A Supermarket in California Quotes

Context

This line is from the poem "A Supermarket in California" by Allen Ginsberg (1956).

It's easy to judge the people of Wal-Mart. You know the ones, the women in tube tops three sizes too small or the men smuggling unpaid packages of ground beef out of the store in their pants. But before you judge them, you have to realize you don't really know them. For all you know, they could be world-renowned poets.

In this poem, our narrator imagines seeing Walt Whitman, the Walt Whitman, shopping in a grocery store and staring like a creeper at the grocery boys, which is probably what Walt Whitman would be doing were he alive in the 1950s. But the narrator isn't repulsed by Whitman's behavior. He follows him and asks him philosophical questions.

What might you learn if you talked to the woman wearing SpongeBob pajamas three sizes too small on a Tuesday afternoon at your neighborhood grocery store?

Where you've heard it

You've heard this when people are watching for weirdos at the grocery store. Although if you're staring at someone who is staring at grocery boys, you are just as creepy as that guy.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

This is one of the least pretentious quotes from this poem, but people might give you a weird look. Hey, just warning you.