The Grocery Store Has Become the Club

The fluorescent lights are low-key vibing. The produce mist hits like a fog machine. Someone’s auntie is two-stepping in aisle seven, and the self-checkout line has more tension than a VIP rope. Welcome to The Grocery Store Has Become the Club - the show that explores why a simple trip for milk now feels like a full-blown social event.

This episode dives into the hilarious, chaotic, and surprisingly relatable culture shift happening in supermarkets everywhere. From the unspoken dress code (why are we all suddenly showing up like it’s a soft launch) to the flirtation happening over frozen waffles, this podcast unpacks the new nightlife that starts at 5 p.m. and ends when the rotisserie chickens sell out.

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Transcript

Cold Open And Banter

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome back. I'm telling you, man, if this podcast thing don't work out, I'm going back to my singing career. I miss my calling. I need to just go out there and just be a singer. You know what? But anyway, let me let me get started. Okay. Welcome back to another episode of Unstripted After 40, the podcast. So I'm excited to tell you about what happened this week, okay? I did something amazing this week. And it blew my mind what I did. And I know what you're thinking. Damien, what did you do? Give me a second. I'm about to tell you, okay? I went to the grocery store. Yes, that's the most amazing thing I went. But not only a regular grocery store, but I went to a bougie grocery store. Now, I know what you're thinking, like, okay, what what's so special about going to a grocery store? Even a bougie grocery store, right? But what you don't understand that these days grocery stores have evolved from what we are used to seeing what grocery stores are. Now did you know that grocery stores these days have a club in it? You heard what I said. Grocery stores now have a club in it. You can go shopping and partying at the same place. I know what you're thinking. I'm like, yeah, I didn't believe in either. Okay, but that's what I did this week, okay? So I went to, like I say, a bougie store. Down the road from my house is a Harris Tita. I've been to the Harris Tita before. I think most of y'all have been to a Harris T before. But what I didn't know that my Harris Tita has a bar slash club in it. And I'm saying club because it that's what it looked like when I walked in, because it was like a bar. So I get up my car, you know, I get my pull my phone out, I look at my grocery list, I make sure I got it there in the phone as I'm going into the grocery store. I get my little cart and I'm walking in, I hear some music. I'm like, okay. You know, usually grocery stores play that elevator music, you know, that stuff that just gets you thinking aimlessly on just like bam, I'm in the elevator. Like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Then it starts back over with something else, then keep going thing. Like, like you're waiting on the phone, like, you know, when you get on call waiting and they put that little elevator music on, like the common music supposed to be, right? But no, I'm hearing some, you know, go, go, it's your party, go, go, it's your birthday, go, go. I'm like, okay, when did the grocery store start playing 50 Cent? I'm like, okay, it must be they messed up the playlist, you know. The playlist got shuffled or something like that. But but no worries. I go in there, I go around, I pick up me some fruit, and and as I'm picking up my fruit and moving moving towards the back of the grocery store, the music just getting louder, okay? So I'm looking, I'm like, man, that that sounds nice. Okay. Like I said, they they must have got the wrong playlist today. It must be these millennials, the young, young you know, people out there putting that good music on there, and they they're getting hyped, they want to live the old days and you know keep it live while they're working. That that's what it was, okay. That that because it just wasn't a regular grocery store. But as I get my fruit and I've been around the corner, and it's like a like a vision or like like a sight to see, like a light just popped up. You know how you like you go across the hill, and then you see this promised land site or something like that? That's what it was, like a promised land like oh, and I'm like, oh my god, is that a bar in the grocery store? So I like you gotta be kidding me. You know, I don't drink no more, but it's still amazing to see a bar in a grocery store that I never seen before. Grocery store is not supposed to have a bar, you're supposed to get your liquor from the grocery store, then move out to your home where you got your home bar. That would say so. So the curious George that I am, I decide to pull up. I guess that's what they said. They are, I came in, pull up on the scene. And as I get closer to the scene with my little basket and stuff like that, I notice this velvet red rope around the area. So I'm like, you know what? Okay, that's cool. They put a velvet red rope around the area, you know, just to block it off. So, you know, you know, people won't be bumping into people that's sitting in the because they have some tables around this. So I like, okay, a bar, tables like a normal bar scene that you would see in like a mini restaurant or something, like a club. So I'm thinking that, okay, that's why they got the velvet rope to block that off, right? So as I get closer to it and I hear the music going, people dancing, I see, I hear glasses changing and stuff like that. I say, you know what? Did I come into the am I actually still in the grocery store or like did I cross over to something different? But apparently, yes, I was still in Harris Tita because up top it says Harris Tita Bar. Okay, I'm like, let's go sit down. I I like to sit down at a bar and have a you know a soda and look at the TVs and stuff, because that's another thing. They had TVs there, they had the game on. You know, I I could watch some basketball. You can watch some basketball, even if you're not a basketball fan. If you're in the grocery store, you see a bar, you see alcohol, or like I say, I don't drink no more, you see soda, you see tables, you like sports. Why not take a break? Why not be able to come to the grocery store and sit down at the bar and thing? But you know what? I was excited. Sighted. As I get closer to it, like I said, I put my basket to the side because I thought that was like the basket parking area, like you know you park your car, like I guess at the basket parking lot. That's what it is, a basket parking lot. So I put my basket in the basket and parking lot and then continue on to the line. Yeah, yeah. The cats had a line. Shoot, they had a line, and guess what? They was checking ID. What the crap? I I never got my ID card checked in the grocery store. Well, no, I lied because when you go to the line, sometimes you gotta check your ID card and stuff like that, but not at a grocery store that actually had a bar. But like I say, I didn't know grocery stores had bars now. So I hopped myself in the line and I'm thinking I'm gonna go and sit at the bar for a little and get this experience. Because like I say, hey, how many or how often do you get to go to a grocery store that actually have a bar within it? So I get to the um counter here, right? And where I get to the the place where they're checking the ID cars Bel Row. I get there, I get a man my ID car, I'm like like a little kid dancing stuff. He he gonna look me up and down like like what is he looking at? Like, like I'm short? I know I'm short, but you ain't gotta look me up like that. He said, um, you don't meet the dress code. What? I'm in the grocery store. I I thought, what what you mean I don't meet the dress code? I like, I'm here at the gate. Let me in. I I'm pretty sure there's no dress code to come to the grocery store. I like, I came in some jogging pants and a t-shirt and stuff. I, you know, like I say, I didn't say earlier, but I'm just coming from the gym. I just want to stop by the grocery store before I go home. And I saw the bar here. I thought I could just sit at the bar for them and catch some of the game. No, apparently, um it if you go to the bar and the grocery store, it's a dress code. Ain't that a bitch? I I never thought I had to think about or be conscious of what I wear to the grocery store just to get into the grocery store bar. So I like, come on, man, let me in. He told me no. He said, sir, you gotta turn around. You you you you you are not in the dress code, but it's just a velvet rope there. I'm pretty sure I could just probably sneak up on the velvet rope, but I was like, you know what? I'm not in there playing limbo today. And then what if I'm trying to sneak in and do a limbo and I go back too far and and my back go out? Then now it it I'm on the floor in the grocery store. You know, the grocery store floor is nasty anyway. Uh uh, and then I'm on the floor, on the floor in the grocery store with back to the ground because I try to sneak into the grocery store bar club. Because like I said, I just want to see it. So I was a little disappointed. I I was thinking, like, you know, why why can't I, you know, partake in the grocery store bar because I want to be cool. I I guess I wasn't cool or well, I wasn't dressed appropriate, I guess. So to get through all that, just to mainly tell you, so um, there are bars or slash clubs in these bougie grocery stores, but when you go there, make sure that you look at the dress code because apparently you got to be dressed a certain way to get into these grocery store bars that I didn't know. And and as I was walking away, you know, in shame and and and a little disappointed, I could see that everybody was there. Well, close about my age. So I guess I was dressing too young. I guess they got like an age limit. Um, I don't know if I was too young or too old, or too young or too old, old young. Whatever was wrong. I apparently I wasn't dressed properly. I I so now that I know the next time I go to the grocery store, I'm gonna wear a collar shirt and some nice shoes. So and maybe some slacks to get in the grocery store bar. Because I just want to experience it. I just want to feel special like everybody else that was in the grocery store bar that was getting down with the music and stuff like that. So um, so when you out here in these streets and you go into the grocery store, you know, dress to impress. Because if you wear in jogging pants and a t-shirt when you just came for the gym, guess what? You're not gonna get in the grocery store bar club. Because it apparently it's the new thing now, it's popping. Grocery store bar club. Because, like I said, it was packed. I had to wait until I had to wait in line. Like I said, I didn't even know that was a thing, but now you know that I know that you know that I know that that the grocery store bar is a thing right now. So go out to these bougie grocery stores and drink their wine, drink their beer, and look at the game at their grocery storeslash bar while you are going grocery shopping, okay? And let go. So leave in the comments if you stay close to a Harris Tito or a I don't know, any of the little bougie grocery stores that got a bar in it. And let me know if your bar got a dress code that got getting in, or you can just walk in, you know, because mine's for my house, it got a velvet rope, and apparently got to be dressed nice, so I I guess I'll work on that, okay? So, but keep it up. So, like always, like I say, keep leaving the comments. I appreciate all your comments, I appreciate your um topic um suggestions. Um, and I'll make sure that when I get a topic from you, I will make sure to credit you with that topic. But I I just want to enlighten y'all this week that I was excited and I did something different, and I realized I found a new gym. So that that's my rant for this podcast to get you started with Life at the 40. We go to grocery store bars now. That's our thing, babe. Grocery store bars. Okay, thank you for listening and rock with me as always. Comments, shares, topic session, topic, topic suggestions. Oh, I'm about to mess that up. Topic suggestions are always encouraged. So please keep putting them out there. And I promise you, I'll keep sitting in front of this camera and putting these episodes out just for me and you. Even if I only got one viewer, we're gonna me and you, one viewer gonna rock. Okay, we're gonna rock together. Okay, unstrip the After 40, the podcast. Unedit, unrehearsed, real talk, real people. Until next time, go to your local grocery store, club, bar, and get your party on.