Time For A Shopping Trip
We all know of or heard of someone who feels very strongly about their cause. So strong that they will go to desperate measures to get people on board with their cause. Well, that is what happened in this story, but the individual took it way too far.
One day, a man, we’ll call him ‘Joel,’ wanted to make a nice, delicious pasta dish and he needed to buy some ground beef for the sauce. Pretty standard, right? Well, Joel was trying to shop peacefully and gather up the ingredients to make his pasta dish when all of a sudden a vegan woman, we’ll call her ‘Victoria,’ came up to him to harass him for his purchases. Will Victoria prevail or will Joel get the last laugh?
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Joel, Meet Victoria
Joel was waiting to look at the ground beef. An elderly man was standing where Joel needed to go, so he was giving him some space to finish up his selections. Joel was minding his business patiently waiting when all of a sudden, a woman came over and started up a conversation with him.
The woman referred to as ‘Victoria,’ came up to Joel and asked him why he was standing there. Joel proceeded to tell her he was just waiting for the man to finish his selections so he could find what he needs as well. Victoria pressed on and questioned Joel about what exactly he was trying to find. Joel probably thought she was just curious at first or maybe she wanted to start up a conversation. But that simply was not the case. He would soon realize this was going to be a long interaction with this woman.
Then Joel told Victoria he was looking for ground beef for a pasta dish he was planning on making for dinner that night. Victoria then walked over to a nearby cooler, reached in, and brought Joel back something else to use instead. Why was she bothering this man and trying to shop for him?
She said while handing the item to Joel, “Here you go!”
Joel took a look at the item, and it was a plant-based “beef alternative”. Now Joel was starting to realize what Victoria’s true intentions were when she sparked up a conversation with him. Joel knows people who are vegetarians and vegans. He understands the lifestyle, but it is not a lifestyle he has chosen to live for himself. He told Victoria he did not want an alternative to beef because he wanted actual beef, but she was persistent.
She said, “Yes it is what you want! It’s vegan so it is better for you and better for the planet too!”
Joel calmly replied, “I highly doubt that. In any case, I don’t want it. Now could you please put it back?”
Joel was trying to be as calm as humanly possible, but Victoria would not give it a rest. She continued to pester him.
She said, “No, it’s important that you buy it! The more people who buy it, the fewer animals are harmed. The meat industry will have no choice but to shut down!”
Joel was growing very frustrated and snapped, “Well you buy it then! I am making pasta sauce from scratch and I only use authentic ingredients, nothing highly-processed.”
The older gentleman from earlier finished up his selections and walked away. Joel then went over to where the ground beef was. He made his selection and threw it in the cart, hoping Victoria would leave him alone. Victoria put her fake beef back into the cooler but was not done with Joel yet. She decided she wanted to follow Joel around the store and educate him on his purchases. She just couldn’t give it a rest and leave that man alone.
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The Harassment Continues
Victoria did just that and began following Joel around the store. Joel tried to tell her she would be kicked out of the store for harassing him. Victoria did not seem to care and continued to follow him through the store. Joel made his way to the spice aisle, and Victoria followed.
She kept ranting about how people like him are damaging the planet. Was this really necessary while the man is just trying to find his dinner ingredients? Not at all, but Victoria simply did not care and continued. Joel tried his best to ignore her while he was looking for the spices he needed and continue to remain silent while looking for the drinks for dinner as well.
Joel was trying to get her to go away by going to random places in the store and going back and forth hoping she would just leave him alone and let him peacefully shop. That would be too easy. When they reached the section where the tomato sauce was, Joel decided enough was enough and broke his silence.
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To The Pet Section
Joel finally started to snap back at this crazy lady. Since she wanted to keep saying how bad it is to eat animals because they were once alive, Joel used Victoria’s logic on her and brought up how plants are living things too. He was being satirical, but he thought it would be fun to turn the tables a little bit and punch holes in Victoria’s logic.
He said, “Plants can feel pain too, and they make high-pitched sounds when you cut them open! Too high for us to hear, but other animals can hear them! I bet these ground-up tomatoes are just screaming their little tomato heads off inside this can, all the while dying a slow, painful death! I can only imagine how they’ll react once I put them in a hot pan with a bunch of spices!”
Victoria was not amused by this logic and continued to go on with her ranting. She said those things are fruits and vegetables, which are plants, and plants are supposed to be eaten, not animals. By “supposed to”, she meant in her own logic and was expecting this stranger she just met to follow her rules of food consumption. Joel was laughing at Victoria at that point.
He then asked Victoria, “If plants are supposed to be eaten, then why are there so many carnivorous animals out there?”
A fair question to anyone else, just not Victoria. She then said that it was “different” because they are animals and we are humans.
Joel went from laughing to flabbergasted quickly. He could not believe Victoria just said that to him. Joel realized people around the store were starting to stare at both of them (probably because they were arguing very loudly in public) and he hoped they were all looking at and judging crazy vegan Victoria and not him.
Joel made a good point to Victoria and told her how humans do not play with their food before they eat it as lions do, so it is actually more humane. He then realized that he wanted to mess with Victoria a little more so he told her he needed to get some cat food when in reality he was just using it to mess with her.
Victoria chimed in and made sure Joel was aware that they make cat food that is vegan too. So now not only was she trying to get Joel to eat vegan for himself, she was trying to convince him to convert his cat to vegan as well. Joel told Victoria that cats are supposed to have food that has meat in it otherwise they would get sick since their digestive systems are not made to digest plants. Again, fair point, but not to Victoria. She tried to say that cats eat catnip, but Joel shut that down rather quickly and reminded her that catnip is a treat not a sustainable meal choice for them.
Victoria then went a completely different direction and told Joel that he actually shouldn’t even have a cat as a pet anyways because they are “invasive species” and kill birds. But Joel told her that’s why they make good pets since they’re not out in the wild anymore.
Joel started to read out all of the names of the cat food flavors and decided it was time for him to check out. If you thought Victoria stopped following Joel, you were wrong. She followed him all the way to the self-checkouts.
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The Checkout
Once they reached the self-checkouts, Victoria said to Joel, “I refused to let you buy any of that stuff!”
The pure entitlement. It is not her job or place to “let” someone buy something when it is a complete stranger. All of a sudden, there is a light at the end of a tunnel. A nearby employee overheard the interaction between Joel and decided it was time to step in a put a stop to it.
The employee said, “Ma’am, you’ve been harassing this young man and disturbing the other customers. I need you to leave right now!”
Shocking to absolutely no one, Victoria did not comply and continued to argue back with the employee. She was going on about how the employee cannot make her stop, and how she is doing the planet a huge favor. She thought by harassing people in the store, she would convince people to listen to her. The employee told her she needed to find a way to promote her ideas and save the planet in a way that was not disturbing other customers. She then told Victoria she needed to leave the store unless she wanted her to call the police and have them handle the situation.
Victoria told her to go ahead and call them because she did not believe they could arrest her since they did not have a “reason”. The employee assured her that they did in fact have a reason because she was harassing Joel, disturbing customers, and now trespassing since she was refusing to leave the premises. Victoria finally agreed to leave, but she said her work was not done. She said she would make sure the store would be banned from selling non-vegan products. Very ambitious, Victoria. The employee basically tells her good luck with that in a way like “yeah that’s not going to happen” and Victoria heads for the door.
On the way out, she turned around and yelled at Joel.
She said, “And you, young man, I hope you think about all the harm you and your stupid cat are causing the planet while you’re enjoying your dinner! Shame on you!”
Joel was relieved Victoria was finally gone. The employee informed him that this was not the first time she has done this and that they were in the process of trying to get her permanently banned from the store.
Joel finished up paying for his items and headed out of the store. He got to his car and loaded up all of his items into his car. He finally got done shopping and the vegan Karen got kicked out of the store. As he was leaving the store parking lot, he caught a quick glimpse of Victoria in the parking lot with a defeated look on her face. It was like the cherry on top of his interesting trip to the grocery store.
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Author’s Note
I have to say, reading this story myself, I was on Joel’s side the entire time. I appreciated how he remained calm for the majority of his interaction with this woman. As for Victoria, she needs to learn that harassing strangers in the grocery store is not the way to get her point across nicely. Hopefully, she realized this after getting kicked out and finds alternative activism measures.
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