“I went to a general store. They wouldn't let me buy anything specific”

Simplified Meaning:

In this saying, the speaker is making a joke about the name of a "general store." A general store sells many different kinds of items, but when the speaker tried to buy something specific there, they were told they couldn't. This is funny because it's a play on the word "general," which means a wide variety of things, not anything in particular. Imagine you go to a big supermarket that has almost everything. You ask for a very specific brand of cereal, but the store only carries general items, not that exact brand. The humor is that it seems like the store is being difficult, but really, it's just about the mix-up in expectations. In real life, sometimes we go to places or ask for things with very high hopes, but what we get is something more basic or different than we expected. This teaches us to understand the nature of the places we visit and manage our expectations accordingly. When shopping or dealing with services, always be clear and check if they really offer what you need.