Brookshire's — Local services in Canton

Brookshire’s Canton: A Short Story About the Kidney Beans and the Pharmacy

It started as a simple mission: a can of kidney beans. Chili night. That was the plan. A five-minute trip, in and out—Brookshire’s in Canton, friendly enough place, smells like rotisserie chicken and floor cleaner.

I walked in with confidence. No cart needed, just a handbasket—classic mistake. The beans were in aisle seven, bottom shelf, sandwiched between black beans and a rogue can of cream-style corn that clearly didn’t belong.

I reached down, grabbed the kidney beans—and that’s when it happened.

Over the loudspeaker: “Pharmacy to aisle seven, pharmacy to aisle seven, please.”

I froze, kidney beans in hand. Why was the pharmacy coming to my aisle? Was this some kind of canned goods emergency? A cholesterol intervention?

Moments later, a woman in scrubs and sneakers came speed-walking toward me, clutching a clipboard like it held the secrets of the universe. She looked past me, spotted an elderly man squatting down near the lentils, and said, “Mr. Hanley, again?”

Turns out Mr. Hanley had been using the low shelf as his personal stretch zone and had apparently dropped his blood pressure meds under the bean display.

“I told you not to bring those out of the pharmacy,” she sighed. “I like to keep ‘em close,” he replied, like a cowboy talking about his six-shooter.

Meanwhile, I’m still standing there holding my beans, feeling like I’d just walked into a subplot.

Eventually, she helped Mr. Hanley up, gave me a nod like, Thanks for not dying, and escorted him back toward the pharmacy.

I made my way to the self-checkout, kidney beans finally scanned and bagged. On my way out, I passed the pharmacy window. The tech inside smiled, pointed at my bag, and said, “Hope those are worth the excitement.”

“They better be,” I said. “They’ve already got more backstory than the rest of my dinner.”

Brookshire’s Canton—come for the kidney beans, stay for the unexpected drama in...

Ordered a double layer choc bday cake with buttercream and cupcakes for pickup Sunday at noon. The cake layers looked more like a single layer cake, very small. I asked for writing on the edge of cake since I had my own decorations. The writing on the cake was large and in center, exactly what I stated I didn’t want. Looked like someone had messed up and scraped off the words and redid it very sloppy. There was cake bits all through the icing so the decorator must not have did the crumb icing layer first. It was very sloppy. Whoever decorated this cake should have been ashamed of how it looked. When the cake is the star of a bday party and when we paid $21 for it, it should look like a professional did it, not a kid. I have ordered several cakes in the past and all have been outstanding. This cake was a major disappointment. Even the cupcakes were not decorated as I had ordered. We are going to have think hard before we order the next cake (we have 2 more birthdays in the next month). There are other bakeries in town that have quality cake that are actually double layered and decorated nicely. The cake tasted fresh even though it clearly said it was done Saturday and I ordered it for Sunday at noon. Why was it done a day early just to get stale? Come on...

6/5/20 Stopped by to pick up a few things for dinner, I found everything I needed. The produce was fresh, the selves in every department were stocked, and the store was clean. The staff was friendly and helpful as usual, the young lady in the pharmacy even had a sense of humor. The check out line was fast and I appreciate the cart service to the car. I have noticed that prices have been inching their way up for a while now, but today it caught my attention. I'm a big proponent of buying locally, but It maybe time to start thinking about taking one trip a month to the Tyler discount stores. But that would take organized planing, not sure I'm up to it.

5/3/20 Meat is available, however there is a limit of two packs per type of meat. For example you can buy two packages of pork, two beef (hamburger was $5.00 a pound), and two chicken (they had five pound bags of chicken quarters for .49 cents a pound), things may change tomorrow. The store was well stocked. Someone was going around sanitizing freeze door handles as we shopped. The check out lines moved...