A while back, I mentioned the good African Black soap that I bought at a nice grocery store in Fort Worth. I’m frustrated sometimes when stores carry a product for a while, and then, I guess when it’s not popular with lots of shoppers, they stop selling it. So I was disappointed and frustrated a few months ago, when I went to buy another bottle of that soap and couldn’t find it on the shelf where I had seen it last. I searched and searched.

There wasn’t any store employee there, but I finally saw it, way up on the top shelf, right there where that empty space is. I looked around. No help. So I climbed up on that little step stool and reached up and pulled it down. The last bottle of the stuff! I was both excited and a little bit apprehensive. What if it was the last bottle they were ever going to have? What would I do when I used up all of this bottle?

When I took Peter back to Fort Worth, a couple of weeks ago, we did some shopping together. I looked again at this store, hoping that there would be another big bottle of this soap that smells so good, and, sure enough, in exactly the same place, there was one lone bottle. This time, there was an attendant, who asked if he could help.

“Yes,” I said, relieved. “I’d like the bottle of that African Black Soap up there.” He looked up to where I pointed. Then he leaned over and reached down the the lowermost shelf, where there were several bottles.

(If you look at the photo, you can see that, when I was there a few months ago, there were also a number of the bottles, on the bottom shelf, easily accessible to me and other shoppers. I just didn’t see them; I didn’t look in the right place.)

He picked up one of them and held it out to me. “I’m looking for the Citrus one,” I said.

He sighed a little sigh, leaned over again, and picked up a different bottle.

“This one says, ‘Peppermint,'” I said. “I like the one that’s ‘Citrus.'” (Actually it’s “Tangerine Citrus.” It smells fabulous!)

He leaned over again; I leaned over, and together we searched and found “Tangerine Citrus.”

“Thank you for helping me,” I said. “Now I know where to look for it next time.”

And it seems like a pretty good idea for me to always have the next bottle of it, waiting for me so that I’ve got some on hand, when the last drop of the previous bottle is used up.

Meanwhile, the last time I was in this section (healthy and healthful products) of the interesting grocery store, I saw this item, which was new to me.

I’m mystified why anyone would create a food product with the name “Soylent.” I can’t find the word in the online dictionary, but it is the name of a, um, “food” from the Science Fiction movie “Soylent Green” (1973). The only other reference I see online is this meal replacement beverage. I’m not going to give anything away, but, if you’re planning on trying out this Soylent meal drink, I very strongly suggest that you never watch the movie.