My current job is run by an older man, and I swear, a solid 25% of the people that come in don’t even buy anything, they just come to talk with him and whoever happens to be present any given day. It’s even odds whether the topic of the day will be an unhinged, right-wing conspiracy (points to the guy the other day who said bird flu can’t be driving up egg prices, because Covid is actually the flu, and chickens don’t get Covid, apparently, so it must have been Biden and the Chinese), someone having recently died, reminiscing about back when they all still lived in Ireland, or the various medical issues they and their relatives have.

Had a guy in the other day who, in the span of a 20 minute conversation, covered transphobic conspiracy theories about the recent crash at the airport in DC, how much he sucks at cooking, because he’s relied on takeout and the women in his life to do a basic task for the past 60-something years, and how he made sloppy joes for his sick mother and it gave her the runs, and now he has no idea what to cook for her so she doesn’t starve. It’s absolutely unhinged, some of the stuff they spout.