Updike's "A & P" is rich in symbolism and begins in the very first paragraph. Sammy is eyeing the three bikini-clad girls who walk into his supermarket where he is a checker. His reverie is interrupted, however, by a "witch" whose "feathers" Sammy has to smooth. The older generation are typically symbolized in negative terms throughout the story, those women who cannot and will not understand youth.
Queenie, on the other hand, is symbolic of all that is alluring about women and life that might be possible for Sammy on the outside, a life that seems palatable yet unattainable to Sammy.
Stokesie, Sammy's older co-worker, is symbolic of the life Sammy may well be headed for: married, tied down with children, and few options for another life.
Lengel, the manger, is symbolic of those too-far-gone, the adults who, like the witches, could not care less about youthful ambition.
Finally, and perhaps most symbolically, is the supermarket itself. It is symbolic of the consumer culture that has a definite heirarchy: the "witches" by bland "HiHo" crackers while Queenie purchases "Fancy Herring Snacks."
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