Society & Culture Food shopping

[Catfish Alley]

I get my meat delivered and will shop at local fruit and veg shop and bakery for bread and veggies. I only really go to the supermarket for milk and toiletries. I try and just do it once a week. I'll use self service checkouts if I only have a few things. I don't scam them or anything. I tend to know what I want, go to that aisle and then seek the quickest way to pay and get out.

 

[the_interloper]

I get my meat delivered and will shop at local fruit and veg shop and bakery for bread and veggies. I only really go to the supermarket for milk and toiletries. I try and just do it once a week. I'll use self service checkouts if I only have a few things. I don't scam them or anything. I tend to know what I want, go to that aisle and then seek the quickest way to pay and get out.

**** the people who put through a whole trolley load of stuff in the self service checkouts, they should be shot.

 

[Scotland]

Keep meaning to get a whole heap of cashews and self scan them as peanuts. That'll show those profiteering duopolists. Yeah!

Observations as a former employee/now casual shopper:

People who complain about store-branded milk. Whatever your moral position on who is screwing the farmers (IIRC it's the processors not the supermarkets when it comes to milk) Coles milk does not taste different to Brownes milk. It might taste different to Masters (Pura) or Harvey Fresh or whichever other brands there are, but it does not taste different to Brownes - because it is Brownes milk. Same cows, same processing plant, same bottles, same crates, same truck. The only thing different is the label. And the price.

People who complain about really obscure shit not being stocked. 'Why don't you have Tesco brand mushy peas? They have it at Tesco'. The ****? Firstly, Coles doesn't make a habit of stocking store-branded products from other stores, and secondly Tesco operates on the other side of the globe. You are free to shop there and complain they don't have Coles' stuff.

Price cycles. The bulk of the advertising displays at the end of the aisles are bought up by the big MNCs. Coca Cola Amatil, Proctor and Gamble, Cadbury Schweppes etc. all cycle the same shit from week to week on special. If you really want 30 cans of Coke then there is no point paying $28 for it when it will be $16 or something a week later. Toilet paper, laundry powder etc. - this shit is always on special. Not sure why people pay full price for it. Then again I get washing powder in 4/5kg boxes from K-Mart instead as it's cheaper and means it's one more thing I don't need to buy frequently.

Multi-buy fresh food. Get ****ed with this. Sure bags of chips or bottles of drink or things of toilet rolls or whatever non-perishable shit fine, but I don't want two loaves of bread or 4 litres of milk for $5 when one of any is $4.20.

 

[gaskin]

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.

This was and still is one of my biggest hates about working on a checkout. What is worse though is when people do their shopping and they put their groceries in the bags while walking around the store then proceed to put the full bags on the counter so you have to take it all out, scan them and then put them back in. I despise those bags except for when you get people who say they will pack them and you just scan the items through to them.

 

[Macca19]

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

I love food shopping. Reckon its great fun.

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Shopping consists of morons standing in middle of aisle with their trolley talking

 

[Resistor]

Shopping consists of morons standing in middle of aisle with their trolley talking

You're doing it at the wrong time

 

[stmookeyj]

Last month in Brisbane I did a shop for the weekend (stayed in an apartment with cooking facilities), amazed that I could blow $45 just on a few items. Sure the meats were the most expensive but add to that 4 potatoes, 2 onions, a couple of carrots and a few other items and it adds up. Mind you I always regularly shop on Monday night during my dinner break at work and would often get what i deem necessary for anywhere between $40-60.

 

[Shell]

I uses Coles home delivery now- roughly about once a month/ month and a half, and have it delivered to my house on a Wednesday night so it's free. Will get all the basics like pasta, pasta sauces, juice, long life milk, canned stuff, etc. Basically all the heavy stuff I dont wanna have to carry to my car.

Will spend about $80-$100 on this.

Then each week, go in either Sat or Sunday late arvo/evening and get my fruit and vegetables, bread, any anything else I need. Try to stick around $25-$40 max here. Usually am in and out of the place within 20 minutes.

But yeah I hate it too, but with the home delivery makes it a lot easier now.

I hate clothes shopping too, have been putting off a trip to DFO for about 3 weeks now, just cbf'd.

 

[Hamingja]

People who complain about really obscure shit not being stocked. 'Why don't you have Tesco brand mushy peas? They have it at Tesco'. The ****? Firstly, Coles doesn't make a habit of stocking store-branded products from other stores, and secondly Tesco operates on the other side of the globe. You are free to shop there and complain they don't have Coles' stuff.

They do it deliberately on a lot of regular stuff though. You can't get Ingham's chicken at the two Coles in my area, they only sell the coles brand chicken. Same with cheese, they only stock coon and coles brand, nothing else as far as the stock standard blocks/sliced/grated cheese goes. Then in reverse Coles don't sell generic brand cloths in a pack >10, only the commercial style roll of chux for like $10, when I can get a pack of 40 homebrand cloths for $3 from Woolworths.

Multi-buy fresh food. Get ****** with this. Sure bags of chips or bottles of drink or things of toilet rolls or whatever non-perishable shit fine, but I don't want two loaves of bread or 4 litres of milk for $5 when one of any is $4.20.

As soon as they started doing that with bread I started buying my bread from the bakery. It is cheaper than bread not on special from the supermarket and a 1000% times better.

 

[Silent Alarm]

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.

Loves a chat with the check out girl. Great fun. It's like you have all this material, all these jokes just flying out and she's reciprocating with fodder... probably one of the best things in life. Chemist Warehouse is a good one too, not many blokes in there, you always have to get razors and some shaving cream along with your face wash to not look too fey, but they're usually cute lasses and'll always patronise you with chat. I wonder what it'd be like to ask for a number one time?

Shopping consists of morons standing in middle of aisle with their trolley talking

It's so bad in certain areas, usually when you hear the beautiful people block the aisles. Unemployed, stay-at-home wives of doctors and lawyers in little Nike caps or hippie chic, out-doing one another with "my boy's on his way to Paris right now, some of the Wesley kids only went to the Gold Coast, but it's about enlightenment" and "my girl's playing state netball this weekend." If you hung out in a supermarket long enough and heard that sort of shit, it'd be enough to want to bring down the west and join ISIS.

 

[Scotland]

They do it deliberately on a lot of regular stuff though. You can't get Ingham's chicken at the two Coles in my area, they only sell the coles brand chicken. Same with cheese, they only stock coon and coles brand, nothing else as far as the stock standard blocks/sliced/grated cheese goes. Then in reverse Coles don't sell generic brand cloths in a pack >10, only the commercial style roll of chux for like $10, when I can get a pack of 40 homebrand cloths for $3 from Woolworths.

I was talking about really obscure - mostly foriegn - shit that people expect the shop will stock. You don't go into Tesco or Ralphs or WalMart or wherever expecting Vegemite nor do you do into Coles expecting Valvoline fully synthetic motor oil for diesel engines as it's just stuff these places don't sell.

But yep they play all sorts of games with store branded gear. John West tuna at one chain but not Greenseas, vice versa at the other. Coke used to do it too for a while with 30 can packs and 1.25L bottles at one chain and 24 can packs and 1.5L bottles at the other. My local Coles has its own cheese blocks, cheese slices etc. and it makes 250g packages 2 for $6 or whatever it is while the Coon/Bega/Mainland equivalent is like $5.20 for one. I'm not against store brands as such just as long as they're a good quality product which sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't. K-Mart do it too. Last time I went to look at a toaster or kettle or something along those lines there were aisles and aisles of 'Homemaker' stuff and a tiny corner of Sunbeam, Breville etc. which I recognise.

 

[Gough]

You can get vegemite in Tesco.

 

[Vapor]

My policy is when it comes to snacks like chips or crackers, muesli bars and ice cream I will only buy things on discount.

I'm not fussy or picky at all, so shopping becomes pretty exciting when I hit up each aisle and see what the weekly specials are. Half-priced Red Rock Deli Chips? Kettle Chips? Grainwaves?

Surely I'm not the only one?

 

[Shell]

My policy is when it comes to snacks like chips or crackers, muesli bars and ice cream I will only buy things on discount.

I'm not fussy or picky at all, so shopping becomes pretty exciting when I hit up each aisle and see what the weekly specials are. Half-priced Red Rock Deli Chips? Kettle Chips? Grainwaves?

Surely I'm not the only one?

Yeah, I do this too. Especially the "good" ice cream like Sara Lee, regular price being $9 **** that.

 

[Atley]

My weekly shop

Supermarkets
Bread
Muesli Bars
Sandwhich spreads
Milk
Household crap I need deodorants, washing powder, toothpaste, bin liners etc

Meat from the butcher
Fruit and veg from the fruit and veg stores which is cheap...5kg spuds for $3...would cost $5 a kilo at Woolworths.

 

[Shell]

My weekly shop

Supermarkets

Household crap I need deodorants, washing powder, toothpaste, bin liners etc
.

I do big shops for these (and other assorted toiletries) in one mass shop at chemist warehouse every 3 months or so.

 

[little graham]

Loves a chat with the check out girl. Great fun.

Some of them really appreciate when you ask them how is their day, been busy or ask them about the weather. Some of them react even better to a bit of saracasm. It feels good to make there day or at least show someone isn't taking them for granted.

At the end of the day they get shit pay, stand on their feet all day and have to put uo with teenagers and school kids being manipulated by the big chains to keep profits up. They know what brand of franga you buy, put up with old ladies telling them how to pack. Ect Ect. Important part of the machine we all are a cog of.

 

[gaskin]

Some of them really appreciate when you ask them how is their day, been busy or ask them about the weather. Some of them react even better to a bit of saracasm. It feels good to make there day or at least show someone isn't taking them for granted.

At the end of the day they get shit pay, stand on their feet all day and have to put uo with teenagers and school kids being manipulated by the big chains to keep profits up. They know what brand of franga you buy, put up with old ladies telling them how to pack. Ect Ect. Important part of the machine we all are a cog of.

This. So much this.

 

[Silent Alarm]

Some of them really appreciate when you ask them how is their day, been busy or ask them about the weather. Some of them react even better to a bit of saracasm. It feels good to make there day or at least show someone isn't taking them for granted.

At the end of the day they get shit pay, stand on their feet all day and have to put uo with teenagers and school kids being manipulated by the big chains to keep profits up. They know what brand of franga you buy, put up with old ladies telling them how to pack. Ect Ect. Important part of the machine we all are a cog of.

I worked at a Target in high school and sometimes you'd be chucked on the registers for hours, I usually copped the early shifts on a Saturday. Missing every second game of footy and being put behind because of that, not being able to do something on a Friday, and then the huge rushes made it so bad. You got treated like shit by managers who have to take it out on someone, and 16-year old school kids are the only ones below them in the world. It was nice when someone was decent, had a laugh, or even said "jeez, you'd be annoyed about missing the derby today hey." Since then I've always tried to treat them all decently. There are 'good' people who I can easily hate by the way they talk to people in retail or hospitality. I'm sure they appreciate the dumb joke and smiles even if they don't reckon you're any good looking.

 

[Harvey Leadpipe]

Woolies online to be picked up first thing on Sunday morning for most non-perishables. Saves doing the impulse buys, and the kids seeing something they want and whacking it in the trolley while you're checking out the price of dishwashing powder. Also, I f***** hate supermarkets. Any chance they can whack a dimmer switch on the lights?

The market for all fruit and veggies and deli stuff. I don't mind this. As long as we're there early enough. My days of waking up at 10:00am+ hungover on a Sat morning are gone, so if I beat the crowd, this is ok. Just belt around at 7:00am hungover.

The butcher for meat. The one part of everyday shopping I like. Get to know you're butcher, and he'll look after you, give you tips, age meat for you, etc.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

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

If so, the Tim Tams are in aisle 6.

Food shopping sucks, but it sure beats clothes shopping.

 

[stmookeyj]

Anyone try to time their shop so they can get discounted bakery items (usually after 8PM)? Used to often find cheaper 6 pack of cookies or cheese and bacon rolls at that time. Unfortunately when i have an RDO I never seem to time it well to get a hot chook. ..

 

[Catfish Alley]

I worked in a supermarket through high school. It was a pretty good job actually. Pay was decent enough and they helped managed transfers when we moved town. When I turned 18 I was able to just work in the liquor store on weekends. I could take my radio in and just listen to footy. Agree that that good customers who would have a chat would help the day go faster.

 

[TheKanga]

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...

Often I've had the odd banana or apple fall into the bag accidentally <_<