Emergency Exit Markup

A supermarket interior staged like a crisis shelter: anxious shoppers clutching wallets and ration-size baskets queue beneath a large glowing red sign reading EMERGENCY EXIT, only the sign hangs over the checkout lane instead of any actual door. The conveyor belt is loaded with bare essentials—bread, eggs, baby formula, medicine—with grotesquely oversized price stickers dangling off each item. At the register, the scanner flashes like an alarm siren with each beep. Above the lane, a polished corporate manager watches from a booth or office window, calmly gesturing to a banner that says TEMPORARY INFLATION MEASURES, while every visible real exit is blocked, tiny, or unmarked. The joke lands on the realization that the only 'exit' offered in an economic emergency is to pay even more.