Yes I am. And I will always find something worth mentioning. Oh ye of little faith.
When I go grocery shopping, it's normally the weekend that I get paid at work, so I typically shop for two weeks at a time (or longer, depending on what it is I need the most). To me, brands are not of a tremendous concern, given the store brand tends to have the same taste, ingredients and quantity all for a lower price than the popular brands. Also, I am not ashamed to hand the cashier a pocket-full of coupons. Why should I be? If I have a chance to knock $5 off the final total, I'm going to do it. That also leads me to the fact that I will sometimes shy away from some regular purchases if a certain product is not on sale that week. Certain things I will absolutely argue are not worth the full price on the label. They may be good...but it's undeniable that they taste so much better when you know you spent half the regular price. During these horrid economic times, I am sure I'm in the majority of people that shop the same way. Now it's my job to point out the little things that you don't really think about when you're stocking up for your future eating pleasure.
This is just being thrifty. Don't hate.
How many of you have gone to the store and found that after walking around and fumbling 4 items in your hands that now would be a good time to get a cart or basket? You only intended on picking up a few things, yet you underestimated how awkward it would be after you found said things and tried lugging them around each aisle before you're ready to check out. On the other hand, how about those times that you grab a cart and the only things you grab barely even fill up the child seat area of the cart, then you go to check out and the cashier looks at you like you're a buffoon because you couldn't carry two cans of soup and a box of oyster crackers in a basket? Don't make yourself look foolish, especially in public. Leave that for the viewing pleasure of people you know well.
I really hope this person didn't start off with just a basket.
Looks like they're shopping for a family of carnies.
Then there is your impulse buying. You are actively trying to eat healthy, yet you're about to pass the Krispy Kreme kiosk, and your stomach urges you to go against your diet as you grab a box. It happens to everyone, and almost every time you go to the store. You can show up with a strict list of what you need, and somehow you still end up with some crap in your cart that you need to rationalize in your mind why it's a good idea to buy it. Sure, you can find a way to convince yourself, but how about the people other than yourself that you're shopping for? Suddenly your greedy belly is taking precedence over your family's hope to avoid making unnecessary purchases. Then again, sometimes they appreciate your blatant disregard for that strict list because their greedy bellies are genetically similar to yours. Then you get to the register and somehow you're completely confused about why you're paying $20 more than you originally anticipated. From the time that you picked up that big chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and sprinkles on top to the time it was scanned and bagged, you're inexplicably clueless about the high subtotal. You only have your self to blame.
Way to go, chubs...you just couldn't resist, could you?
One of my favorite things about going to the grocery store is the deceptive advertising of certain products they are trying to push. Sometimes it's the manufacturer that uses tricky language to draw in the less-than-brilliant consumers, and sometimes it's the store that does it to sell something that they they're having trouble getting rid of. For instance, there are the baked goods that found their way on the first fixture you see as you walk through the automatic sliding doors. Stacked front-and-center are the not-so-fresh 'Fresh Pies/Cakes/Cookies' in those generic ass boxes. Do people actually believe these things are fresh? There's no denying that some of it is delicious, don't get me wrong. Claiming it's actually fresh is quite the stretch though. Yea, it's fresh...the moment it made its way out of the oven and into the box...at the manufacturer's warehouse that mass produces it...only to be shipped out and received days later by the store you're walking into. Then, how do you know if those items were brought out to the sales floor immediately or not? They could have easily laid dormant on a rolling cart for days on end in the back because the store was waiting for their previous shipment to sell through. I may be in the minority on this one, but I think the extra cost, time and effort of buying the ingredients to make my own fresh baked goods is worth buying instead of these fake-fresh-foods. I'm also not suggesting you never buy these things, but maybe you'll take a second look at when they were made/when they expire, just in case it was fresh as of two weeks ago. I know I will.
Let's just pray this particular pie made it's way into someone's home
before only having two slices remaining as this photo was taken.
The last thing I always find amusing is not exactly a 'glass half full/glass half empty' scenario, but rather a clear-cut slice of realism. Here's the situation: you spend half an hour weaving through the aisles grabbing whatever you need off the shelves, and you decide you're done for the day. You walk your cart to the register, hand the cashier your rewards/discount card to scan and he/she/it scans and bags all of your groceries. Then you hand them your cash or swipe your card, and then it happens. Everybody has experienced it, and once again, people are fooled by tricky language. After dropping nearly a hundo (that's slang for $100 dollars...keep up, people), the cashier tells you that, "you saved $23 today," or whatever amount was negated by whatever was on sale. Guess what? You didn't save anything...you spent a hundo. Sure, it's nice to know that you could have spent that extra $23 today, and thanks to the price reduction on certain things you bought, you didn't have to. Considering how overpriced most of those groceries are in the first place, the fact they are brought down to a 'reasonable' price, or whatever you have to rationalize as being reasonable, you shouldn't be duped by the pointless statistic/dollar figure that tells you what you didn't spend. The only number I'm concerned about is the number I'll later see deducted from my bank account. Unless I miraculously saved more than I spent, I don't give a fraction of a crap how much money was lowered on said normally price-inflated products. Give me my receipt, try having a good day while dealing with some of the most bitter and obnoxious customers on earth, and let me carry on with my day.
Prime example. It's not like $27.30 will be magically added to my checking account.
I know I'm not the only one who has noticed these things. Now every time you go food shopping and you think twice about these things, you'll have this guy to thank. Damn straight.
D.
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