Article posted Tuesday, September 11, 2012 2:08pm

Dear Mary Pat,

I was in the grocery store the other day and ran into a friend. She looked into my cart and saw several bottles of wine and ingredients for appetizers and said, “Oh, you must be having a party!” I smiled and gave a non-committal mmmmnn and tried to change the subject. As we talked about our kids, I saw her eyeing up the rest of the contents of my cart and saw her wheels turning. I don’t know if she was wondering why I never invite her to my parties or whether she thought my taste in wine runs a little on the extravagant side. Whichever, she was totally staring into my cart. Isn’t that rude? It seems as invasive as going through someone’s medicine cabinet. Would it be excessive to suggest that grocery carts should come equipped with covers to prevent busy bodies from knowing what I’m purchasing?

Signed,

M.Y.O.B .

Glendale, WI

Dear M.Y.O.B.,

I think you are correct. It is rude to stare into someone’s grocery cart. And if you ever decided to invite this woman to your house for a party, you could be sure that she would go through your medicine cabinet. She might even go through your bedroom drawers too, so keep an eye on her. People are naturally curious, but one really should resist the urge to check out the contents of other shoppers’ baskets. Sometimes, the contents are totally obvious and people can’t help but draw logical conclusions. If two teenaged girls come into a store before Halloween and have 48 rolls of toilet paper and 16 cans of shaving cream in their cart, it is clear from 30 feet away that they are up to no good. If the guy ahead of you in line has 2 boxes of Kleenex, 5 containers of soup, oyster crackers, 7-Up, orange juice, and cough syrup, it won’t escape your attention that someone isn’t feeling well.

There isn’t much that can be done about this since I don’t think the cover option is going to happen. At least in Glendale, you’ve got a better shot of not running into 27 people that you know in a 20 minute trip to the store as here in Door County. The smaller the area, the more “curious” people seem to be.

Good luck,

Mary Pat