Grocery shopping. I. Hate. It. Never go until the cupboards are bare and the fridge is empty. Hate it hate it hate it. But when I was a kid I used to beg my mom to let me go. I could never
understand why it was such a big deal to let me go but every once in a while she would relent and let me tag along. And of course I did what every kid does "oh Mom can we have this? Can we buy that?" until I drove her crazy. Frequently one of the first things my mom would do after getting into the grocery store was go straight to the candy aisle and pick up a box of Brachs candy. It comes in bags now but then it was a movie sized box. She would buy bridge mix usually, or sometimes chocolate stars. And buy the time she got to the check-out, she would be paying for the empty box.
Never thought much about it as a kid but as an adult I realized it was a little weird. Most people don't do that. Doing my own shopping now, I would never think of doing that although I can understand why people do it when they have their kids along! But my mom did it because she was a chocoholic. She didn't share much of it with me. For the record, I didn't like chocolate covered nuts as a kid. Probably why that was usually her choice.
Tonight was the first time I ever consid
ered doing that. Shopping on an empty stomach and realizing my sugar had dropped, I was sweating, getting light headed and I needed something. I normally have something in my purse but of course this time, I didn't. But I could not bring myself to grab a box of bridge mix so I grabbed a bottle of pop from one of those coolers near the check-out. I only drink diet pop these days so sugared pop would be a quick sugar fix. But now I'm wondering if a lot of people do this - because when I handed the bottle to the checker saying "careful, it's open" she didn't blink, scanned it - stuck a sticker on it and handed it back to me.
Is this a common thing? Because all these years I thought it was my mom's particular chocolate quirk. I had to pay for a half empty bottle tonight if I didn't want to take a header in the canned goods aisle, but it won't become a habit. And I suspect I will always think of it as being a bit weird.
Do you have a shopping quirk?
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Nope I never shop like that but I could see it happening, when my daughter was young and sitting in the babyseat if she could grab a green pepper and eat it like an apple she was in heaven I would say no no we have to wash it first, she would cry, so I would head the store bathroom and wash it for her properly before she could eat it..... kids...
ReplyDeleteI am still doing it one day at a time BettyJo its harder some days and feels so strange to be by myself, some days are good some not....
Diane
My mother didn't take us grocery shopping much ... and we didn't get any cool stuff.
ReplyDeleteI tend to whip through the store ... Gord tends to take longer cuz he reads a lot of the packages so he has to catch up to me.
I am one of those strange people that enjoys grocery shopping. I think it used to be an escape of sorts for me. But like you I would never dream of eating something in the store. But I am sure some people do and DON'T pay for the empty box. Sad to say. But eating and paying for it would feel a bit weird to me too.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a grocery store checker we had it happen all the time. The only thing that drove me crazy was when people gave us fruit they'd already eaten part or all of, partly because those things were rung by weight (and so I'd have to have someone go get another one to get the right weight) and partly because who wants to be handed an empty banana peel? But yeah, it was pretty normal.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't do that but I've seen others do it.
ReplyDeleteI actually like shopping alone because I read labels!
I don't consume before paying apart from once when I was sooo thirsty! See a lot of ppl who do it though!
ReplyDeleteI'm not keen on shopping as the supermarkets have way too many temptations and I always end up spending and buying way more than I intended!