Vent about grocery shopping

Lol. Agreed, except for the rant about self-checkout. Personally I love self-checkout because now that my two favorite checkers have retired I don't have anyone friendly to chat with. The one or two who seem to work during the times when I go shopping are spectacularly unfriendly, as my dd has said. lol. So self-checkout it is. And the employee who usually monitors that area is very friendly. And we're born in the same year so we always have fun with the register telling her to card me for alcohol purchases. hahahahaha

Our self-checkouts now have a sign up saying they're limited to 20 items or less which is making a lot of people mad. I will sneak in a few over 20 but not too many more. A lot of customers are saying that if they want to enforce a 20-item limit then they need to put more cashiers on the other registers. 

Otherwise yeah, inflation, and shrinking sizes, and random shortages (which they can't blame on covid anymore so what's the reason...?) make shopping an annoying experience. 

I validate all of your venting! I loathe self checkout for groceries. I'm resigned to it at Target.

I love Meijer's shop and scan.

I'm very picky about how my stuff is bagged to a point where dh will not bag anything unless I tell him which bag. Small trips where we're only getting a few things, I don't care, but the main trips? I want my stuff bagged a certain way, the way I was taught at 16 as a bagger for a smaller grocery chain. Easily bruised produce were bagged separately from the potatoes, onions and lettuce. Frozen stayed together, dairy stayed together, meat together, canned goods never in the same bag as boxed food unless you laid it on top of the cans. If I go to a cashier, the only rule they follow is non food separate from food. Everything else is toss, toss, and hope for the best.

I about lost my shit when the app was down on our usual grocery day and I had to use a cashier. Despite me grouping stuff together and saying I want them bagged together as they are grouped, she reached over and fucked my system up. I'm the shopper cashiers hate when it comes to bagging. So shop and scan it is.

Prices seem to be coming down some. I went to Aldi yesterday and many of the items I purchased had a sign with a previous price marked out and a new lower price shown. I also notice eggs were cheaper at Publix earlier this week. It's not drastic but it's something.

I don't mind self checkout.

I’m seeing some prices come down in my area. I shop at Publix a lot, though, and they are typically more expensive than the other stores. Their customer service is the best, though, and I prefer their deli and bakery. It’s a trade-off.

I have noticed good drops with eggs, ground turkey, chicken, produce ($1.49 for a box of strawberries? 3 bunches of Asparagus for $5 Yes please!), and del meat at the deli counter.

I do like doing my own self checkout, but when faced with a large cart full, and some of that produce that has to be weighed, UGH! But HyVee still has 3 or 4 full service lanes, and it is pretty easy to get in line for them. I used that the other day, and gave a big sigh and told the checker and bagger how nice this was! I said "I appreciate this, you just made my day easier!". I think all they hear is b!tiching - because they were just delighted I told them that!

Is that like Walmart's Scan & Go? Gosh I love that. I put my grocery totes in the cart and scan the items as I shop. Then I just hold my phone up to the self checkout screen and BOOM - DONE. Everything is scanned/bagged and I do not have to do it at the tiny self check. It is worth the cost of the app.

My Walmart is this way. A big 'den' of the self checkouts, but they are tiny little bagging spots. At my Walmart, I can put stuff back in my cart after scanning though. But I have started exclusivly using Scan & Go on the app, so my items are scanned and bagged before I get to self checkout.

I somewhat live in fear that I will miss an item, using Scan & Go. So I watch carefully. I put the item in the kid seat part of the cart to scan, then put in my tote. I have trained myself to do this, so I don't randomly toss something in without scanning.
The only issue I have is double scanning stuff. My phone can pickup a bar code of something in my cart I already scanned. So I scroll through the screen before I head to self checkout to double check things. Then I make eye contact with the Self checkout workers and ask if I am good to go? ... they usually don't even hardly reply. LOL

I only do pick up.

No frustration about self checkout.

Someone shops for me and loads my car for me. I don’t even have to get out of my pajamas.

That’s more service than ever before and it doesn’t cost extra.

We never used to check for sales at the grocery stores, but now we check the sales flyers weekly. Food prices are outrageous! I don't know how large families do it.

I despise shopping now.

We just got self-checkout at Costco and I haven't used them yet. Just curious but how do you put all your items on the bagging area?! Everything is big and bulky. I need to look at the self-checkout more closely next time I go. That would make me not want to use their self-checkout.

At the two Costcos I primarily go to neither one makes you wait for a second receipt check at the door. The self checkouts have blue receipt tape and the regular cashier lines have white receipt tape. After I go through the self checkout line, the person monitoring that area does the check, scribbles their scribble on the receipt and all I do is hold it up as I approach the door and they wave me on through.

In general, I usually prefer just going the self checkout route. No idle small talk, less waiting in line and no one creeping up too close behind me with their cart.

The last multiple times I’ve gone to Target there has only been one live person working at the registers and one live person monitoring the six self checkouts. I generally try not to shop on weekends or other peak times so maybe that has something to do with it. I only tend to shop at off times of the day and days of the week.

My only complaint about self checkouts is that they usually never have paper bags at those lanes and I prefer getting paper grocery bags to corral my recycling at home. I hate, hate, HATE those crappy plastic bags with a passion. I reuse those too for bathroom wastebaskets as much as I can, but damn they stack up fast and I never seem to remember to take them with me to the store to recycle them there.

The area where you put your scanned items at Costco is HUGE compared to the tiny one at my grocery store. I don't get in the Costco self-checkout if I have a lot of items, but I go so often (5 minutes from my house) that I rarely do a huge shopping there. Also, my Costco has a cashier/helper at all the self-checkout registers most of the time (which is silly, but whatever...) so usually they'll just scan the items with the wand thingy without even taking stuff out of the cart. 

I always use, self checkout regardless of how many registers there are.

At grocery store where I work,even at a cashier you'll unload your buggy, and if there's not an avaliable bagger you'll put the bagged groceries back in your buggy after the cashier scans and bags em. But you'll stand in line for the cashier experience.

Every time I go to the grocery store I am GRATEFUL that there is a store to purchase items from.  My friends in Cuba and in the Ukraine do not have such privilege as we have in North America.  In Cuba, there is such a shortage of food and other items, the local people are so happy for some soap, shampoo and similar.  They eat what they grow.  In Ukraine, they literally be killed while attempting to shop, if the store hasn't been bombed.

You have money to purchase the food and you are healthy enough to put some effort into obtaining the things that you need and desire.  I don't have patience with your privilege today.