Far from the madding crowd

I don't like grocery shopping. I like eating. These two factors often conflict with each other.
But last night, I somehow made the drudgery of acquiring my goods far more enjoyable.
I went shopping at night.
I may just have been the best experience in a grocery store I've ever had.
I'm not what you would call agoraphobic -- I just prefer a well-ordered, well-mannered group of people versus a mass of people awkwardly and randomly bumping into one another while racing around with big metal carts and screaming children. I find that's a good comparison of being at Wal-Mart around midnight versus noon.
By the time I reached the canned goods aisle, I wanted nothing more to sit down right there and meditate... Enjoy the silence. I imagine this is what it's like on the moon, except with a lot more pumpkin pie. My own little Sea of Tranquility, and chick peas are on sale.
It also is heartening to see the people working at the store doing something vital and important, and not being forced to deal with an ever-growing line of normal, everyday Americans turned into a tine-crunched, short-tempered troop of bargain hunters on the verge of madness.
I can't say I find much wrong with Wal-Mart, the idea. The super-chain certainly has its detractors these days, and in some instances their complaints are valid. However, my recent experience there made me nostalgic for more of what I saw: a store and its workers quietly doing their job while consumers politely and patiently strolled the aisles in search of goods.
Find me any grocer that can deliver that between the hours of 12 and 6 p.m. and I'll show you my new favorite place to shop; for now, I may just stick with getting groceries overnight.