How nosy are people in your supermarket?
Posted by NLveganmama on May 15, 2010 · Member since Jan 2010 · 380 posts
Do you find that people are always looking in each other's carts to see what they find? I think it's one of the reaons the Dutch shop so frequently is to give them the chance to look in other people's carts.
At the local grocery store, I use the self-checkout. It's quicker, easier, and there's no one befuddled by my reusable bags (seriously, they have no idea what they are sometimes). At the co-op, there are lots of healthy people and I'm not such a weirdo, so they don't say much about the food at all, other than "oh, this is good" or "good price on that one."
When I visit the US, I always experiance culture shock when I go into wal-mart (devil) and get a cart and it's the size of a car! In the US I really judge people's carts, obese people with obese children buying nothing but prepackaged, over processed crap and not a single fruit or vegetable. And then they pay with food stamps. It drives me insane!
We discussed this in the other "supermarket snoop" thread (check further back, I posted the link). It's actually easier to get processed crap with food stamps than actual food.
I was watching UK TV via satellite and they had an ad for something called "Diet Chef." For 50 pounds sterling a week, they send you meals for 7 days, ready to microwave. "That's 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches, 7 dinners and 14 snacks, to get you through the day." A) I spend less than 50 pounds a week on food for 2 adults! and B), in small letters on the screen it says "fresh fruit and vegetables not included." So basically they are making a killing.
When I visit the US, I always experiance culture shock when I go into wal-mart (devil) and get a cart and it's the size of a car! In the US I really judge people's carts, obese people with obese children buying nothing but prepackaged, over processed crap and not a single fruit or vegetable. And then they pay with food stamps. It drives me insane!
The carts here are so big that I usually refuse to get one, unless I absolutely have to. I am a fairly fit, active person, and it wears me out to push and pull those huge ass (never working correctly) things around. It's completely backfired, because I can only buy as much stuff as I can carry in my arms, because some stores have also stopped supplying baskets, thus forcing you into a cart. I refuse!
When I visit the US, I always experiance culture shock when I go into wal-mart (devil) and get a cart and it's the size of a car! In the US I really judge people's carts, obese people with obese children buying nothing but prepackaged, over processed crap and not a single fruit or vegetable. And then they pay with food stamps. It drives me insane!
The carts here are so big that I usually refuse to get one, unless I absolutely have to. I am a fairly fit, active person, and it wears me out to push and pull those huge ass (never working correctly) things around. It's completely backfired, because I can only buy as much stuff as I can carry in my arms, because some stores have also stopped supplying baskets, thus forcing you into a cart. I refuse!
I will go out of my way to go to the supermarkets that are more "in the city" and that have smaller carts. It just feels so much more... RIGHT to me...
Yabbit, that's incredibly sad that the people can buy crap easier than fresh food with food stamps. Though, it doesn't surprise me! But really what bugs me the most about people at the supermarket are the obese people with obese children that have their huge car sized carts filled with crap "food" and soda.
I do have a good grocery store experience, last time I was in the US at my local upscale grocery chain in St.Louis (Dierberg's) and I was looking around the dairy isle trying to find vegan cheeses and earth balance. One of the workers, a young 20 something girl asked me if I needed help, I told her I was looking for Tofutti and Earth Balance. She took me to where it was and showed me all the other brands. The entire time she was smiling and not judging and kept saying "this is where all of our vegan things are, and we have more here and here." I asked if she was vegan, she said no, not even vegetarian. But she was so great helping me, the weird vegan :).
it's also hard to get anything fresh with WIC, which is basically coupons for very specific items/sizes. It's always a pain in the ass - a coupon for the 15.3 oz box of Cheerios, but not the 13.8 oz box. They do have one for pinto beans - exactly one pound - which makes them pretty impossible to buy if they're only available in bulk. It would probably be worse if they opened it up to produce.
Though with those types of items, even though it wouldn't be as "neat," I don't see why they don't open it up to a range... like 0.75-1.25lb or something.
/rant
it's also hard to get anything fresh with WIC, which is basically coupons for very specific items/sizes. It's always a pain in the ass - a coupon for the 15.3 oz box of Cheerios, but not the 13.8 oz box. They do have one for pinto beans - exactly one pound - which makes them pretty impossible to buy if they're only available in bulk. It would probably be worse if they opened it up to produce.
Though with those types of items, even though it wouldn't be as "neat," I don't see why they don't open it up to a range... like 0.75-1.25lb or something.
/rant
Wow. In my day (sez the old lady wit da cane), they didn't specify brands! Sounds like some heavy government kickbacks for the manufacturers goin on, or something of that nature.
yeah, it's very specific. has to be cheerios cereal, or alta dena milk, etc. It's such a pain handling WIC coupons that most of the time people avoid the line where someone's using WIC, simply because it takes forever and it always seems like there's at least one item that does not qualify for some reason.
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