In "A&P," Sammy begins his narration by describing how three girls completely captivate his attention as they wander through the grocery store where he works. He describes their movements with an almost dreamlike voice:
She didn't look around, not this queen, she just walked straight on slowly, on these long white prima donna legs. She came down a little hard on her heels, as if she didn't walk in her bare feet that much, putting down her heels and then letting the weight move along to her toes as if she was testing the floor with every step, putting a little deliberate extra action into it.
This dreamlike world comes crashing down when Sammy's manager decides to confront the girls about their lack of adherence to dress code policies and does so in a way that is embarrassing to them. This sparks the central conflict between Sammy and Lengel and pushes Sammy to quit.
This is a weighty decision. Lengel, who is older and with more life experience, cautions, "Sammy, you don't want to do this to your Mom and Dad." He conveys that this job is one Sammy's family is relying on in some way, and even Sammy feels an immediate stab that there is truth in this statement.
While Sammy's reasoning for quitting is easy to trivialize, the conflict and fallout is a serious examination of letting go of childhood fantasies. Sammy's gesture isn't even noticed by the girls, and he leaves with a realization that the lives of responsible adults are not as easy as the whims of childhood dreams. Actions have consequences, and not all valiant efforts are rewarded—or even noticed.
The central conflict in this story occurs toward the end, when Sammy, the narrator (a teenager who works in the local A&P), decides to stand up to his manager and argue against his decision to berate some young girls who are not "decent" in terms of their attire. They are wearing bathing suits, and Lengel, the manager, tells them that this is not "the beach" and that they should be covered when they are in a store. Sammy questions this, saying that only "kingpins" want girls to be decently dressed.
More significantly, Sammy seems to notice that the girls are very embarrassed. At this point, he makes a split-second decision to tell Lengel that he quits, "hoping they'll stop and watch me, their unsuspecting hero." He is quitting in order to be noticed by the girls—but they only keep walking. But Sammy stands by his decision, telling Lengel he didn't have to embarrass the girls, and doubling down on his position when Lengel tries to talk him out of it.
The gesture may seem trivial, and indeed Sammy's original motives (to impress some pretty girls) are trivial, but ultimately the decision is not trivial to Sammy. Lengel points out that it will be detrimental to Sammy's parents if he quits, but, "once you begin a gesture, it's fatal not to go through with it." Sammy feels committed to his decision, one which Lengel tells him he will feel "for the rest of [his] life." This is a minor decision, in some ways, but it also marks a turning point for Sammy, a sudden realization of "how hard the world was going to be . . . hereafter." In this moment, Sammy recognizes that being a hero does not necessarily pay off, and teenage gestures have no place in an adult world.
"A&P" by John Updike is a coming of age story about a teenager named Sammy. He is a local in a resort town, from a family that is struggling financially--and therefore he works part time as a cashier at A&P, a supermarket that was part of what was, at the time the story was written, the largest supermarket chain in the United States.
The main conflict in the story is between Sammy and his supervisor Lengel. A group of teenage female tourists have entered the supermarket. They are, by local standards, wealthy and scantily clad. The manager tells them, “We want you decently dressed when you come in here.” Sammy defends the girls and makes a grand gesture of quitting.
On one level, Sammy is behaving in a silly manner. His family needs the money, the girls don't notice him, and the issue is a trivial one. On the other hand, this is a key moment in Sammy's own imagination, where he decides to identify himself with the outside world of the tourists and a cosmopolitan society with freer sexual mores rather than his small town. It is a gesture of adolescent rebellion, which is a key stage in the development of a young person into an independent adult. Although the events and gesture are both silly from one point of view, from a broader perspective, they are important to Sammy in creating a sense of his own identity.
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