Grocery shopping

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Grocery costs skyrocketing

Long lines. One time, food maxx took one hour

Dirty

Rude employees

Don't always have what I want

Pretty soon won't have any bring a wagon to the grocery store because I am getting too weak to carry groceries and no car

Was using a pull behind 2 wheeled collapsable basket myself , It had 2 additional small castor wheels on the back of it . Hope you can get some energy back soon. Grocery stores always been a pain for me.

I'd like to add to this if that's okay.

- Too many aisles
- Can't find what I'm looking for
- Too many people walking around without clear intent or purpose and taking up the entire aisle
- Too bright
- Too many choices of the same product
- Too too

Having to ask someone to unlock the miralax

Security guard making fun of the way I walked

Security guard had the nerve to tell me that I was "caught stealing " on a previous day (that is not correct)

Only one litterbox and someone on it

Self checkout keeps locking up

Annoying cashiers

Ridiculously expensive, far too many chicken based meals.

Yes groceries are getting more expensive and it'll probably get worse.

I usually wait till late and go to Walmart, so that it's not crowded and the traffic isn't so dense.

Haven't noticed any rude employees. A few of them are a bit miserable but I'd be miserable if I worked at Walmart. There was a little Hitler in Sainsburys who didn't like me looking at the newspapers for too long without buying any. And one in Walmart was unhelpful. He gave up trying to find something for me that was there all the time, and told me they didn't have it. Not really rude, just a bit unfriendly, totally useless, and not very honest. Otherwise, no big complaints.

They're sometimes out of stock of some of the groceries I want, which is awkward because I eat the same food all the time and it's hard to figure out alternatives. But they're usually in stock again after a day or two so it's not too bad.

So far I'm doing OK walking there and carrying the groceries back. I go quite often so there's not usually a lot to carry. It's only 1/4 of a mile away, but it'll get more difficult as I get older and weaker.

Yes there are too many aisles and I'd prefer it if Walmart didn't stock the stuff I don't want, because it just gets in the way. But life is never perfect.

It's not always easy to find what I want. I made a map to show me where the aisles are and a list to show me which aisles the stuff I buy is on, but I got bogged down because my brain tried to make the map perfect and the list wasn't complete. I hate it when they move stuff around and make my work useless. Sainsburys went and revamped their place to compete with a new Tesco across the road, so that people would think "Ooh, a lovely new look, how exciting!" but I just thought "I can't find anything now, you bastards." I don't want a snazzy shopping experience. I don't think it's possible. I just want my groceries so I can go home.

People do get in my way quite a bit, and some of them seem to forget there's anybody else in the place, and they block the aisles and zone out, but where I currently live they tend to move out of the way once they see I'm trying to get past them.

The lighting is too bright for my taste, and it's fluorescent which makes me feel a bit weird, but I can stand it as long as I'm not there a long time, and I'm usually in and out fairly quickly.

I agree there's too much choice. I tend to get trapped by that so it wastes my time trying to decide the absolute best variant for my needs. But for most of the groceries I buy, I just get the same variant every time, and there aren't very many groceries I do buy, so for routine stuff it's not usually that hard.

If I can add one thing - marketing hype. I'm not interested in being persuaded to buy anything new, I just want my stuff and to get out of the place. So their displays just get in my way. And their trick of putting sweeties and shiny things near the checkout line doesn't tempt me at all. If I want a choccie bar I've already found it in the main part of the store and put it in my trolley. I suppose they do it so that kids will pester their parents to buy rubbish for them, but I don't agree with taking kids shopping anyway. Often they aren't very good at keeping out of the way and keeping quiet. I know some folks have no choice but to take their kids with them, but it's often past their bedtime and I just wish they'd find a better way to shop.

Not crazy about grocery shopping but don't hate it either unless it's super busy or I can't find what I want. We don't have Walmart in my country but I find Checkers and Pick 'n Pay useful; the latter has a wide variety of ready made deli food.

Sometimes I find it fun to see what other shoppers have in their trollies. Also just watching all the various people can be interesting.

Yeah it's not that long ago since I could get my weekly shopping for around 50 quid but these days it's about 80 and that's from Aldi as well

It does annoy me to say the least but I know that people pay way more than me

Thank youuuu!

Yep, the marketing hype blows my fuse. If they make it some extravagant presentation, then I almost don't even see it.

I really like that map idea though! I might make one next time I go thru Costco. Wal-Mart is going to require more effort than I have at the moment.

I find delivery groceries great. The downsides are that I can't pick my produce, some of the products (e.g. frozen fish, ice cream, etc ) aren't available for delivery, and there could be too much of a delay if I didn't plan appropriately.

Walmart was doing a kerbside pickup service where you'd pick your groceries online, drive into a designated parking area at an allotted time, tell them by mobile phone you'd arrived , and then they'd come out and load up the trunk for you. No extra charge. It was during the COVID days. They probably still do it but as with home deliveries there were always things they said they didn't have, even though a lot of those things were in the store (you could still go in there if you were "brave" enough). I don't like going to Walmart but I don't hate it quite enough to do the kerbside pickup thing any more. I don't quite know why, because the latter was quite good and it avoided the Walmart experience.

rude customers

rotten mangos

employees have the nerve to wrongfully accuse me of theft.

"huh" and "what" instead of "excuse me".

(rolls eyes)

i would just rather not have to deal with it altogether.

food maxx near my Pigpen, recently stopped carrying fiber one chocolate bars.

the food maxx checkstands ask for a "food maxx number", but a cashier told me that food maxx stopped giving out "food maxx numbers" a couple years ago.

litterbox has a codelock on it. mens litterbox has only two toilets. and usually filthy.

despite its claim of low prices, food maxx is not really that cheap.

rude security guard had the nerve to tell me "get the hell out of here", when i failed to load the groceries that i paid for, fast enough to his satisfaction.

bananas often not suitable for consumption.

it often doesn't even have wheat pita, stonefire naan, mangoes. lately (maybe b/c it's winter), it hasn't had peaches, plums, or nectarines.

food maxx doesn't even carry tempeh, lentil salad, (although now it carries sushi), dark chocolate kit kat, reeses (with creme), zongzi, taro cake, mushrm bao, tuna salad, TTLA sandwich, salad bar, things like that.

rude ghetto lil customers

the older i get, the more difficulty i have been having dragging home groceries. two short blocks. not uphill, downhill, or anything like that. only 42 years old and live alone. no car. how does everyone else carry their groceries? instacart?

and got tired of eating the same thing every single day. day in, day out.

food maxx itself is just too ghetto.

safeway's not that much better. plenty of security guards, but haven't seen them actually doing anything to justify their minimum wage. safeway often doesn't even have the artisan bread that i like. safeway kind of expensive, too. and hate the way they have all those security gates. like the self checkout though. that way, don't have to deal with a cashier.

trader joe's is cool. nice staffers. trader joe's naan, hummus wrap, tuna wrap tastes good. sushi no good.

whole foods is good but expensive. after jeff bezos took over whole foods, whole foods hasn't been carrying what i want.

@ ranch 99, the only things i ever get: zongzi, mushrm bao, taro cake. ranch 99 kind of crowded though.

Keeps me from buying too much, need to be able to carry it... Also have 'family assistance' for heavier/bulk items every 2 weeks.
Local store closed so shopping is at least 40' walk... and nearly impossible to visit several stores while carrying stuff bought somewhere else. Trying to buy most while coming from work but bread for instance is usually already sold out (or industrial supermarket sponges).

Shopping trolley can hold building supplies... People think weird to shop those by train Lucky conductor helped unloading (low ramps and regular stairs in my station) but 'down' is easy. Have to be careful, too big and bus won't take it (and ikea has expensive delivery prices ).

Guess if you don't drive, better off to live in a city


Delhaize (not cheapest) does home deliveries now too (think they started during covid). But need to order a minimum € and shipping (always actions with free shipping, so far only used it when I wanted something that made shipping free).

Cheaper Colruyt "collect&go" was fast while still driving but still need to get there to pick it up and not packaged to carry on foot. Think similar to service described above.
The local cheaper Aldi/Lidl (+- similar) and Colruyt are not easy to get to on foot. Even cheaper chains only in bigger cities.

Amazon for grocery is still mostly useless over here. Even belgian products on amazon often not available for my area or ridiculously priced (90€+20€ shipping... 20€ free shipping when ordered in germany...). For non-food, Belgian version is 90% ali/shein stuff, even if you search on brands need to pay attention. Do buy way too much crap on amazon but not often food things.


Expensive and seems they are just starting (often administration/staffing issues) but since some months found a fruit&veg subscription that just ships a crate of random stuff every week. Keeps me from buying and eating the same stuff all the time. Frequently stuff I have no idea what to make with it... or what it even is... Trying to use it all.

Local city fruit&veg store had similar service but taken over and new opening hours are for me no longer possible.

since the bus schedule changed in august, have had to think twice about going grocery shopping @ safeway, trader joe's, ranch 99, whole foods.

today barely missed the bus. it's so inconvenient now.

safeway often doesn't even have artisan bread.

one of the safeways doesn't have self checkout or lentil salad.

love trader joes' but been getting naan, hummus and tuna (sushi) from food maxx lately.

decided to count "zongzi" as four servings of bread and one serving of dessert. "glutenous rice".

Crowded

Self checkout line often closed

Long lines

Annoying customers

Dirty

Loud music

Bright lights

Self righteous employees have the nerve to follow me around asking "how may I help you?". Like I was doing something wrong and they were morally perfect.