Its Elementary My Dear Watson !

One of Mr. Sherlock Holmes adventures starts with an idyllic Dr. Watson challenging Holmes to guess the occupation of 5 random people that come down the street. Of course..Holmes being Holmes, does so with what seems like relative ease but with what truly is a highly polished sense of observation.



Yesterday, as I was browsing through the local grocery store, I decided to play a little detective myself. They say, you are what you eat, so what better place to "know" people than in a grocery store eh! What I found, while quickly checking out their grocery carts (p.s. - i wasnt trying to pry into anyones business, just trying to observe..so stop rolling your eyes!) and their overall demenor, is that its actually quite easy to somewhat conclude on the person's lifestyle.


First up, a white caucasian woman in her late twenties or early thirties wearing track pants and a cart full of fruits, health bars, nuts and milk. Category : Health-nut. Then up walks her boyfriend (why not husband you ask? no wedding ring / engagement ring AHA!) carrying 2 Jamba Juices. Update Category : Made for each other Health-nuts.


Then up, a dark couple of indian decent (it takes one to know one), checking out the price of each item before buying, their cart has one sole carton of milk, they seem to be arguing about something, the woman is dressed in a traditional indian attire (salwaar kameez) with the traditional indian sindoor in her hair, the man is dressed in jeans with a tucked in cotton full-sleeved shirt, with a pager on his belt and a cell phone in his hand. Category : newly married couple (the sindoor clearly indicates marriage in India, however the fact that she was still using it..most young women stop using it soon after landing in the USofA and their ackwardness with each other made me think newly married), homemaker wife and software engineer husband, probably working in one of the big software companies in the area.



This I admit was mostly based on the general demograpics of the area that I was in, rather than any specific observation, this is the most commonly found couple "species" (if you may), in that particualr area. So my guess, was simply based on wider demograpical data.


Up next, in the junk food isle, two young women, one white caucasian and one tall african-american each on their own cell phones (yet sharing a cart so seemed to shop together), the cart consisted of various ready to eat items, chips (of the plain salted and spicy jalapeno kinds), salsa's (both mild and hot varities), soda's (diet soda only), water, juices (again of various kinds), 2 cartons of milk (one whole milk and one 2% kind), whole wheat and white bread. Category : young freshman year room-mates. Based on the variety in their cart, they have obviously different tastes, yet one cart, indicating living together under one-roof. Going to school mainly because of the preppy "hip" look of their clothes and their bling bling cell-phones, and ever present giggles.


Finally at the checkout line, a white caucasian woman in early thirties, black skirt suit, checking out 5 bottles of wine, various cheeses, bread and frozen pasta. Category : working woman obviously, no kids (early thirties is still a little young in this country esp with working women to have kids), married (duly noted the wedding band while she was giving her credit card) and having a party tonite (5 bottles of wine)! From the looks of her clothes and perfect makeup she could be a HR manager in some company or a Lawyer by profession. The Dark color of her suit, tends to make me think it is the latter rather than the former..


Here surprising, I lucked out, the cashier at the checkout was quiet chatty, and while looking at the woman's ID commented on how her birthday was just yesterday and asked if she did anything special. The woman responded by saying, the people at her "firm" (law firm??) threw her a small party and then her "husband" took her out for a nice dinner and that tonight they were having a few friends over for an extended celebration for "her big 30" !. Without knowing it, she validated all my points of observation as true!!!!


As to the rest of the above observations..your guess is as good as mine :). While I may not be bang on, I think i'd have come close to the truth at least...man..i have waaay too much time on my hands!!





picture courtesy : http://www.sherlockian.net/