Queen Elizabeth II at the Supermarket

In 1957, Queen Elizabeth II visited America. That visit included an impromptu stop at a Maryland supermarket. Here you see her at the meat counter, wearing an enormous fur coat and listening to an assistant manager describe a cut of meat.

According to the subsequent Associated Press report, Elizabeth had spotted the store on her way to a football game at the University of Maryland and said she’d love to see inside. A fifteen-minute tour was duly arranged for the trip back. The AP says that, “One woman almost dropped her groceries when the Queen spoke to her. That was when her majesty, bemused by the grocery cart’s little collapsable seat for small fry, beamed: ‘It is particularly nice to be able to bring your children here.’” Well, what else would you do with them?

Imagine being this woman trying to buy her milk and bread under the fascinated eye of royalty.

Not that it’s a competition but it’s even better than this 1988 shot of Sarah Ferguson, then Duchess of York, holding “some flowers and a couple baby bibs” while touring southern California’s Vons Pavilions supermarket.