Michael Jackson’s Friend Shut Down a Florida Grocery Store So He Could Shop Like Everybody Else

In 2003, the late Michael Jackson mentioned to a friend that he didn’t know what it was like to go grocery shopping just like everybody else. As it turns out, this friend owned a strip mall that held a Publix Supermarket in Boynton Beach, Florida and was happy to shut it down for a day to give his friend a semi-authentic shopping experience. The store was staffed with people Jackson already knew, some wearing costumes. Everyone really played their part to the letter in order to make this shopping trip as normal as possible for the megastar. Jackson shared the experience in an on-camera interview.

I said in one of my interviews it’s my dream to go on a supermarket and just shop and be like everybody else and put things in a basket because I can’t do it. Because if I, when I try to do it people crowd around you they want autographs and they want to design things and take pictures. That’s why I love disguises so much I could sit on a bench at Disneyland and see what people really do and talk about, but when they see it’s Michael Jackson they change I don’t see the real thing, you know it’s so I want to see the real world, what’s really like.