The short story ”Shopping for one” by Anne Cassidy takes place in a queue at a supermarket. We hear about a woman called Jean, who recently has become single. Jean is very insecure and has trouble with finding out that she really wants. She cannot decide if she should buy the big or the small size salad cream. She is embarrassed about the fact that she now only shops for one. Everyone else at the store seems to buy family-size cartons of cornflakes and giant packets of washing-powder. Jean feels that there is something pitiful about buying small sizes of everything.
In the queue Jean is standing behind two women. Jean is listing to the women’s conversation. They are talking about how one of them lost her husband to another women and how he had crawled back to her and begged her for forgiveness.
Jean wants to buy a cookery book called “Cooking for One” but decides not to do it because she has a firm belief that the book defines her aloneness and prescribes an empty future. While walking out of the store she regrets not having bought the book and makes up her mind to buy it next time.
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