Shocking Shopping.
By Kaz
@KarenAnne (257)
United Kingdom
November 13, 2023 12:14pm CST
I make no apologies for not liking having to go shopping. I accept that it's necessary but when it comes to groceries I usually like to get in and out and not to have emptied my bank account in the process.
We mostly shop at Lidl with occasional excursions to Iceland or Aldi. I don't go to the "big" UK supermarkets if I can help it. Mainly because they are too big - they might have 10,000 products in one store but I don't need that many and I really don't want to even walk past that many (several times) trying to find the things I do need.
The only time I can't stick to my soft boycott is when the Mother In Law needs us to take her shopping and she likes Sainsbury's or Tesco. I do my best to fortify myself against the overwhelming number of "choices" and the exorbitant prices she's willing to pay - because she will purchase the main brands and cannot be convinced that anything less expensive can be anywhere near as good.
It also takes her as longer to fill a basket or one of those small trollies as it does me to fill a big one because the stores are five times the size and all the basic items are placed so far a part (and then they like to move them around as well and it's no good asking the staff where they've gone because no-one's told them either!).
I'm glad the Brother In Law usually takes here because if I had to go to the big supermarkets every week I think I might end up having some kind of unfortunate episode.
Do you like grocery shopping? What kind of supermarket do you prefer (or hate the least!)? Do you stick to expensive advertised brands or do you buy generic items?
7 people like this
5 responses
@xFiacre (13035)
• Ireland
13 Nov 23
@karenanne I do the grocery shopping in our house and I do like to find a bargain. However I do also like to live my life doing things a lot more pleasant than coping with hoards of shoppers who all seem to doing it as a hobby. What really annoys me are people who pick over all the cans of beans to get a can that pleases them and I just want to scream "Just grab one and get out of my way, they're all the same" Of course I don't. Not yet anyway, but there's always tomorrow.
2 people like this
@kaylachan (69837)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
13 Nov 23
I don't mind shopping. I go where I can get. I buy what I need when I need it. And, I often let George , my husband, decide where we need to go shopping. Though with him in the hospital I've resorted to online for some things.
2 people like this
@DaddyEvil (137259)
• United States
13 Nov 23
I don't mind grocery shopping but I stick with the smaller Walmart in my little city. It doesn't have the choices that the larger Walmarts in the big cities have but I don't need that many choices, either. I'm glad my daughter shops like I do. We go down each aisle and throw whatever we need in the cart. When we've finished, we go to the closest register and get the heck out of the building. It's really rare for us not to find everything we think we need in the one store so our shopping takes about half an hour twice a month.
Most of the time, the store brand is just as good as the name brand so our wallet isn't hit as hard as other people. It's also nice that we eat a lot of the same types of food. Sometimes my daughter has found coupons for stuff we want and sometimes she's made a list of things we can get discounts on through an app on her phone. (Or, money back through one of the shopping apps.)
1 person likes this
@Fleura (30404)
• United Kingdom
14 Nov 23
I don't really mind grocery shopping. I can't say I enjoy it but I often offer to go because I like to see what's available. I hate it if I'm in a hurry because it's too stressful but otherwise I confess I just avoid the rush by dawdling around, thinking about what to cook.
We generally go to Sainsbury's because it's the closest, and if we don't need too much stuff I can easily cycle there which makes a nice change. If I'm anywhere near Lidl I like to pop in there because we love their 'low GI bread' and Little One adores their chocolate hazelnut doughnuts, but I don't usually do the main shop there because there's always something they don't have and I end up having to go somewhere else anyway. They are good for stocking up on things like canned beans though!
Sometimes go to Tesco's, if I'm passing that way, but that's a bit further. The same applies to Aldi although I'm not so keen, but if we go in one direction they are the only choice and I try to combine errands if possible.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (178877)
• United States
14 Nov 23
I used to hate grocery shopping. Now I can no longer do it; and hubs does the shopping. We've started to get into the habit of my doing online shopping at Walmart; and hubs picks up the order. Cuts down the amount of shopping he has to do by half or more. We use a lot of generic items which are mostly as good as brand names. Have a good day.
1 person likes this
