Saturday, March 17, 2012

What I learned from K about grocery shopping....

....she can't do it.  She wants one of everything.  She was almost trembling with excitement she was so overwhelmed with the grocery shopping experience last night.


I usually do the  grocery shopping by myself.  Years ago my ex told me I could either do that or stay home on Saturdays with 3 kids while she did the shopping.  DUH!  No brainer.  Over the years I developed a system; I made a map of our preferred grocery store by aisle listing those things that we regularly buy.  Aisle 1 might be salad dressing, mayo, mustard, ketchup, etc.  I keep this map/list in the kitchen and as we see we're running short of something we circle it on the list.  I go in the door of the store, up and down each aisle in order with my list, get what I need, and end up back at the checkout and out the door.  Wham, bam, thank you ma'am.  30 minutes, tops.


I normally go on Thursday afternoon on my way home after work.  Things were hectic at work this Thursday and I couldn't keep to my schedule, so K and I went together after our dinner out last night.  BIG MISTAKE!  I've learned she's a major compulsive shopper.  She's a sucker for "end caps", those places on the ends of each aisle where you turn the corner.  People's eyes go right to that spot and they often buy whatever's there, whether they need it or not.  She was possessed, I tell ya!  They need to rename them "K caps".   


Bottom line, it cost us about 20% more last night because K just had to have things she saw she couldn't live without.  I'm sure they'll use the store video surveillance camera footage in marketing classes for years to come, and re-write marketing textbooks, too.  The "K" effect, they'll call it.

Next week, I'm goin' it alone.


S


5 comments:

  1. Our son hates to shop and is in and out of the store in ten minutes. I asked him how he did it and he explained that he never set foot in the middle of the store. Everything he really needed was on the periphery. Milk, meat, juice, eggs, bread--I saw that he was right.

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  2. Mike used to do all our grocery shopping (unless he tricked me by taking me out to eat & then stopping by the store on the way home). Since he's been teaching full time I mostly do it. If it's not on the list it mostly doesn't get bought. SOMETIMES I'm seduced by some new something-or-other, but not usually. But I will say that when Mike & go together it's like we're each enabling our inner shopaholics - the bill is always a lot higher :)

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  3. I have the grocery store I go to memorized. I only go in there on a mission: get what I intended to get and get out of there. Walmarts even more so. Advertised loss leaders at Safeway or Bashas? That's all I am going in there for and never buy anything else unless it's something I need and has the same price as my regular store.

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  4. I actually enjoy grocery shopping and grocery stores. So does my husband. When we go somewhere on vacation, we always make a point of checking out the grocery stores in the area.

    I do know we're slightly weird that way.

    We have a field trip to Naples, Florida, planned in the near future. It's about a 3-hour drive for us and our main purpose is to check out the recently opened Trader Joe's there.

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  5. We are getting a Trader Joe's and of course you know how excited I am by this prospect Pixel Peeper!

    Normally Scott does the grocery shopping by hiself on Thursday nights - if I need anything other than what he has memorized (the color of the box of the tampons I use for example) - I have to take a photo of said item and text it to him. BUT sometimes I don't know what kind of shampoo I want I need to go stare at it myself.

    Besides he was just reacting to the $200 worth of shoes I bought the same day :)

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