Um, what?

Well...

Waiting patiently in the checkout line at Cub tonight (with my 1/2 gallon of milk, crackers, and bag of rather pathetic looking Valencia oranges), I was treated to a display I am still trying to wrap my brain around.

The older gentleman ahead of me had obviously kicked up some sort of fuss as just as I got in line, I overheard the cashier call for a manager to assist said gentleman. The cashier turned to me and didn't really say anything, but gave me a look to say she was sorry and would be right with me. I had no idea what was going on, but was willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

Manager arrived and the gentleman went off. He went off on how Cub never stocked enough Gerber Chicken Baby Food (you read that right). He repeated several times how he'd spoken to the stock guys on several different occasions and nothing was ever done; they always told him to speak to a manager, so that's what he was doing. And Cub still never stocked enough chicken baby food.

Which, apparently, he feeds to his cat.

Um, what?

I will give credit to the manager--he kept an incredibly straight, serious face throughout the whole exchange. In his shoes, I would have tossed the old crank out the door. But no, he and another recently arrived manager took it quite seriously while the old man repeated how Cub never, ever had the chicken baby food on the shelves. Never!

My first thought was, of course, they're probably out of chicken baby food because people are buying it for their babies (sounds like it would be a hot seller to me). Duh. But why be logical in a world such as this?

The cashier was finally able to shoo the old man and the managers out of line and shrugged apologetically at me and scanned my items. As I bagged up and walked away, she engaged him in conversation again. In this exchange that her cat loved Gerber Ham baby food, but his would not touch it. Chicken only for his kitty.

Question of the day: Why would one feed one's cat baby food?