A & P-Short Story

I walked into the A&P Market to “pick up a jar of herring snacks for my mother” (A&P 116). I walked in the store with my two girlfriends, whom I’m always with. I was wearing my “beige bathing suit” (A&P 114) because it was such a nice day outside. As I walked in I noticed a young man who seemed to be staring at me, but I didn’t pay much attention too. I walked tall through the A&P that day, just like I always do. I felt the straps on my bathing suit had “slipped down and where off my shoulders” (A&P 114) which I liked. I felt kind of embarrassed though, because of my “white shoulders” (A&P 114).

“I felt in the corner of my eye” (A&P 114) that the two of the workers had taken an interest to me, but I just maintained

I told myself, so hard to find this “little gray jar”

(A&P 115). So I approached the youngest looking worker, the one that had been checking me out from my entrance. So I go to my admirer, who seems nice, and I hand him the “herring snacks” (A&P 115). Pay time came quick, so I “took my money out of my bathing suit top” (A&P 116) and handed it to this young man.

Just as I was about to leave from paying an older man approaches my friends and me. Obviously this was no box boy or meat cutter, but of course the manager. I wondered to myself if he was here to stare at us too, but the look on his face gave me a different response. The words that came from his mouth were “Girls, this isn’t the beach” (A&P 116), it wasn’t a long statement but it kept playing in my head over and over again like a broken record. I was so embarrassed at that moment, and didn’t know what to say to this man. So I only could think of one thing and tell him in my “startled voice” (A&P 116), “My mother asked me to pick up a jar of herring snacks” (A&P 116). The man after repeating once more “But this isn’t the beach” (A&P 116) said, “that’s alright” (A&P 116). Which makes me even more