That’s the general shape of my reply when someone tries to tell me that it’s gay people or trans people or abortion or pornography that are ‘causing God to hate us’. You mean, it’s me and my husband and our trans friends, and not the hate and the murder and the greed and the privation of the downtrodden?
It’s never a productive conversation, let me tell you…
I’ve done this at Costco myself a number of times.
“Ah, I just need a bag of coffee and a thing of multivitamins. … Oh, we could use some smoked salmon. And, another bottle of Malbec. Maybe some frozen waffles… Ooh, they’re selling Amish-built sheds!”
And, then, I’m either manhandling half the store to the register, or I’m putting the stuff aside somewhere—looking a bit like one of those careless people who can’t be bothered to put stuff back—and making the walk of shame to get a cart.