Wegmans and the Bee Gees

The Wegmans in Yardley is always bustling. Shoppers in and out maneuvering their carts like dog sleds. In many ways grocery shopping is akin to our modern-day survival of the fittest. We search for a strategic parking spot, put on our game face, increase our walking pace, aim a cart at the automatic door and mentally review our “list”. If any one of these things fails, one might go hungry. Darwinian game on.

Oh, and everyone has a list, either meticulously written on their cell phones - maybe even alphabetized - or a mental list that is constantly getting reviewed and revised. I have seen some people talking to themselves with very serious faces. This quiet self-talk must be the list they are reciting as they prepare to go hunting in the amorphous grocery aisles.

Sure, the various aisle signs might read “snacks”, “produce” or “bakery” but items like the garlic parmesan flavored popcorn with Himalayan salt has its own piece of real estate, out in the open for all to see. Not relegated to an aisle. An experienced grocery hunter knows this, just like they know the grass-fed beef is nowhere near the…well the non-grass-fed beef. Wait what?

And so it goes, as the grocer hunters maneuver the Wegmans labyrinth. It’s an impressive place. Don’t get me started on the hot food stations. Wegmans has subtly embedded a to-go international restaurant in its stores. Brilliant.

Back to the hunt. Today was no different for me. I parked my truck in a space that allowed easy egress. I grabbed a cart and pushed it in the straightest line towards the automatic side doors. Yeah, that was my hack – go in from the side door, avoid competitors. I was intent on completing my grocery list and exiting in record time. Not that I was keeping track.

I was still getting used to the enormous layout of this Wegmans. It’s relatively new and if Toms Toothpaste and organic hummus were on my list today, then a personal record for the longest time spent in Wegmans would be set. I wouldn’t even know where to start for those items. No, today’s list was relatively small notwithstanding the impulse buys. See the above-refenced popcorn.

I crossed the threshold and immediately scanned the current traffic. I identified three inert shoppers in my zone and came up with a quick route to the organic vegetable area. A route that I could change on-the-fly if another grocery hunter got in the way. I always opted for the compact grocery cart. Great design. The big ones have a terrible turning radius. But it also fits two kids and a small dog.

I was off; the grocery hunt was on. I may have been semi talking to myself “ok, broccoli, ground beef, tomatoes…” I felt the energy of my fellow hunters – intense and focused. No smiles, maybe a perfunctory excuse me and sometimes a crazed grocery cart operator that was not stopping for anyone or anything. Getting side swiped was a real possibility. Or a head on collision. Sometimes I heard these distant collisions.

But instead of a grocery cart hitting me, the song hit me. I stopped and listened for a few seconds. “Oh, I know this song!! That’s the Bee Gees.” I don’t ever remember Wegmans playing music and here was a Bee Gees song. It was perfectly audible and seemed to drown out everything else. It was a song everyone knew and truly seemed to change the entire Wegmans vibe.

Maybe it was me, but it really seemed like this song had the same effect on all the shoppers. It no longer felt like a grocery hunt and the intensity faded. I stopped and just listened. It brought back vivid memories. All good ones. I could see my 11-year-old self in our monster station wagon with cousins and sisters driving to my grandmother’s house. It was a warm summer day, and all the windows were down. It was probably 1979.

For those shoppers listening, and there were a lot, it was an immediate trip down nostalgia lane. A happy trip. One that makes you smile. I saw smiles and people subtly grooving to the song. I no longer cared how fast I could get in and out of Wegmans, and in fact slowed down so I could enjoy the song and experience a little nostalgia. I didn’t even know the name of the song and when I was trying to be Mr. Cool in my younger insecure days, I would never admit to liking the Bee Gees.

But today, for me and many others, it took us to a familiar milieu. One without technology. One where genuine human interaction existed because it had to and people felt connected to one another. And maybe that’s what people felt for a few minutes at Wegmans when an oldie but goodie was played. Music does that. I figured out later the song was “Too Much Heaven”.

By Francis Goodnow