Lengel

As the manager of the local A&P, Lengel spends most of his time behind the door labeled “Manager.” He enters the story towards the end, embodying the system: management, policies, decency, and the status quo. However, he is not merely a stereotypical character. Having known Sammy’s parents for years, Lengel advises Sammy not to quit his job impulsively, at least for the sake of his parents. He cautions Sammy that life will be challenging if he leaves. Despite enforcing store policy, Lengel seems genuinely concerned for Sammy.

Queenie

“Queenie” is the nickname Sammy gives to the attractive girl leading her two friends through the store in their bathing suits. Although he has never seen her before, he is instantly captivated by her appearance. Sammy describes her as regal and alluring. As a nineteen-year-old, he objectifies her, noting the shape of her body and the seductive way her straps have slipped off her shoulders. When Lengel reprimands the girls for their attire, Queenie, whom Sammy imagines lives in an upper-middle-class world of backyard pools and fancy hors d'oeuvres, becomes “sore now that she remembers her place, a place from which the crowd that runs the A&P must look pretty crummy.” Sammy, indignant at Lengel’s treatment of the girls, quits his job to help them save face. However, Queenie seems oblivious to his gesture and quickly exits the store, lessening the impact of Sammy’s actions.

Sammy

Readers do not learn Sammy’s name until the end of the story, even though he narrates it in the first person. He works as a checkout clerk at an A&P supermarket. At nineteen, his language reveals a mix of cynicism and romanticism. For example, he sarcastically notes the “about twenty-seven old freeloaders” working on a sewer main up the street and wonders what the “bum” in “baggy gray pants” could possibly do with “four giant cans of pineapple juice.” Yet, when Queenie approaches him at the checkout, he finds it endearing that “with a prim look she lifts a folded dollar bill out of the hollow at the center of her nubbled pink top. . . . Really, I thought that was so cute.” Sammy oscillates between these extremes, referring to some customers as “houseslaves in pin curlers,” but feeling “scrunchy inside” when Lengel makes Queenie blush. By the story’s end, he quits his job to act as a hero to the girls and rebel against societal norms. In a moment of clarity—an epiphany—he realizes “how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter” if he continues to defy conventional expectations.

Stokesie

Stokesie, a twenty-two-year-old who is married with two children, works alongside Sammy at the A&P checkout. Although his role in the story is minimal, he, like Sammy, watches the girls in the store with interest. Stokesie represents a potential future for Sammy; as Sammy notes, the main difference between them is Stokesie's family.