the customers, as well as his boss. Sammy repeatedly characterizes the standard shoppers as dumb beasts. The second paragraph already shows this attitude through Sammy saying that he had to smooth over the customer's feathers; she walks away with a snort. The "feathers" comment paints the customer like an annoying bird, and the "snort" likens her to a wallowing pig. Sammy's view of his customers degenerates from there, and readers see him repeatedly refer to the shoppers as sheep, which are a stereotypically dumb animal. The "sheep" are then unable to figure out how to act, where to go, and how to behave once Queenie and her friends show up in their eye-catching attire.

All this while, the customers had been showing up with their carts but, you know, sheep, seeing a scene, they had all bunched up on Stokesie.

The supermarket society is essentially comprised of beastly people, living lives that are so monotonous and boring that three girls in bathing suits can disrupt the entire flow and rhythm of a standard shopping trip.

Sammy sees his typical A&P supermarket society as made up of everyday town locals, especially women, who live uninteresting, unglamorous lives. As he puts it:

these are usually women with six children and varicose veins mapping their legs

Sammy understands the shoppers as primarily working-class people like his family. He draws a contrast between them and the summer vacationers who come to the Point, which is five miles away on the beach. When Queenie and her girlfriends come into the store, they represent to him all the glamour and money of the Point that a typical A&P shopper does not exude. Sammy describes, for example, Queenie's voice as "tony," and it causes him to imagine that:

I slid right down her voice into her living room. Her father and the other men were standing around in ice cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big plate and they were all holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them ...

Sammy is so impressed with these girls and so upset when his manager comments on their inappropriate attire that he quits, even though his family needs the money. Through Sammy, Updike makes the comment that supermarket society is down-to-earth, rule-based, and the working class. Sammy aspires to more—whether he is living in fantasyland or not is left an open question.

While he works at the A&P (the largest chain of grocery stores from 1915 through 1975), Sammy perceives the customers as "houseslaves in pin curls" with varicose veins that "map" their legs. He also sees them as "sheep" distractedly pushing their shopping carts down the aisles.

These women are dehumanized because of their repetitive and mindless routines. In fact, Sammy imagines them as animals. Two customers, for example, are likened by Sammy to frightened pigs in a slaughter chute as they vie for first place in the checkout line. So, when the young girls enter the store in their swimsuits, Sammy perceives them as a refreshing change from the usual customers. To Sammy, these girls are independent and vibrant.

When the manager of the store and Sammy's boss, Mr. Lengel, accosts the three girls in their swimsuits, telling them that they must leave the store because they are in improper attire, Sammy envisions Mr. Lengel as a representative of "The Establishment." Further, after listening to Lengel lecture the girls about proper attire, Sammy decides to quit in a rejection of the "stuffy" values of the management and as a gallant act in order to impress the girls. Unfortunately for Sammy, his gesture goes unnoticed by these girls, and he stands outside realizing "how hard the world was going to be [for him] hereafter."

I would add that Sammy also longs for that beautiful white body of the "Queen" who walks into the store.  She represents a class to which he doesn't and won't ever belong (even after he quits his job).  She buys the Fancy Herring Snacks while his family drinks "Schlitz in tall glasses with "They'll do it every time" cartoons stencilled on." But she also can break the rules with a certain audacity, and just as Sammy admires her confrontation with the "sheep" in the store, so does Updike, I think. He doesn't criticize them so much as, with Sammy, mourn and criticize the fact that such a gap exists, one which Sammy will not cross ove. Perhaps they are a representation of The American Dream (often embodied in American literature through wealthy, beautiful women) that the ordinary guy just cannot obtain.

Well, one is the disparity between the vacationing, monied class to which Queenie and her entourage belong and to the resident, working class to which Sammy is a member.  Sammy longs to not suffer the same stagnant fate of his co-workers and to be accepted by the outsiders.  The supermarkert, therefore, might be seen as a metaphor for those who must stock societies "shelves" and those who enjoy its spoils. 

Updike's word choice in his short story "A & P" suggests a cynical and critical view of a consumer society in which people have been conditioned to conform in various ways. 

From the beginning, Updike paints a picture of a detached society in which people are objectified rather than respected as individuals. Consider the following quote: 

The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle— the girls were walking against the usual traffic (not that we have one-way signs or anything)— were pretty hilarious. You could see them, when Queenie's white shoulders dawned on them, kind of jerk, or hop, or hiccup, but their eyes snapped back to their own baskets and on they pushed. I bet you could set off dynamite in an A & P and the people would by and large keep reaching and checking oatmeal off their lists and muttering "Let me see, there was a third thing, began with A, asparagus, no, ah, yes, applesauce!" or whatever it is they do mutter. But there was no doubt, this jiggled them. A few house-slaves in pin curlers even looked around after pushing their carts past to make sure what they had seen was correct.

The narrator refers to the customers as "sheep." Sheep are known to be an animal that prefers to stay with the flock. They are dependent on each other for safety and usually dependent on a leader for direction (in the form of a shepherd). Comparing the customers to sheep, he is implying they all stay together, do the same things, are not independent, and look to a leader for direction. 

He also makes a comment in this paragraph that the girls are not only in bathing suits—which breaks the code of conduct everyone else adheres to—they are also walking the wrong direction. There are no signs posted that say people cannot walk in the direction the girls are walking, but the "sheep" would never go against the flock; that would be nonconformity. The sheep all know the unspoken rules, though the three girls do not seem to understand them. The narrator notes that seeing the girls in their seemingly inappropriate attire rattles the sheep.

The narrator also refers to the customers as types rather than individuals. He calls them "house-slaves" in curlers, rather than housewives. This again insinuates that they are not independent individuals capable of thinking for themselves or going against the grain of society. 

Lengel functions as the "shepherd" in this story. He is the one who enforces the rule and guides the sheep. This makes the sheep feel safe. However, Sammy notices that it makes the young girls feel ashamed and embarrassed. At that point, he chooses to break away from the "flock" and defend the honor of the girls, who were not doing anything wrong in Sammy's mind. He knows that by choosing this path, his life will be more difficult. This is likely because no one in his life will understand why he takes a stand against what he sees as an injustice because the "sheep" would never see it as an injustice. They expect others to follow the code of conduct that is dictated by society.

Updike's "A&P" is an effective story because the author had the good sense to create a settiing which every reader is familiar with. By doing that, Updike makes his task much easier and also makes it much easier for the reader to visualize the setting. Everybody knows what the inside of a supermarket looks like. There are long rows of shelves holding cans, cartons, and all the other things supermarkets carry. In front are the checkout counters, and these look about the same in supermarkets all across America. Everybody knows what the shoppers look like as they push their little carts around, stopping and starting. Everybody knows what the canned music over the loudspeakers sounds like. The customers look as much like sleepwalkers as they do like "sheep." Everybody knows what supermarket managers look like, what sort of clothes they wear, and how they stand and watch and how they talk. And, of course, everybody knows what coltish young girls in bathing suits look like. It is easy to imagine three of them entering a supermarket and looking bashful and shy but trying to be more poised then they feel. "A&P" teaches a good lesson to aspiring writers. It is easy to get readers to visualize what they have already seen. Another good lesson has to do with contrast. The girls stand out because of the setting much more than they would if they were merely walking along the beach. "A&P" is a microcosm of society mainly because everybody has to eat, and therefore most of society will pass through supermarkets. John Updike makes readers aware of the beauty and drama of an ordinary supermarket. Updike studied to be a painter before he became a writer. His stories often show his visual sensitivity. There is a little drama in "A&P," but mainly it is a picture of a supermarket in a small town. Sammy, the narrator, exits--and the reader exits with him.

In John Updike's "A & P," we find a world within a world, or a microcosm. The supermarket is a small world where people come and go, where there are rules, and where adult and youngsters are present. It is a place, also, where Sammy takes a big step towards growing up.

Sammy notices the girls when they enter: they could represent a variety of different kinds of young females, except one is obviously a leader. Sammy describes her as queen-like, as she walks down the aisles.

Sammy and his friend are typical boys: their attention is completely focused on the girls when they enter, wearing bathing suits.

The supermarket seems like its own world with aisles like roads; air conditioning provides relief from the summer heat, but the doors that keep it in are also the doors that create the boundaries of this small world; and, there are rules that define the behaviors of those who enter, much the way the world at large does.

When the girls reach the front, the manager chastises them for wearing inappropriate attire while in the store. The "leader" of the group argues that they only wanted one small item, but the manager insists that they follow the rules.

Sammy is compelled to speak up for the girls, feeling that perhaps the rules are too harsh (and, of course, he is enchanted by the "queen.") This is similar to people who speak out against the establishment when they feel something is unfair or censorship is unwarranted.

As in every day affairs, Sammy decides that he must choose to conform or leave; on principle, he decides he must remove himself from this "society," and he quits he job. The manager tells him he may be sorry, and Sammy believes this may be true, but he also sees the world around him more clearly, and there is no turning back.

In these ways, the supermarket is like a small world with those who inhabit it: rules that must be obeyed, and there are people who see the need to change the world and cannot reverse course once they have perceived the world in a new light.