My Fight with the Anti-Vaxer at the Supermarket…Not a Pretty story

Alan J. Schwarz
8 min readMay 9, 2021

I wanted to run into the Supermarket, grab some fresh fruit and get out as quickly as possible. I was concerned about the virulent variants of Covid. There was the Brazilian strain, the British Strain, the South African Strain and the latest reports said there was a deadly Indian Strain. I had decided to only go out when necessary and to always wear a mask and gloves.

I could have ordered my grocery order online and had it delivered, but I thought if I went early enough I would avoid big crowds and could move unimpeded. I figured from my house to the Supermarket and home again would only take a half-hour.

My plan was off to a stellar start. I arrived, got into the store, grabbed some bananas, strawberries, blueberries, red grapes, and a Watermelon. As anticipated there weren’t a lot of people around. I moved over to an aisle with spreads and bought a couple of bottles of Pear and Peach jam. Next was a flat of eggs, a litre of two-percent milk, some yogurt, and finally five cans of dog food. Last but not least I threw a carton of freshly squeezed orange juice and a bottle of apple juice not from concentrate into the cart.

I was very pleased with how I could have qualified to go on an episode of Beat The Clock, I was on schedule. There was an area to line up to cash out. There were signs reading ‘’You will be directed to the cashier who is open, please wait to be called. Please allow six feet between you and other shoppers while waiting in line. Let’s all be safe and not sorry.’’

I noticed four people already in line, so I stood as the fifth person and gave the person in front of me plenty of space. I was minding my own business and I was lost in thought thinking about things I wanted to accomplish that morning when I felt a cart hit me in the back and bum. I turned around and I was appalled. There was a woman in her thirties pushing her cart inches from me wearing no mask.

I looked over and politely said ‘’Could you please back up your cart, this isn’t six feet and it’s making me very uncomfortable.’’ I didn’t think it was an unreasonable request. Her response was something from the Twilight Zone. ‘’Oh you’re one of those people. I feel sorry for you.’’ I didn’t want to have any kind of confrontation, I just…

Alan J. Schwarz

Alan Schwarz loves life. He is the founder of JAMS Productions, a television production company based in Toronto . His passion is writing.