The Butchers’ Aprons
I shop at a modern yet fairly bland supermarket close to my home in Vermont. It’s very clean and orderly, and the staff is helpful if asked for the location of a particular item. (They keep moving the tahini!) The music played throughout the store is generally of the “Yacht Rock” variety; I often find myself humming along to “Brandy, you’re a fine girl….” Or “If you like Pina Coladas…” and other musical dinosaurs.
I’m vegan, so many of the items the store carries, except for fruits, veggies, pastas, beans, and other random vegan pantry items, won’t be in my cart. The store has the usual meat and fish counters along the back wall, and shoppers can partially view the area behind the meat counter where butchers grind, cut, and package fresh meats.
Of course I have no need or desire for these items, but I usually have to pass through this section to get to the aisles with paper goods, cleaning supplies, etc. In this section, I frequently see the butchers walk out into the store, pushing tall wheeled carts stacked with trays bearing the “fruits” of their labors, all neatly packaged in plastic wrap and labeled with prices. They restock the cases, making sure that the hamburger, pork chops, steaks, chicken breasts and more are presented in neat rows.
What I find extremely disturbing, though, is that they’re always wearing long white aprons completely smeared and splattered with bright red blood. Every butcher I’ve seen out in the store wears an apron in this condition, and I find it jarring and distressing. I was always under the impression that any profession who wore white as a work uniform wore it to show cleanliness. Of course I understand that butcher’s aprons will become stained with blood due to their function of keeping the blood from soiling their other clothing, and I assume they wear white because it can be bleached to remove the blood stains, but many of us who find meat repulsive don’t want to see such gross apparel when shopping.
I do hurry past the packaged meat section, and I obviously understand how the meats ended up there, but the bloody aprons out in the store are just unsanitary and vile.
