On the dusk of a few days ago, we revisited supermarket (you know those? Like Walmart™?) for the final time. The place is shutting down and transforming into a giant damn police station.

So, as it happens, there was a giant sale, and, also very consequently, the extremely rare encounter of a doomsday scene: the racks were mostly empty; the freezers were hunted clean; fridges – scattered with the last surviving items; floors left over with boxes and packages; pens and pencils used but not bought (the consumers don’t care); rice containers scoured empty (first sight you’d probably thought it’s a scaled-up Sudoku game); food package hangers taken over (there was one rack that still had some of snacks); isles displaced, moved, and some toppled over; rolls of tissues stretched throughout the floor; boxes of treats absolutely attacked (cardboard boxes turned into mush); seafood aquariums all-out consumed; and, of course, independent stores robbed to nothing.

If you didn’t observe, you’d probably think the goddamn Cataclysm happened.

This kind of view would only happened in those zombie movies. Heck, free sets! Shoot it here: it’s perfect! All we’re missing is Mr. Zack Snyder, a cameraman, and Ana Clark. Maybe even a crowd of panicking people: running and fighting as if it’s mf Act 3 from Titanic – get more people to panic so they start running and, in turn, gets more people panicking and falling into an endless positive feedback of panicking people.

Discounts effective two days until light-offs, extra discounts the next day, “free giveaways” the last day, allegedly.

“Big Sale!! Leaving nothing behind!!” screams the banners.
“Buy one get one... FOR FREE!”
“90% offs!”
“‘Rid everything! No exceptions!”
“Farewell with tears!”
“IT’S THE END!!!😈”
“Leaving with the greatest sentiments!”
“Goodbye!!!”
shouts hand-written posters on the arrays of worn off storefronts – dark as night, cold as winter, quiet as space, empty as the void; alone, dusted, shaken, vacant.

I’ve used that same ‘ole bathroom right outside the checkout counters, I recalled. That was as much as five years ago when the same place used to be plenty and packed and filled with people – an age before pandemic: safe and happy.

There used to be a bread store there. I wonder if it’s still there ‘cause I didn’t check, but, regardless, that would likely be the last time we’ll ever visit this place under the name of buying things.

Next time, it would be police matters.

The guards won’t even care.