Celery is good for the brain

I just stopped over at Albertson's to pickup some supplies for tomorrow's hike. As the cashier was ringing up my items, the one in the next lane asked her, "What is celery?" while holding up, naturally, a stalk of celery. (Why he was dressed in jeans, white t-shirt, and a lei is beyond me.) Smart-ass me, I wanted to reply, "A vegetable." But I knew what he was after: "the code."

For those of you not in the know on the ways of the supermarket world, produce items (along with a small number of other items) are assigned a four-digit PLU, or price lookup, code. The cashier types in the PLU to determine the item's price. After time, a good cashier will learn to associate most fruits and vegetables with its PLU. If presented with a bag of bananas or apples, a novice can cheat by looking at the sticker. But every nitwit knows that bananas are 4011. Please.

Returning to my tale... My mind quickly shifted gears after stifling my urge to make a comedic (to me) remark. "4070?" I wondered.

"Celery? 4070," my cashier responded.

Hot dog! I still got it after all these years. My last day as a cashier was in the late 90s and I still know celery. I mean, bananas? Come on. But celery is another story.

Help me.