Society & Culture Food shopping

[Silent Alarm]

In my three years of the every-few-days trip to Woolies, I've realised a small pleasure in life is not only being able to walk up to the self-service in the corner, but also the joy of looking down and thinking "that's some good shopping. Great shopping."

For me, I end up going shopping probably twice a week and spending about $35 each time. My favourite times to go are Tuesday at about 3pm, and Saturdays around 10. Dead. Plenty of stuff left. Some good specials. You have time to wander and think without any pressure, and I seem less inclined to forget things.

But I'm curious as to what constitutes a good shop for people? What are the staples and the things people rarely buy, sometimes buy, and never even consider. Your favourite aisle? Your little rat tactics? Do you rip off the weighing system? Do you move frontwards or backwards when someone walks down the aisle while you're sussing things out?

SHOPPING

 

[Floor Pie]

I hate shopping. :\

Can you elaborate on your enjoyment of shopping?

I write a list, based on my knowledge of the deals and location of items at my local woolies/coles, go in, grab the stuff, pay for it and leave.

A "good shopping" for me, is under ten minutes, and not getting caught chatting with joe blogs about the weather.

 

[Exe Gesis]

If I have gone shopping at Coles/Woolies/Franklins/Aldi/IGA and walked out WITHOUT the number of some sexually frustrated mother, then I dont consider it a successful/enjoyable shopping experience.

I can't count the number of times I've gone shopping and 'picked up' said type of middle-aged woman (divorced or not) and ****ed her brains out in the near future.

 

[Roobs321]

I remember once a few years ago at Coles this older lady behind me in the checkout complimented me on apparently having the healthiest shop she had ever seen lol. Even though I wasn't seeing it personally, felt chuffed for the rest of the day anyway.

Any time is a good/bad time I guess, but late Saturday afternoon is usually the worst and best avoided, absolute rush hour (families on the way home after finishing their weekend sport/shopping, and all the local horrors you have to see to believe come out of the woodwork, etc.). It's like leopard crawling through mud, particularly in certain locations.

Can't say I really enjoy the regular weekly shop, particularly once you have been doing it for years and have developed a mostly stable diet. Generally you buy the same things (even if you are picking up slightly different fruit, vegetables, bread, meat, etc. this week). It's no different to taking a shower or going for a run/walk, it's the sort of thing you usually just do on the way home from work or whatever. I do enjoy when you go to the less-frequented supermarket or store (the type you visit maybe a couple times a year), and pick up a lot of specialty items.

Lack of supermarket etiquette certainly annoys me, same as anywhere else. You always have people blocking the aisle and completely oblivious to their surroundings. In my experience, the suburbs with higher cost of living typically have better etiquette.

 

[little graham]

If I have gone shopping at Coles/Woolies/Franklins/Aldi/IGA and walked out WITHOUT the number of some sexually frustrated mother, then I dont consider it a successful/enjoyable shopping experience.

I can't count the number of times I've gone shopping and 'picked up' said type of middle-aged woman (divorced or not) and ****** her brains out in the near future.

 

[undefined]

I enjoy shopping.

 

[Borry]

Whilst currently in Perth I'm happy that there is a Spud Shed within a 5 minute drive from home. Cheap fresh food and can go when it is quiet and all the dumb* car park drivers are gone.

In Sydney I shopped at Aldi and Coles. Aldi has some underrated generic produce but can be a pain in the arse with only one checkout for every 20 shoppers open at times. Tend to hit Coles after 8pm when they start marking down chooks, bakery stuff and fresh meat etc.

I typically spend between $35 to $55 a week depending on what I want to eat.

 

[nicky]

I dislike shopping - I just did my weekly shop before because i've been behind the 8 ball for a week (back on track now thanks) ..... Anyway, i go to this hipster organic food store in northcote which is always a fairly pleasant experience - the check out staff are always in good moods and natropaths. All i needed to buy were eggs, fermented veg and meat. Easy!

However i had to stop at Coles to buy this coconut milk the organic store doesn't sell and Epsom salts - Coles and Woolies are depressing place to go. For me its the same as trying to watch commercial TV - i haven't been able to watch it ever since moving back to Australia from England. Both big supermarkets and commercial TV are examples of s**t things people put up with until the realisation sets in that they don't need to. But until i find somewhere that stocks epsom salts and good quality coconut milk with few preservatives and gunk then i'll need to pop in from time to time.

Coles and Woolies are awful but i dislike shopping at the best of time. I don't even like farmers markets - i just can't be bothered. I don't enjoy shopping. I try and do my shopping at Vic market on my lunch break at work. I feel ripped off when i need to spend my liesure time shopping.

 

[00Stinger]

The only shopping I like is food shopping. Might be the fact I get great enjoyment out of cooking.

 

[vealesy]

Ah * i forgot toilet paper!!

 

[Scotland]

I think my enjoyment from visiting Coles/Woollies peaked when I was a small child and the prospect of a small confectionery item/shitty supermarket toy was still the chief motivator.

These days I want to get out before I've even walked in. The three major chains in Australia are as bad as each other. They're good for finding cheap non-perishables but otherwise they're just s**t.

 

[Xtreme]

I do it because i have to, don't really enjoy it HOWEVER i appreciate the times i am able to get in and out quickly.

I often wonder what the person serving me or others thinks about the various items we buy. I myself combine food with some household items (but enough to where i don't need to buy them on a regular aka weekly basis). For example i might buy enough toilet paper to last me a month (or longer) with food one day, then i'll buy tissues, serviettes, hand cloths with food another day. Then maybe shower soap, hand wash soap dishwashing or laundry detergent with food another day.

I don't buy bulk packs, i'll carry everything individually. I carried 12x 500 slabs of printer paper home a while back.......... not an easy task (tend to walk to and from the shops for exercise) not only were they heavy (2.5 kg's each) but awkward to carry and hope i didn't keep dropping them.

 

[radiojake]

loathe shopping


i hate the self-service machines and always try to get served - at my local supermarket there is literally only two 'traditional' aisles where someone serves you and 90% the 2nd is closed...

on the rare occasion that I have to self serve because the one 'traditional' aisle is mega backed up, i try to steal as much as possible... one time i put the wrong PIN in the eftpos on purpose and just walked out, but that was at a non-local supermarket that i'm unlikely to return to...

 

[JD11]

I love that feeling of just having shopped and having like 4 or 5 options of what you can eat. You open the larder in absent mindedness and bam, inspiration everywhere.

 

[Silent Alarm]

I love that feeling of just having shopped and having like 4 or 5 options of what you can eat. You open the larder in absent mindedness and bam, inspiration everywhere.

I reckon there's about two states: one of over-fullness when you've just eaten after shopping, and the one of absolute starvation when you need to go shopping. There is barely an in-between.

 

[Resistor]

I just love going for a wander around woolies/coles. If I go with someone then they get pissed off because I do so many loops and walk down the same aisle multiple times. I dunno, I suppose it just clears my head and gets me out of the house. If I find some reduced bread or a cheeky doughnut or two, then that's just a bonus.

 

[JD11]

What's the socially accepted number of grapes to eat while you're walking around?

 

[Resistor]

3 bags full

 

[Silent Alarm]

I just love going for a wander around woolies/coles. If I go with someone then they get pissed off because I do so many loops and walk down the same aisle multiple times. I dunno, I suppose it just clears my head and gets me out of the house. If I find some reduced bread or a cheeky doughnut or two, then that's just a bonus.

I like it too, I usually reserve it for when I have nothing else to do in a day and can't motivate myself to walk around. Most of the time nothing happens but sometimes you'll see something funny or cop a smile from a nice looking girl. I think it's something that can be fast and angering though, like if you've been busy all day and it's 6pm there and it's chockers, but if it's dead and you know it is... it is almost relaxing.

 

[Resistor]

I like it too, I usually reserve it for when I have nothing else to do in a day and can't motivate myself to walk around. Most of the time nothing happens but sometimes you'll see something funny or cop a smile from a nice looking girl. I think it's something that can be fast and angering though, like if you've been busy all day and it's 6pm there and it's chockers, but if it's dead and you know it is... it is almost relaxing.

Yep, without turning into a certain shopping thread, it does interest me different people's mannerisms at the supermarket, people that you would never be around otherwise. The way some people just plod along, others are in and out, some kids crying over the chocolate at the front of the store and the different reactions parents give.

 

[AAACockburn]

I love going shopping in the morning. Baking up a turd and walking up to the scalpers harassing you as you walk by and dropping an Atom bomb that brings tears to my own eyes!

 

[La Dispute]

Also a big fan.

I like to buy lots of vegetables and make lots of salads and roast different combinations of foods as well.

I've been complimented twice in the past week about my choices. I'm very glad that don't see my Saturday night efforts on King Street.

 

[DardySingh360]

Am I missing something here? It's food shopping, am I high?

 

[Ahern2Boof]

Just started a new job at Woolies. Kind of have a bad stigma attached to it now. It's not 'the supermarket', it's 'the place I work where I hope to be unseen and handed a lot of boring, sucky shifts'. My main gripe with people from behind the counter is when they being their own shopping bags, with like 30 of them stuffed into one, and I have to dump them out/pull them out and usually untangle several bags in the process. And they just stand there watching, tapping their foot, when they could, like some, help and at least hold a bag open for me so I can get stuff into it.

Went shopping at 2:30 the other morning, our supermarket is 24/7. Was an experience. Never seen it so empty and you're practically treated like a wannabe criminal as they have security keeping an eye on you. Or they did to me anyway. Maybe I'm just one shady mofo.

Shopping can be good at the right times, like SA said. I usually pick the register with the cutest girl. Can't stand the self-serve. Have a chat to her, make her laugh, walk out happy.

 

[grouse mate]

Its the worst 1/2 an hour of my week.