Every November, the rhythm and layout of my local grocery store is swiftly, but methodically altered. Whatever nearly-stale Halloween candy left in stock is pushed further and further down the catch-all discount aisle, while the endcaps swell with competing bags and boxes of stuffing mix. “Busy preparing for the big day?” laminated posters hung near the butcher’s counter inquire. “Let us handle the turkey.”
Then, in a fluorescent-lit clearing near the dairy refrigerator, a pair of stockers spent two shifts constructing a pyramid made of cans of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup. It’s taller than I am and the slick, classic red and white labels create a festive pattern, the whole thing a monument to the soup’s now-intrinsic place in holiday preparations.
