AITA for shopping in the international food section??
I want to preface this by saying I genuinely never thought this could be considered rude until today, and now I’m second guessing myself.
I’m from a very small town, and we only have one grocery store. Because of that, whenever I drive into the city, I tend to stock up on foods and snacks I can’t normally get at home. I do this with everything, especially with items that fit within my dietary restrictions. If I really like something, I buy enough to last me awhile because I don’t know when I’ll be back in the city again.
A while ago I was wandering through the two “international” aisles at Superstore and found these shiitake mushroom crisps. The packaging is mostly in an Asian language I can’t read, but there’s tiny English text that says “shiitake mushroom crisps.” I bought one bag out of curiosity and ended up LOVING them.
So today when I went back to the city, I grabbed eight bags because I figured it would save me from having to hunt them down again for awhile. And before you ask, yes there was plenty more on the shelf after I took what I wanted. While I was putting them in my cart, a man nearby scoffed and said, “Leave some for us.”
The way he said it made me feel like he thought I shouldn’t be buying food from that section because I’m not Asian. Like the international foods were meant specifically for people from those cultures, and I was taking something away from them.
Before this, I’ve always viewed those aisles as a way to try foods from other cultures and expand what I eat. I actually get excited seeing sections from countries I’ve never seen represented before. This store specifically added a small Filipino section, and I thought it was really cool because Im getting to try food and snacks that might be popular somewhere else in the world that we just have never heard of here. I always thought those sections were there to share food and culture with everyone, not to be off-limits unless you’re from that background.
Now I’m wondering if I accidentally committed some kind of grocery store etiquette violation that I didn’t know existed??
For context: I’m white.
AITA?
Edit: to everyone saying this was a “dad joke” or it was light hearted, he seriously sounded annoyed. I definitely did not get the vibe that he was trying to get a giggle out of me.