customer: Do you have dried apricots?
me: We sure do! They're right here.
customer: Oh. Don't you have the regular kind?
me: [blank stare]
customer: You know, normal ones. Like they sell in the grocery store.
me: [trying not to scowl] This is all we have.
customer: [dejected sigh]
Because the co-op is not a grocery store! We are a bizzarro-land of make-believe fantasy food!
I realized too late that what this particular customer meant by "normal" was actually "sulfited all to heck so that they are a freakishly bright orange color." No, we don't have those.
But I get questions like this all the time, and it bugs me. I understand that if you have been shopping at conventional grocery stores your whole life, then natural/minimally-processed/etc. foods might be a little different than what you are used to, but please find some better way to describe what you are looking for. Because the food we sell is, in fact, normal and regular. And we really are an honest-to-goodness grocery store.
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