Shopping at Coles

Pasha the elephant was moving into his new home in Perth. He was staying in a Campus Residence. He had a nice little room with huge pine trees outside his window. In fact, the Residence was called Pine Tree House.

“This isn’t too bad,” thought Pasha to himself. Suddenly his tummy rumbled.

“OOOer,” said Pasha, startled. Everything sounded much louder here, it was so quiet. “I must be very hungry.”

There was a supermarket just down the road, so Pasha decided to go shopping.

“You’d better hurry,” said his new flatmate, Morris the miner. “The shops close at six.”

So, the two of them hurried to Coles Supermarket. The supermarket was very large. Pasha nearly put a knot in his trunk, trying to pick up all the cans of food.

“Everything comes in cans here,” he said to Morris. “Corn, beans, peas, mushrooms...”

He squeezed his way into the vegetable section – elephants love their veggies. Such a lot of choice! Should he buy brown onions, or red ones? White bread, brown bread or Turkish bread? And look at all the apples!

“Frrribbble,” he said, for that’s what elephants say, when they’re at a loss for words.

There were all kinds of eggs to choose from too – barn-laid, caged, free range.

“You can buy everything here,” said Morris happily.

Sure enough, there were bright pink pyjamas (Pasha decided to pass), pots and pans, socks and stockings, paper and pens, dog food and cat food (why did they never make elephant food?), lots of make-up, and deals on all sorts of items.

But everything cost much more than it did back home. Pasha sighed, as he paid the lady at the cash register.

“How are you today,” she said cheerfully, as she put the food into bags. “Here’s your change! Next please...”

Pasha looked at the coins on the tip of his trunk. The $1 coins were larger than the $2 ones.

“How very strange,” he said to himself.