The 99 Cent Store.

Do you go to the 99 Cent store? Everything is 99 cents. Sometimes 2 for 99 cents. Not that you need two cans of anchovies, but if you did, they would only be 99 cents.

Personally, I hate that store. For one, I can't go there with the children because somehow we always end up on the toy isle that takes up one whole wall of the store. Or on the other side of the store on the isle that is just candy and junk food. Of course they want everything, and letting them choose one thing ends up being a joke because...well....everything is 99 cents, or 2 for 99 cents. If you get one, you have to get another, especially if it's 2 for one.

There's another reason. And I don't want to sound racist talking about it. But the reality is that Caucasians are the minority in California now, so it's not really about being racist, but about feeling like I'm in another country. No one speaks ENGLISH. They tell me my bill total in Spanish. They count out my change in Spanish. They talk ABOUT me in Spanish. (I know when someone looks me up and down and makes a snide remark to another Spanish speaking person, in Spanish, that it can't be something nice that was said. So what if my kid unwrapped her snack and ate it all before we paid for it...)

I also hate the lines. They are always so long. And always so slow. And people cut in front of each other all the time. And the cashiers work two miles an hour. And the registers make that ANNOYING "boink!" sound each time they scan something. And when something scans wrong the dumb things say "Uh oh!" making you think there is some sort of chatting mechanism going while they are supposed to be scanning things into their computer. And then once you get there and get everything scanned and go to load your bags...those cheap bags tear and everything goes all over the floor. And then you proceed to triple bag all your own groceries and make everyone else behind you annoyed because your kid is screaming, the bagger is rattling something off in Spanish that I can't decipher, and the line is backed up to the produce section now.

I hate that store. I don't even know why I go there. Who cares if everything is 99 cents.