The Late Night Grocery Run

There’s nothing like a Safeway at 11:00 p.m.

The summer after graduating college, I fulfilled every parent’s dream and found work as a cashier. In fairness, it was peak COVID, and essential work was pretty much all there was to do, especially for a recent grad looking to move across the country. As one of the few people at Tops over the age of 18, I was immediately tasked with the last shift, starting around 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. and working until the store closed at midnight. I even mixed in some actual night shifts, stocking shelves until 3:30 a.m.

It was heaven.

A melodramatic photo of a vintage Safeway sign to match this melodramatic piece of writing | Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

I had shopped for myself before, having lived in an apartment studying abroad and off campus my senior year, but I struggle to justify purchasing cases of Baja Blast Mountain Dew and Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese as grocery shopping. When I left Tops and moved to Sacramento for my first full-time job, I also had to start grocery shopping for myself like a f…