Attention shoppers! Cosmetics, aisle one. Love-struck boyfriend, aisle eight.
While Robin Howell and Alonzo Miller were getting some last-minute party items on Christmas Eve, the supermarket's assistant manager came on over the loud-speaker:"Attention, please. Attention. I have a very important announcement for Miss Robin C. Howell.
"Alonzo Miller loves you very much and he wants to give you an early Christmas present," assistant manager John Cronin Jr. continued. "He's waiting for you in aisle number eight to propose to you. Please proceed to aisle eight in an orderly fashion."
Howell, who was in aisle one looking at beauty aids when the announcement was made, was met in aisle eight by Miller and a throng of friends, relatives, curious shoppers and Shoprite employees.
There, between the tomato sauce and the pasta, Miller got down on one knee and proposed.
"I love you," Howell responded.
Miller said he hatched the plan because Howell gets her groceries at the Shoprite and will remember the moment each time she returns. He planned the romantic ambush for two weeks, with Cronin in cahoots.
"I thought she'd go for it," Miller said.