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Buffalo Jill started it.
Twitter poll: At the grocery checkout, do you put the plastic bar down @ the end of your order or do you leave it for the next person to do?
— Jill (@BuffaloJill) May 29, 2013
I’d comment on the grocery bar issue, but it will just cause everyone involved to say, ‘Dude, relax’. I’m too passionate about grocery rules
— Christopher Smith (@ChrisSmithAV) May 30, 2013
.@bfloblog @topshelfcookies @kwsnow @chrissmithav @buffalojill this kind of triviality is perfect for a podcast. @bradriter
— Christopher Smith (@ChrisSmithAV) May 30, 2013
Chris Smith and I finish it.
Hi everybody.
I like Wegmans. I really do. They have lots of aisles and plenty of stuff. I like the trains that chug-chug over the beer corner on McKinley.
But really, if you’re not shopping at Aldi’s, you’re doing it wrong. People at Aldi’s are smooth comandos. They race through the 5 scant ailes, get everything they need for two weeks, run through the checkout in five minutes, pack their own bags/boxes and then zoom – they are on their way (sometimes with 2 weeks’ worth of groceries for a small family for under 120 bucks, which is the case for me).
It’s not a socio-economic thingeither. It’s just folks movin fast and saving dollars.
Imagine, Buffalo, all the beer you could buy with the savings.
But Wegmans does have that train.
I literally cannot shop at Aldi, because I do not carry sufficient cash to do significant levels of grocery shopping there, and they do not accept credit cards. (I do not use a debit card, because I just don’t want a card that’s tied directly to my checking account.) I typically only shop at one place each week, unless there’s something I know I need and can’t get where I usually shop. I probably spend more than I could if I took a more aggressive approach to finding what I need cheaper, but often times that means stopping at multiple outlets for stuff, and I just don’t want to invest that much time. I know folks who literally plan out several hours’ worth of grocery shopping, noting on their list what they will buy at each of three or more stores, and they DO save some money…but I’m willing to pay $120 a week instead of $108 in exchange for not spending three hours shopping.
As for the separator bar, I always use it. It just strikes me as an effortless way to make things run just a bit more smoothly. It says nothing about the person behind me or in front of me…but I have seen instances where the conveyor belt fails to stop because the electric eye isn’t entirely engaged by the last item in the person’s order ahead of mine, with the result that the stuff piles up. I see little reason to get irritated by the separator bar or make it some kind of hill I’ll die on when it comes to the social contract.
Every other annoyance listed in this podcast, though? I’m on board. Slow shoppers are irritating. Worst are the ones who are apparently Grocery Deputies for their family’s usual Chief of Food, and who are confused by something on the list and call the person to ask questions like “Honey, do we get Heinz ketchup or Hunt’s?” Ugh. And the folks who have a tearful reunion right in the middle of the store, because they haven’t seen each other in months…and who then proceed to catch up, right there. And this is almost always not just in the middle of the aisle, but at a pinch-point where the aisle is further constricted by some kind of satellite display.
(Full disclosure: I am employed by one of our local grocery establishments. I won’t say which, but it rhymes with Schmegmans.)
I despise when people use paper in plastic – it doubles the time it takes for the cashier to bag the groceries…it seems to be a favorite among older shoppers. Also, I am conviced that bottle returns are made especially difficult to discourage people from participating, and increasing the monetary take by the government.
I group my groceries on the belt according to how they will be bagged (heavy items first, frozen foods together, etc) always with the IUPA pointed downward to speed things through the checkout line.