Grocery Store Follies

A Little Different Posting.........

How many of you love to go grocery shopping? Well if you’re anything like Steve and I it’s not at the top of your favorite things to do list.

Now imagine you get to have this wonderful task in a different grocery store every time you need to go get food?  The challenge before you is like tackling a crossword puzzle in a foreign language that you have no clue what it is to begin with. You start at One Down and think heck I should know that right? Well not true. You have to find the clues first.

So you start with grabbing a cart if you can figure out where they have the carts to begin with. When you figure that out you put your list in front of you and go for it. In the meantime your spouse is waiting patiently sitting in the parking lot listening to the local radio, chuckling out loud at the comedy program they are attempting to broadcast. Meanwhile all the customers arriving in the parking lot are wondering why is this guy from Idaho is sitting in this truck laughing?

Back in the store you are trying to figure out the store’s system of where things are and why they put the baking stuff with the paper products. Unfortunately you don’t have time to stand there and ponder this mystery.

Your next task is to try and read the hanging signs that might give you an idea of what is in the aisles so you can become more efficient in the process. Oh yeah, if you have midget legs like I do you can’t really see the signs unless you are at the end of the aisle to begin with so you just end up going down each aisle.

Now one would think if you are shopping in a national or regional chain grocery store the layout would be the same. Well not true. I think each manager has an evil side to them and they go visit other stores in their chain and configure their store differently simply to watch customers wander around aimlessly.

By the time you have half your list completed, you are either really hungry, thirsty or have to go to the bathroom since at least an hour has gone by. If this happens you have to decide can you wait or do you succumb to taking care of whichever it is. In the meantime your spouse is wondering if you were kidnapped and will be asked to pay a ransom.

You finally end up completing the list except you discover you forgot the second thing on the list. Now you have to start all over as you don’t remember seeing it when you were wandering aimlessly through the aisles.  Oh just forget it and put it back on the list for next time.

Let’s talk about prices for a bit shall we. We are pretty much normal people that enjoy having milk on our cereal, cheese on our tacos, and yogurt. I almost had to be resuscitated when I went to grab the gallon of milk, which is three times the cost of what I would pay for it in the states. You don’t even want to know the cost of cheese or yogurt. Let’s just say you might learn to go without dairy products or hope you become lactose intolerant!  Alcohol is something you might learn to go without too since the cost is at a minimum double of what you would expect to pay for it in Idaho or other states. It’s a good thing we don’t drink much!

You head to the checkout stand and of course you pick the line you think will be the quickest which of course it isn’t. Oh yeah by now your spouse has entered the store, found you and asked why it is taking you so long. You of course give him the sad eyes and tell him there is no logic in grocery store shopping which is how you think. 

You get the grocery bags unloaded and into your vehicle, put the cart back, get in and say “I need a drink”.

Welcome to the world of grocery shopping!