How did this happen?

I was on a job today, a job that required me to go to a couple of stores and video tape the interior to get the layout for a commercial shoot scheduled for March.. It was a low stress job, me and a camera. The stores are grocery stores, not high end, but they sell fresh fruits and vegetables and had a decent amount of pretty much everything else.

The first store looked to be inhabited by extras from a Fellini film. These were not just unhealthy people, and often obese too, but they just looked seriously unhealthy. For the life of me I could not figure it out. It was a zombie movie come to life, except that the zombies had fake tans, bad makeup, meth face and talked really really loud.

I figured it was the neighborhood. I drove about 30 miles to the other store, in a much "nicer" area. My lord, it's almost like they bussed the same customers to the new store. It was even more filled with loud, obnoxious and unhealthy crowds. People asked me about the camera, and I would tell them not to worry, I was shooting groceries and not people. It was not they who had to worry, it was me. Zombies scare the shit out of me and I was surrounded.

What the hell happened to America? Was there not a time just a few years ago when everyone was doing yoga and eating healthy diets? Did I miss something? Was there an announcement that basically said screw it, go back to unhealthy foods, smoke cigarettes and speak in public as if you were yelling to deaf elderly people.

I did my job, filmed the stories, the lighting, the aisles. I went back to my office, handed in the tape and told my story. Everyone laughed and thought I was joking. I left before they reviewed the tape, the evidence.