Thrift or Gluttony?

(Note, I wrote this last Wednesday but forgot to publish it.)

I ran to Meijer this morning to pick up some dog food and Diet Coke for Kate's mom. (The Diet Coke was for her, not the dog food.) Heading toward the pet aisle, I noticed that all of the Halloween candy was on sale for half off. I stopped and briefly considered buying a couple of bags for a treat. But my conscience got the better of me and I passed on the cheap sugar treats, thinking about the upcoming Holiday season and all of the fattening food to come. But one lady in Belleville obviously could not pass up a 50% off candy sale.

I found a short checkout line with only one person in it and pulled the cart up behind a very obese woman. I started to put my items on the conveyor belt but I could not because of the many bags of candy covering it. I thought to myself, "Wow. That is a lot of candy." Then I saw her cart on the other side of the bagging turnstile. It was already full of scanned candy. I could not believe how much candy this lady was buying. There were too many bags to count. Curious, I inched my way closer to the cashier's monitor so I could (rudely) see how much she bought. What was her total--$255, which included one $25 item that was not candy. She bought $230 of candy. And remember, it was all 50% off. At full price she would have paid $460. That is a lot of candy.

I tried to think of a reasonable excuse why a person would buy that much candy, but I could not think of any that made (healthy) sense. Will trick-or-treaters knock at her door next year and receive year-old gummy bears and tootsie rolls? I would like to be positive and think that she is going to donate it to a children's home or that it is for a large Halloween party yet to happen. However, given the extremely unhealthy state of her body, I fear that the candy was going home with her for her and her, possibly, "large" family.

I know I should not pass judgement without knowing the whole story, but that was really a lot of candy. The mind boggles.