I run into my cousin Ronnie’s daughter, Shannon, down to the Wally Mart the other day. She was there with her friend, Emily. They’re cute girls, both in their mid-twenties, unattached. You should have seen their shopping cart loaded to the gills with paper towels, toilet paper, feminine products and about twenty bottles of Oil of Olay. “Wow,” I says, “would you look at that haul!” “We’ve been couponing!” Shannon says. “Got some wicked good deals, too.” “I’ll bet.” Now, working at the A&P, I know my way around coupons. And since the economy went south, I’ve seen more and more people using them. Why not save money where you can, right? Heck, growing up, …

As many of you probably know, I work as a cashier at the A&P (actually, it’s been “Super Food World” for at least five years now, but everyone ‘round here still calls it the A&P). So anyways, I’ve been a cashier since before I graduated high school, and let me tell you, I’ve seen it all. I know who’s doing the cabbage soup diet or who’s on Weight Watchers, who has a Ben & Jerry’s habit, who’s been drinking too much Bud Light, who’s reading National Inquirer and who buys Playboy. I can’t name names, of course, because of Super Food World cashier’s code of ethics. But let’s just say, most of the time, I …