Grocery Stores are becoming unbearable

Batman

Heritage
Not sure if this belongs here but I am absolutely tired of them.

Self checkouts dominate most stores now, typically only 2 lanes open at any given time. There's even a grocer in my city that upgraded all their self-checkout machines with new high tech that have cameras that detect your items and face and will freak out it thinks you missed scanning something, it's almost dystopian. All that money they spent could easily go towards their workers but nahh who needs that? This same store also recently rearranged all grocery aisles to an incredibly confusing layout even though the original one worked perfectly; I assume they did this to cause confusion and make shoppers linger in the store for longer periods.

Another thing I see some grocers do lately is never have any baskets available. It's also obvious why this is, it's because full carts subtly encourage shoppers to fill them up and buy more stuff. And when I bring my basket to the self-checkout, I leave it there out of priciple - I'm already doing all their work and the least they can do is move the basket instead of forcing me to one hand 3 bags and then bring the basket over. I've had people eyeball me or other customers even claim that's rude behavior, they're absolute clowns. I don't even thank the employees if they grab it, that's your job, not mine, you should be thanking me for scanning, bagging, and paying for things on my own, the least you can do is grab the basket for me.

And the workers often seem slow to help and generally unfriendly in most places. God forbid the machine freaks out or you buy age restricted items, sometimes you have to literally wave or say something for them to notice.

Last complain, the food. It's unbelievable how much food in a typical grocery store is garbage. With the exception of the produce section, everything is processed garbage full of sugar, seed oils, and other nonsense. Even most "health food" stores are filled with seed oils and sugars, except their "organic" or "non GMO" canola/soybean oil, as if that's any better. And then throw in price hikes and shrinkflation, it's just unbelievably expensive now.

I'm at the point where I actually struggle to buy food because it's so hard to find anything, and have started to really dread it. Unfortunately, there's no other alternative except hunting/fishing or growing food yourself.
 
All quality and work ethic declines year after year. Gone are the days when just paying normal price gets you reasonable service, reasonable goods or quality craftsmanship. You now must pay a premium for all of it.
You have to buy organic for quality foods, shop upscale chains to get a checker, pay highest price estimate for a quality home repair, pay for the more expensive appliances to ensure things last.
It's awful. But the sooner you realize it the easier it is to just accept it.
We all have to work 10x harder to obtain what boomers had so easily. Where the economic problem exists is above my pay grade.
 
Sprouts plays the best music. It's usually stuff from the 80s or just music that doesn't suck. I've never walked into one of those stores and heard top 40 crap.

Haha that's funny you bring that up, i always grocery shop late because it's empty and since nobody is there you can hear the music clearly. Kroger always play Stevie B and I'm in there jamming like an idiot looking around like "is anyone else hearing this?!"
 
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Thats why I like to shop in our small local village store. The food feels like double price and they have maybe 5% of what a big store has but boy its more relaxing. Cashier smiles and small talks a little. Food is from nearby farms mostly and I know I support my community and not some Avocado farmer from Israel. But my wife complains I spend too much money on food which is true. We dont have the money to buy the good quality stuff all the time. Its sad but a reality for most people. Like posters above said, good luck finding food without sugar or seed oil in it.
 
For vegetables, I buy frozen ones. They’re fresh and practical (microwave for 2min).
Meats I choose the cuts I like. Put in my freezer. If I have patience, I open them and put in separate ziplock bags so it’s easier to get a portion to thaw.

I barely eat processed food. I don’t go to those isles. The candy I buy is chewing gum (no sugar).
No soda. I buy La Croix (sparkling water) no calories, no sugar, no sweeteners, nothing. Good way to keep a girlfriend happy and in shape.

Pasta, I buy the whole wheat. Parmesan cheese, shrimps and olive oil. Also garlic and onion powder. That’s the least “healthy” food I eat. That’s like a dollar per person portion.

Cooking is also low effort. Frozen veggies in the microwave and beef inside the air fryer. You can use chicken or pork (ribeye) if you want to save money.
Salmon is also practical.
Ribs you put inside aluminum foil and throw inside the oven to make sure it cooks until it’s easy to separate bones from meat using your fingers.


I like to keep things practical when cooking.


I don’t mind paying for something I can’t do at home, like a nice pizza. It’s not expensive so I rather pay somebody instead of doing it myself.
 
Go to local markets for vegetables and fruits. My wife is an expert. Sometimes we go with her. She already know where to buy. She fights with old ladies.

They also sometimes give free wine and tapas and have live music.

Since corona service has been going really bad. It took away people hope. And now they don´t care. It was a stupid greedy move.
 
I can't even remember the last time I heard a good song in a grocery store let alone any public space.
How old are you guys? I'm in my fifties and I find myself tapping my toes to the music they play in groceries stores a lot of the time, only annoyed when a song gets interrupted by an announcement for cleanup on aisle 4 or something like that. I think I got both David Bowie and Talking Heads on the my last trip, the kind of stuff I listened to in high school, and both were "deep cuts," not just "Let's Dance" and "Burning Down the House" (not that those aren't good songs too).

Sometimes they go even older, into pure Boomer territory like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd which, to be honest, I also like.

It's a reminder that I'm getting pretty old, but not much I can do about that other than lift weights and try to cook most of my food myself.
 
For years I've been making a point of using real person cashiers. Once I had one ask me why I wasn't using the self check out, I replied 'because it puts you out of a job'. She wasn't able to understand this basic fact 🤦‍♂️

Swiss supermarkets aren't so bad. And they often play unexpectedly good music.
 
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