A&P

The whole story seems to take place within a couple of minutes. Sammy observes as these girls are stared at by other shoppers, as well as his coworkers. Sammy is turning 19 in april, and stokesie is 22 and married children. Stokesie is basically stuck working at the A&P for what we can assume will be the rest of his life. But Sammy believes this will never be his future. Lengel the store manager comes over and scolds the girls, telling this isnt the beach. At this point i believe Sammy quits because he wants to impress the girls but also because he doesn't want to be trapped at the A&P like his coworkers, stuck somewhere where girls in bathing suits in grocery stores is frowned upon. Possibly he wants to live a more spontaneous life.