Warehouse in the closet

Many times I have taken Ago to his "candy store" aka the Vitamin Shoppe. Every time we went he'd buy a lot. I mean, I'm pretty sure there have been sometimes when that store has been in the red and then Ago comes along and well....half an hour later they're in the green. First we'd get the regular stuff, like vitamin B 12, Kelp, Flax Seed Oil, and calcium. Then he'd be more daring and try some new things that he read about in his go-to, factoid book Recetas Que Curan. He has two copies, both in Spanish, and according to him they are the most useful books he's ever read. He swears by them. (Big thanks to my mother for giving him one as a gift...haha). Anyways, I always wondered, since we were buying the same things every month, how fast does he go through everything? Well....i learned that it takes sometime to finish the dosage and in the meantime you keep buying until it get to the point that you have a warehouse of vitamins and supplements in your closet. (His hat collection is also visible. We never leave home without one!)

It looks like he's either hoarding his things or waiting to sell them....but to whom? It scares me that this many pills. I understand a couple here and there for certain issues, but come on! All he's missing is Muscle Milk and Redline then he'll actually be the Vitamin Shoppe. Here's a close up:

Same with the 1L and 1.5L bottles of Evian, hoarding....OR stocking up for hurricane season? haha. By the way, Evian is the ONLY water Ago will drink. I hear AGUA! AGUA! EVIAN Y NADA MAS! every time we're at Kroger. I have literately seen this man drop some serious cash for Evian (not as much as the Vitamin Shoppe, though), as obvious by this picture.

The staples (food and vitamins)

I took Ago to the grocery store last week.  I went early too.  I arrived to pick him up at around 8 am.  8:15 I was bagging grapes.  Besides grapes (which were on sale!  He got like 3 lbs. and he bought some for me too!)  he  bought all the staples, like,, apples, avocados, bananas, and alfalfa.  Oh and milk, soya plan. The "plain" kind is very important.  He always asks what the expiration date is, which really throws me off because well...Silk brand of soy lasts like two months, and he devours it in like a week.  We're always buying soy milk so what difference does it make if it expires May 15??

Finally we got out to the car and before I even close my door my grandfather asks:  "TIENES TIEMPO IR A VEETAMINA AHORA?"

WTF?  I knew it! I mentioned it in my previous post and I knew he was going to ask. 

I said no, plus his soy milk needed to be refrigerated so we went later in the afternoon.

The associates at The Vitamin Shoppe know us.  In fact,  they know us a little too well.  They know that once every month this old, healthy, and loud man comes into the store with a patient often times frazzled young lady (me).  They know that he will probably make their sales goal for the day and they know what products he will buy.  They always help him get the things he needs and they never try to sell him anything.   

This time when we went three things stuck out.  

When we entered the store the first thing I noticed was that there were people in it.  I know that the purpose of stores are for people to go in and shop-i worked in retail- but i never thought of the Vitamin Shoppe as a place to browse and shop.   All the times we went in before, we were the only customers.  Occasionally, some guy would come in and buy Muscle Milk or there would be a lady looking at something on the side that we never shop on, but that would be it.  

Second, one of the managers greeted us by saying "Hello!  We haven't seen you all around here.  We thought something happened, like he moved."  OMG.  So The Vitamin Shoppe is keeping track of when my grandfather goes.  

Third, and this was baaaaaaddddddddd.  Veetamina decide to discontinue one of Ago's core products: Granulated Kelp.  Yes, I know, kelp.  Whenever I hear kelp I think of what whales eat, and i do not like whales, so I don' t like to think about that.  Telling Ago that Kelp was discontinued was not something i wanted to do. He was going to get angry, complain, and get moody, all which would damper his joy of actually going to his "candy shoppe."  I did what i had to do and explained to him that they no longer carried it.  He reaction was expected: he was mad he yelled, the associates where sympathetic, but he got over it when he bought six bottles of Flaxseed Oil, some cornsilk and hyssup.