Is the Grocery Cart Bump some new kind of dating ritual and/or meme that I’m only just becoming aware of? Am I way behind the times? Has the grocery store--in any section--actually become the new version of the 1980’s meat market bar scene?

A few months ago, I was innocently shopping in my neighborhood grocery store when a guy who looked like the handy man from One Day at a Time bumped into my grocery cart. He had a grocery cart full of cases of Miller High Life (which I recently learned was the only “cool” cheap beer to drink these days). He asked if I was ready to party. 

It was eleven in the morning, there weren’t any sporting events that day that I was aware of, and I had to answer that I was definitely not in a mood to party. 

On the same day, which I should just call “Grocery Cart Day,” a 99-year-old woman bumped into my cart either by mistake or accidentally on purpose. I’m pretty sure that she wasn’t hitting on me, but this is Seattle so one can never be certain. But I’m pretty sure that the guy in line behind me that day was hitting on me. He tapped my grocery cart two or three times. My research hasn’t indicated that this is any particular kind of dating ritual, but it might be. 

Was there an episode of a popular sitcom aired last summer about picking people up in grocery stores? Should I be aware of secret codes and secret signals that might indicate that someone is trying to pick me up with their grocery cart? 

I’m so far out of the dating loop and new to the dating game that I don’t know all the rules, especially those that pertain to the grocery store. If, as was the case, with the Mr. I Have Twenty-Seven Cases of Beer in my cart, was hitting on me, at least he made it fairly obvious with his cheese ball comment. But if the guy in line behind me was hitting on me, how would I know? 

Is there a secret tap system for grocery carts? I wasn’t aware of the toilet secret tap system until I found out on TV about Larry Craig. Could the grocery cart tap be the new straight guys way of hitting on women? 

Or do I just have too much wishful thinking?