When we’re in a supermarket shopping for a nice, thick T-Bone, we are not there to listen in on chit-chat about Uncle Fred’s prostate or how the squirrels are feasting on the feed we put out for the birds.
More than that, we don’t go to our favorite supermarket to eavesdrop on verbal warfare waged on a cell phone.
My brush with someone’s family feud occurred in a local Publix but it could have been Winn-Dixie or Piggly Wiggly, for a growing number of shoppers are interested in their phone calls instead of a bargain on paper towels.
Monday, from the deli to the frozen food section, I dodged customers pushing a grocery cart with one hand while holding a cell phone to their ear with the other -- and they weren’t discussing the price of a can of corn.
As they meandered through the store, their uneven pace slowed down the flow of carts and their loud chatter disturbed the tranquility of a trip through fresh fruits and vegetables.
It got worse.
Hearing a well-dressed woman angrily bellow into her phone near the meat counter made me shudder. Before I tiptoed past her, I heard more than I wanted to hear.
“Don’t you shout at me!” she screamed.
Well, guess what, lady. You were shouting and you had an audience that didn’t buy tickets for your performance.
Cell phone etiquette is a mounting issue. More than 200 million Americans carry mobile devices and though we resent being controlled by them we can’t ignore them when they ring. The phone is our master.
As usage increases, so does resentment. We pass laws about driving and texting but carry on gregarious conversations in a restaurant that disturb the table for four next to us that is trying to enjoy their food.
My first thought was that supermarkets ought to be declared no-phone zones. A conversation with a Publix official made me rethink that idea. She said complaints about phones haven’t shown up on the company radar.
“Short of hearing someone screaming into their phone, we can’t police the use of phones.
“It could become an invasion of privacy,” explained Brenda Reid, a regional Media and Community Relations manager with the nation’s 10th largest grocery chain.
Instead, in an era when customers use smartphones to download coupons and check on daily specials, supermarkets are encouraging the use of phones.
This is really a people problem, not a phone problem and we have to behave. Show respect by maintaining at least a 10-foot buffer from anyone when you’re on the phone. Never talk in elevators, libraries, restaurants, stores or other public places.
Unfortunately, not everyone was raised to have good manners. We’ll still confront people like that livid woman in the supermarket. And there’s not an app for that.
