The folding metal chairs are worn. The tile floor reeks of Clorox strong enough to clear my sinuses. We’re all strangers here. Fourteen of us sitting in a circle, shuffling uncomfortably. Legs crossed at the ankles. Knees bouncing. The guy next to me has his chin on his chest and eyes closed.

Across the circle is the guy whom I assume is in charge of this meeting. He’s sipping coffee and holding a piece of paper in his lap.

He looks up. “It’s good to see all of you tonight. John, how are you?”

John shrugs his shoulders and grunts.

“We have some new faces in our group this evening. I just want to say that I recognize how hard it is for some of you to be here. Just showing up is a brave move on your part.”

He slurps his coffee and pauses for a moment. He scans the crowd, reading our faces. He locks in on me.

“Hey friend. Welcome. Why don’t we get started with you. Tell us about yourself.”

I was hoping to hide in plain sight and just listen tonight. But I sit up straight and face my fears.

“Hi. I’m Paul, and I’m a bogoholic.”

“Most of my life I have been what you might call an unskilled shopper. I’d shop like a third grader. I didn’t know how to shop. I had no idea how much things cost. Up until a few years ago, I wasn’t even responsible for shopping.”

“When the responsibility for buying household goods fell into my lap, I was a little lost. I made a lot of rookie mistakes.”

“For example, my shopping list. I never planned ahead.”

A collective gasp heaved up from within the circle. A few could be heard saying, “Mm, Mm, Mm!” I felt the shame but went on.

“So, yeah, I . . . uh, I didn’t know how to make a shopping list. At the last moment I’d decide to go shopping, and I’d run around the kitchen and pantry trying to make up a list. I knew I was out of certain things, but I couldn’t remember what it was to write it down.”

“I can see now how pathetic I was. Pencil and notepad in hand. Head stuck in the freezer shuffling through packs of ground beef that went out of date in the last decade. Moving things around on the pantry shelves hoping to recognize what was missing.”

“I’d work on a list for 30 minutes and still have only five things written down. It was so frustrating. Then when I got to the store, I’d fill up the buggy with whatever I thought looked good.”

“I went through a stretch where I ended up with 8 bottles of syrup on the pantry shelf because the previous 7 times I went shopping I bought syrup that I didn’t need.”

The lady in jeans and a pink sweater to my left says, “Oh honey. I know exactly what you mean.”

“I was a mess. I had to do better.”

“That’s when I started asking advice from some of my friends who are experienced shoppers. I learned to plan my list ahead of time. I started keeping a notepad and pencil on the counter next to the stove. Anytime I ran out of something, or whenever I knew I was close to being out, or if I thought of something I knew I was going to need, I’d write it down.”

The circle quietly applauded.

“It was so liberating, finally, to have a real shopping list. My stress level went way down. No more panic attacks on the way to the store. I actually started to enjoy shopping.”

My new friends are nodding as if to say they understand. They know the story. Everyone in this circle has been where I’m at, and they know there’s more to the story.

“Go on,” says the leader.

“Well, I was in the store one day and I overheard two ladies talking about BOGOs.”

One says to the other, “Look at the BOGO I found.”

“I had no idea what they were talking about, so I asked.”

“Buy one, get one,” they said. “You pay regular price for the first one and you get the second one free.”

“As I think back on the changes in my shopping habits, I realize now that this is the moment when I started down a very dark path in my life.”

“I hear ya,” says the guy in the red flannel shirt.

“At first, it was casual and innocent enough. I started paying attention to the little green tags on the front of the shelves at the store. I bought the usual things whenever I found the BOGO deals that fit my list. Bread. Cookies. Drinks. Things like that.”

“Then I found out that every Thursday is when all the new BOGO items hit the shelves. I started wondering what deals they might have. I started thinking about switching my shopping day from Monday to Thursday just to take advantage of all the BOGOs.”

“Used to, I’d shop maybe once a month. But after I discovered the BOGOs, I started to worry about the deals I was missing.”

“If Thursday came and I didn’t go by the store, I’d wake up at midnight thinking about coffee. What if coffee was on BOGO today and I missed it. Pork chops were probably BOGO, too.”

“All I could think about was BOGO.”

There are a few tears in the circle. I’m feeling the empathy from total strangers. We all share a common story. We all know what it’s like to go over the edge. The addiction is real.

The leader spoke up. “Paul, what really brought you here tonight?”

I didn’t want to answer. I’m feeling ashamed. I know I should be stronger. Finally, I found the courage to pour it all out.

“It was the BOGO app that did me in. I found out that my store has an app that alerts shoppers to the weekly BOGO deals. Hundreds of them. I was looking at items I knew I didn’t need, but because I could save money, I bought them. It was like the store was sucking the life out of me and I couldn’t stop.”

“My pantry and fridge were full, but I still needed more BOGOs.”

“Just the other day I was standing in the snack aisle. They had a bag of organic seaweed snacks on BOGO. I hate seaweed. Seaweed is what washes up on the beach in Panama City. But I actually picked up a bag and, for a moment, thought about putting it in my buggy.”

“How sick is that?”

“Right then, I abandoned my buggy on aisle 17 and left the store. My head was spinning. I wished I had never even seen a BOGO. I knew something had to change. And that’s why I’m here tonight.”

The group thanked me for my honesty. A few more stories of struggle were shared that evening. The leader called it a night, everyone hugged, and we moved over to the snack table.

“Good looking snacks,” I said to one of the ladies.

“Thanks,” she said. “I got them on BOGO this afternoon.”