, as we approached the car, I realized I forgot to grind the bag of coffee beans. I went back, ground the coffee next to the hotdog stand, and rushed out.
This time, a dozen carts have backed up the line manned by this gentleman, while the other line is going at a usual pace. I nimbly picked the other line and observed him once again. He studied every receipt, and quizzed the customers with a special glint in his eyes. What's more, after carefully investigating the shopping integrity of a Chinese grandpa, he then asked him to open his backpack for inspection.
The shoppers start to back up all the way to the checkout line, and I could see that he's having a good time.
Later, Hector and I got to talk about subtle combinaton of "ask me how you can help sick children" and the way this costco person is exercising power at work. Hector told me another instance where he saw declarative, decorative text. This time, it's on a taco truck, and it says: "It's better to die standing on your feet than live on your knees."
I chuckled, and thought I like the taco truck style much better.