Bakeries are difficult places for a blind customer to navigate.
First of all, there are narrow aisles, where customers push past each other to look at the different breads, pastries, sandwiches and so on which are on offer. You are scared to bump into someone and knock over a tray of freshly baked croissants.
Then there is the problem of the ever changing menu. The bakery I often go to used to have a lovely lemon pie, which I would always buy when I went there. Then they stopped making it, and I found a tomato pie. They stopped making that too, and I have had to switch to an apple pie.
Sometimes the item I want is unavailable, and I have to ask the staff questions such as, “Do you have anything that is a little bit similar to an apple pie? Something sweet, but not too sweet. Nothing with lots of sugar on it, and no whipped cream. Something with fruit, maybe, or chocolate. But not the cheap chocolate spread, and not if there is too much of it.”
I am sure that they hate having me as a customer. But it is very hard to describe exactly the kind of things you like. That’s why I like to find something nice and then stick to it.
So I was very disappointed to find that the bakery’s “egg toast” option had disappeared. For a few months now, whenever I have gone to the bakery, I have always ordered egg toast, an apple pie and a coffee. But apparently there is a real shortage of eggs in Japan at the moment due to avian flu.
“Do you have anything that is a little bit like egg toast?”
The staff member sighs.
Vocabulary:
an aisle – a passage between shelves of
goods in a supermarket or other shop with many products (eg. “You can find the
tinned foods in Aisle 4, next to the dried fruit.”)
avian flu – also known as bird flu, a kind
of influenza which spreads easily among birds
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