I spent some time in the midwest. Quite a shock after growing up in the west.

The first time I went into a grocery store, and saw carts laden with processed food and with multiple six-packs of pop hanging off the edges of the carts, I thought there must be some event going on.

No, that's just the way those people ate.

I swear, they didn't drink water.

And the booze and cigarette consumption, whew. Reading Limewave's post was a total flashback to that environment. I barely noted the attitude of the clerk, it was all about the cultural assumptions in that unhealthy world as I read.

It would be a good topic for an anthropology thesis.