Man Living in a Grocery Store

 Fiction

Man Living in a Grocery Store

There was a large grocery store in Joe's neighborhood that opened no earlier than 6 AM and closed no later than 10 PM depending on the day of the week.  As it approached 10 PM they would end what used to be the standard checkout with a cashier, bagger and conveyor built meanwhile they would intentionally start to close down the self check out computers one at a time instead of all at once after the store closes.  Then the staff would complain about people taking too long to check out groceries when the people formed a long line.  But it was the staff and or managements fault since the customers would not have formed  a long line if the staff waited until the store officially closed to turn off the self checkout computers.

Now Joe would sometimes walk in the middle of the night at 2 or 3 AM long before the store opens or closes and through the glass window Joe would see a man in the store eating food all by himself while sitting on a chair by a lunch table.  Joe wondered if a very smart man who was poor, homeless or cheap and does not fear the law found a way to stay in the store at night and eat the store food.  Was the staff still working in the night to load groceries in the store and it was his lunch break?  If so, why was he sometimes the only person there? How horrible it would be if he forgot to pack his lunch and he was surrounded by groceries but could not eat any or be arrested or fired.  Of course he could just buy groceries with the self checkout except they were closing them all one by one before Joe left.