Sir, this is a Central Market

My [27M] wife [27F] were shopping at our local central market near river oaks yesterday when out of nowhere this older man walked up behind us unprompted and says ‘Well with all these high prices, y’all best be voting Republican”. I turned around to get a look at the guy and he was, of course, a grey haired white dude, dead serious giving us a weird cocked eye stare like he was sizing us up.

Not wanting confrontation, I just responded ‘yeeeep’ and steered my cart around the guy and walked away while he continued to talk at us. My wife and I kinda chuckled to each other as we were walking away because of how odd the experience played out. I don’t think he appreciated that considering we could still hear him calling out to us as we were walking away.

Giving him the benefit of the doubt, it could be a generational difference in how we approach small talk differently but honestly it felt more like random solicitation than a friendly conversation starter. It was just an odd experience that had us coming away wondering if we were the assholes or if the guy was trying to pull some weird flex.