The frustrating thing about supermarkets

oddduck said:
We have a supermarket chain called Publix...they are hands down the bestest supermarket there is...pricewise no but if you can't find something you ask a clerk or stocker and they take you right to where it is. If they are out on the shelf they will head to the back room to find it. They bag your purchases and help you out to your car and take the cart back with them. The have great sales often themed like italian week. I just came from there tonight and i got quite a bit of frozen food on sale. I did stop on the way home elsewhere to buy bread and cheese as its cheaper in another store.

I do shop at aldis but its not a place to be able to get everything i need plus aldis is not as conveniently located. So i hit aldis maybe once or twice a month and publix twice a week and Walmart at least once a week for cat food and kitty litter.
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The best thing about Publix is the weekly BOGO items. The worst thing is putting slow cashiers in the express lanes.

Having a Publix, Winn Dixie and Penn Dutch within a few blocks of each other, allow us to take advantage of all the specials each has to offer in the weekly ads. Restaurant Depot is also just a few miles away, although we prefer the one much further south. We go there to buy bulk items, like Parmigiano Reggiano for $7.30 per pound. I like the seafood dept. there and buy meat in bulk for BBQ's and sausage making.
 
As others have said, the most frustrating thing that supermarkets do, is move things around. As I get older, it takes longer to learn the new arrangements. And it's the little things that I don't have to buy often that take the longest to find, like tomato puree or cornflour, especially if they've changed the packaging in the meantime as well.

The second most frustrating thing is when they suddenly stop stocking a particular product that I have become accustomed to.

I like the self scanners and the control it gives me. I can bag everything as I take it from the shelf. I like not having to unload and load everything onto the conveyer and back into the trolley. There is never a queue to pay .

Unfortunately I am having to use online delivery at the moment because I have damaged both my hands coming off my bike :(

I hate having to trust someone else to select my groceries.
Putting notes on each item about my substitution and sell by requirements is such a faff. To be fair to them, they have been quite reliable.
 
Kake Lover said:
I am having to use online delivery at the moment because I have damaged both my hands coming off my bike :(
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Oh my gosh! Hope you get better soon.

Re on-line orders, I just leave substitutions with on-line delivery to chance. I just tick the box to substitute whatever they like. I've had some interesting subs and also some which are far more expensive than the original item. I rather like the lottery and unexpected things.
 
morning glory said:
Oh my gosh! Hope you get better soon.

Re on-line orders, I just leave substitutions with on-line delivery to chance. I just tick the box to substitute whatever they like. I've had some interesting subs and also some which are far more expensive than the original item. I rather like the lottery and unexpected things.
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Just going to put the final additions onto tomorrow's order!
 
Online shopping has it's place for folks with limited mobility or transport challenges but it's not for me! I like to see what I'm buying, and I actually enjoy shopping for food. This has reminded me of a supermarket bugbear - the endless stream of shopping carts manned by supermarket staff picking online orders! I am being unfair here, as each cart holds about six orders so takes up less space than if the shoppers were there in person, but they all seem to come out at the same time to block up the aisles!
 
My biggest pain when it comes to buying online is couriers. We had one a while back that sent a package to Brighton, a mere 500 miles away. Just this week, we were informed that a parcel was in Hatfield (just north of London), yet five minutes later, their website informed us that the thing was in Livingston, which is just west of Edinburgh.

Teleport? Jet fighter?
 
epicuric said:
Online shopping has it's place for folks with limited mobility or transport challenges
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I don't have either limited mobility not transport issues but I love shopping on-line. I can get many, many ingredients which would not be available to me otherwise. The on-line supermarket Ocado is excellent. The other side of the coin is that I can shop for boring mundane stuff like toilet rolls without traipsing around a supermarket. I think a lot of families with kids find it really useful too - not trailing the kids around the supermarket just to stock up on mundane regular items.
 
morning glory said:
I don't have either limited mobility not transport issues but I love shopping on-line. I can get many, many ingredients which would not be available to me otherwise. The on-line supermarket Ocado is excellent. The other side of the coin is that I can shop for boring mundane stuff like toilet rolls without traipsing around a supermarket. I think a lot of families with kids find it really useful too - not trailing the kids around the supermarket just to stock up on mundane regular items.
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I'd quite like to be able to use Ocado, but they don't deliver to where I live. The sublimely idiotic thing is that one has to create an account with them to discover this. Having ascertained that they don't deliver to me, I was then bombarded with emails asking me to make my first order.

Très amusant.
 
Something we should have reminded ourselves of during the courier fiasco is that idiocy has no limits. Do not assume that things cannot get worse, because there is a fair chance they will.

Dear right hand, please meet left hand. Oh, you've never met at all then?

Dear couriers, kindly inform me how a parcel that you have just told me is in Hertfordshire (just north of London) then turned up in Livingston (just west of Edinburgh) a mere five minutes later. That is a distance of some 375 miles. That's 75 miles a minute (not including loading and unloading time). That's 4,500 miles per hour. Have you developed an advanced jet fighter?

Or are you just idiots?
 
morning glory said:
I don't have either limited mobility not transport issues but I love shopping on-line. I can get many, many ingredients which would not be available to me otherwise. The on-line supermarket Ocado is excellent. The other side of the coin is that I can shop for boring mundane stuff like toilet rolls without traipsing around a supermarket. I think a lot of families with kids find it really useful too - not trailing the kids around the supermarket just to stock up on mundane regular items.
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I suppose theoither upside to shopping online is that impulse buying is easier to avoid!
 
epicuric said:
I suppose theoither upside to shopping online is that impulse buying is easier to avoid!
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Maybe - but I think I have done so. Its very easy to just click on something! My last impulse online buy was Tomahawk pork steaks. They turned out to be huge despite only costing £3. I'm still not sure what to do with them so they are sitting in the fridge.
 
Still haven't got used to the new layout, at least 1of us has to keep going back to get something we missed.
My husband suggested changing how I write out the shopping list, good idea but in a couple of months they may change it again :o_o:
 
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