By shopping, I don't mean the insanity of Black Thursday/Friday or it's other weekend consumer cousins. Grocery shopping is the most essential ingredient for getting those crucial edible items(with any luck, on sale and fresh) to make up your feasting day feast.
Whether you call it a grocery store,supermarket or convenience store, that seemingly mundane retail experience is something that has set the scene for many a movie moment or small screen laugh. So, grab your cart and check those coupons as we stroll down the pop culture aisle to savor my salute to supermarket scenes:
Not all of these scenes will be Thanksgiving related but I decided to start with one of my favorites from You've Got Mail. It's the one where Kathleen Kelly is so busy dodging her business rival Joe Fox as she's zipping through the grocery store to get those last minute items that she finds herself in a cash-only checkout line with one dollar and a credit card that is not acceptable.
Joe swoops in with an armful of charm to save the situation, even using a corny knock-knock joke to mellow out Rose, the stressed out cashier. I've been in that cashier's place during the holidays and while I back her position, seeing Rose smile as she gives in to Joe's compliments is a bit of a heart warmer there:
CHECK WHICH AISLE THE KIDS ARE IN:
One of the early sequences in the 1983 domestic comedy Mr. Mom has new stay at home husband Jack making his first supermarket shopping trip with the kids, getting into various messes("clean-up on aisle_" quickly becomes a theme) and doing his best to figure out the complexities of ordering sandwich meat at the deli counter.
His biggest problem turns out to be keeping track of his kids, who fortunately are not misplaced for long. This is a comedy, after all, and even after all of these years, some of the laughs have not gone stale:
COUPON WARS: A season one episode of 2 Broke Girls had Caroline discover the joys of grocery shopping with coupons, becoming an instant devotee to the wonders of extreme couponing.
That joy turned to turmoil as she and Max ran into the local coupon queen and began a battle over cake batter that was at a too good to be true bargain price. Yep, it's not all smiles at the in-store specials section there:
When Rory received her first kiss from Dean at Doosie's Market(in the ant spray aisle, a good aisle indeed) and doesn't tell her mom about it, Lorelai decides to do a little supermarket snooping of her own to learn more about her daughter's potential beau.
Luckily, Luke shows up to prevent Lorelai from making a move that would upset the balance of double coupon day. A nice bonus is that this episode does take place around Thanksgiving and the Stars Hollow town decor is seasonally awesome:
So, Happy Thanksgiving, folks and when you do head out to the supermarket for that can of cranberry sauce or those rolls you forgot to buy earlier, try not to get into a foodie fight. The grocery store can be hectic at times yet it's also an iconic symbol of abundance, one of the things that we give thanks for on this special day:
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