The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
Grocery shopping, love it or hate it?
Talk about it….
The Water Cooler – Grocery Shopping – Love It or Hate It?
I don’t hate it. But it would be nice if the cashiers could at least act like they are happy to be there. Some at the Clayton FoodMax, are rude.
I do shopping in small amounts so use the self checkout if available. Yes, I note that attitudes of staff has changed a bit at stores which may mean they are nervous about the store closing. Some stores have a few empty shelves maybe because they are behind in paying suppliers. Stores that used to stock overnight before the next week of deals now are stocking during the day. It will be interesting to see how the grocery sector survives these next few years.
If I actually were a cook I think I’d like grocery shopping, but since I’m not, I really don’t. There is such a limited amount of decent “ready to eat” foods that are not loaded with fat or sodium. Unfortunately these limitations do not make me any more eager to cook than before. : )
when at a meat market selecting for the smoker- Oh Yeah! Otherwise. Eeh…
It’s great if you have a good budget to work from. The cashiers are standing for hours on end so I don’t expect them to put on an act if they are working a grueling job.
When store is packed with customers I don’t expect to get much done cause I can’t even get to the merchandise.
I hate most shopping anyway, but grocery shopping is my least favorite. That’s why I only shop for groceries once a month and buy enough food to last a month..What really irks me about grocery shopping is the the inconsiderate shopper who leaves their cart in the middle of the isle. They appear to be in their own little world, unaware there are other shoppers around them.
If customers would keep right when pushing a shopping cart and when they stop to look at an item, they would and pull their cart to the side of the isle out of the way so other shoppers could get by, it would make for a better shopping experience.
But I would still hate it because I’m a guy and most guys hate shopping.
Another thing that irks me is the parent that allows their children to run amok screaming. They are demonstrating that they are lousy parents and their children are obstreperous brats.
I completely agree but people are acting like that everywhere. Not just the grocery stores 🙁 I wish everyone would be more gentle and kind.
Brits drive on the left side.
Many other countries drive on the left, but this is the US and we drive on the right … and, slower traffic keeps right. When Dawg is coming through, pretend he’s an ambulance, pull to the right and stop. 😋
I agree with this post. People on their phones not moving their
precious behinds so that others can buy their groceries and move on are the absolute worst. Call it the millennial effect, but soccer moms are guilty of this too, (while their children run around thinking that the grocery store is a playground). If I see a shopping cart in the middle of the aisle, I will just move it.
I kind of agree, but I also think that most isles are too narrow, since the carts are quite wide. I wish there would be a middle size cart. I only shop for myself, so I don’t need a big cart, on the other hand the baskets are too small and easily get too heavy. I often buy one or more bottles of wine, then if you also need milk and some other stuff, the basket gets too heavy, especially if you are elderly or have a bad back. I have probably been guilty of leaving the cart in the middle, usually it is if I just mean to crate one item and then my eye catches something else.
When it comes to rude people yucking it up while ignoring their surroundings I will pause, determine the reasonableness of their “crime”, and respond accordingly. Sometimes its a genuine accident.
Sometimes it is self serving (is it always a female? Say it isn’t so) creature. Once, the perp was so rude that I moved her cart slightly so I could reach in. Her cries of violation made me smile as I proceeded to my next task.
Naughty? Or not?
They only way to shop is with a team.
I don’t think there are many countries that drive on the left. I’m from Denmark and when I was growing up we always made fun of the countries that had left driving, not so much Britain, but our neighboring Sweden, I guess they got sick of it, because they changed some 45-50 years ago. In the mid sixties I lived in Iceland for a few months and they drove on the left, not sure if they have changed.
I don’t mind it. I keep a running list of what I need to get and then check to store ads to see if any of it is on sale. Most basics usually aren’t. But I do prefer to go to a live person, even a grumpy one, than a self-serve. Could be they are grumpy because the self-serve is taking jobs away and their job could be on the “to go” list.
Me too. Of course they can see the writing on the wall. They’re understaffing the checker’s lanes more and more, but I still stand in their lines before going through the vacant self checking stalls.
I love to grocery shop, a direct result of where I shop: Diablo Foods in Lafayette. I usually shop there about every 4 days, primarily based on my need for fresh produce and dairy. I have a general idea of meals I’ll be fixing over the next week; the fresh produce I always have on hand allows for versatility. I’m known by my first name to many Diablo Foods staffers. Always get the best customer service, including grocery bagging and help out with groceries.
I also buy grass fed ground beef, lamb, and pork from Stemple Creek ranch in Marin County (order online and shipped frozen on dry ice). Have a 7.2 cubic ft chest freezer to store the items. Best meat ever, and having it on hand is really handy.
I really miss the Diablo Foods that used to be in Concord 🙁
@Bishop Estates – When in Diablo Foods, I still occasionally hear a customer ask management/a Stokes family member if they ever plan to open in Concord or Danville again. The answer is always no, that one store is all they can handle as a true family owned grocer. The Lafayette store alone has about 165 employees. The kitchen area is staffed 24 hours a day to keep up with all the deli items and grab and go items. And their permanent employees from the Butcher’s union are guaranteed 40 hours of work a week.
I overheard a Stokes’ family member tell a customer that closing the last Concord store was the hardest business decision the family ever made.
@ S ~ yep!,…my Hubby is all about that too for the grill,..yum!!
Plus, you got to have Beer.
Would have to say like grocery shopping for the most part. Do self check-out most for the time at the grocery store for 10 items or less. The big grocery shopping days for us is Tuesday, at the Farmers Market.
Yep… If I’m doing an all-nighter where I put a large brisket in at about 2AM, I sip bourbon. If grilling in the daytime; Suds! Although I have been know to do RC or red Kool-Aid instead….
I love to grocery shop, and I love to cook. I mostly shop at Lunardi’s for the produce, meat, and fish and a bit at Trader Joe’s.
I shop at Safeway and Costco. You have to do it if you want to eat. Starting to dislike the Costco parking lot. Just too many people. One of these days I will try early in the morning.
I like any grocery store but the whole food.
Grocery outlet is great love the cashier there. they are good about security making you leave the backpack at the counter to prevent shoplifting
I seldom go to safeway.
I go to trader’s Joe once in the while for certain food I like
Whole foods is overpriced. Sprouts is a cheaper version of WF, if you watch for their sales. The meat is good, they always have salmon for 5.99, it is enough for me for dinner for one, and still have a little left over for my scrambled eggs the next day. I also buy a certain steak there, I forgot the name, but it is tender and tasty, usually I get enough for 2 dinners for around $6-8.00. I don’t eat big portions, so it works for me.
I like it. Have an ongoing list and even printed out a go to menu to make it easier to pick something we haven’t had in a while. The Mr. is more comfortable with home made so everything revolves around that theme, though I am not as strict.
It is a creative adventure. Shopping for new products or revisiting standards. Currently we have frozen home made lasagna, cut into serving pieces available. Home made cookies, several bags of wild caught fish, grass fed hamburger a variety of nuts. All from Costco. Annies Mac n cheese is organic. I like to jazz it up with parsley and cheeses. Rice, potatoes, bread. Eggs. It’s a lifestyle now.
Shopping of any kind, especially grocery shopping, is often a very frustrating experience.
The grocery stores, with ever-thinning profit margins and ever-growing local population, are woefully understaffed in the quest to keep their shareholders happy. Unfortunately, us consumers don’t have much of a choice except to just deal with it. These companies know that their customers are almost always going to have a bad experience shopping at their stores, but they simply don’t care.
I live alone and I work long hours, so I don’t keep much food at home. But if my grocery needs ever go up, I will definitely consider delivery services. When I worked graveyard shifts a few years ago, I would get off at 7am and I didn’t mind shopping then. But now that I’m rolling home at 7pm, I dread having to go to the grocery store.
Delivery works and senior outreach programs too where they can assist in shopping needs. Some people are too proud to ask though and insist on doing everything for themselves.
I like to shop, I love to cook, and I don’t mind grocery shopping. I’ve always gone at “off hours” so as long as my timing is right, I’m good to go! Thanks for the sales!
It’s an adventure to me. It’s my hunt in the wild! Sometimes, I come home victorious. I love to shop … for anything! I love to look for bargains. When I grocery shop, I sometimes visit four different stores looking for the items I want. I know I can get somethings at one store that I can’t get at another. The meat is better here, while the produce is better there. I also keep an ongoing list, and only shop for groceries once a month. 😄
You sound like my mother. She would pick up two pieces of meat and take five minutes deciding which one. However she was an amazing cook. Maybe I am doing it wrong. So if you see some guy in the grocery store with a piece of meat in each hand trying to make up his mind that will probably be me.
Ok with having to buy groceries from a store, because obviously you cant hunt for your own food around here. Not ok with the large crowds, large people who insist on parking in two spots, and their children who insist on running in front of moving shopping carts.
I park far away because the parking stalls are entirely too small and my doors swing out extra wide.
HATE it.
Don’t mind shopping…hate checking out
After so many thousands of trips it’s hard to get too excited about grocery shopping. Sometimes it’s more interesting than others, like when I see something unfamiliar and have to check it out. I go to several stores around the East Bay in order to get certain items or brands, for instance I only buy Trader Joe’s mayonnaise but I wouldn’t go there just for that, and no more than one or two stores per shopping day. Safeway has been completely off my list for almost 30 years. Don’t like them!
I’ll bet your mother was ready to leave home by the time you reached 18. 😀
Yes! Shopping for groceries (or anything else) puts me into a happy mode somewhere between hurricane preparedness and new-product detective. I keep a pretty shopping list pad on the refrigerator door, and items are placed on the pad in the order in which those items are sold in the store (if I push the cart toward the left just inside the door and then zigzag up and down in a rough counterclockwise direction).
Sometimes … if I’m not in a rush… I pay special attention to the sale signs on the shelves; and especially with Fall approaching, I study the canned soup sales. There’s this NEED to have cream of tomato soup and the makings for toasted cheddar cheese sandwiches ready to go! Do I hear any AMENs? 😂
True confession: I’m sometimes the little old lady who is searching for a particular item and seems to be taking a brief nap in the middle of an aisle…. well, then there’s the 15 minutes purse reloading before getting away from the cash register. Clerks are always really nice to me, no matter what the store…. and especially so at Trader Joe’s. Certain of their house-brand items are the very best around.
But yes, Lunardi’s and Diablo Foods take the prize for best quality of meats. Where do the rest of you go to buy the best fresh seafood? 🦀🦞🦐🐟
For fresh seafood I like 1) 99 Ranch Market, and 2) the neighboring Las Montañas Supermarket. And in the opposite order for meats. They’re both close enough to me and have very satisfying choices. The guys behind the 99 Ranch seafood counter will even fry up your choice of whole fish for you. It’s a fun store to look around in and find virtually anything in use in Asian cuisine and they have FABULOUS produce. We often pick up very nice cakes for special occasions that don’t break the bank. I wish 99 Ranch Market still had their butchers on site, meats were more fun and varied then, luckily between them and Las Montañas for meats you won’t go home empty handed. I shut down my Oakland home last week, and I have my upright freezer back. WooHoo!! I must be here to stay. Lookout meat markets, here I come.😁
I don’t mind grocery shopping, don’t think about it much it is something that has to be done, if you want good food. I use to entertain a fair amount, and I love to cook and especially bake and if you want good food you have to shop.
I live alone now, and don’t entertain much, I do cook for myself most of the time. I grew up in the country in Denmark and my dad was a gardner, basically a potato farmer, but he grew everything, potatoes different kinds, peas, carrot, onions, brussels sprouts, white asparagus, cabbage, squash, and some fruits cantaloupe, strawberries, and we had wild raspberries close by we could pick. So I got very spoiled everything was fresh and in season, don’t think I had frozen vegetables until my teens. So I like fresh produce, (go to Farmers Market when my schedule allows) thus I usually shop a couple of times a week. I like Grocery Outlet, the have great deals on wine if you are willing to experiment, their cantaloupe is usually very tasty, they don’t have everything, and I rarely buy meat there. I like Trader Joe’s because their prices are always the same, and they have a good selection. I like Sprout for fruits (when its on sales) and meats, but parking is tough there and it is not close to where I live. I do go to Safeway for certain staples. When I lived in Benicia I shopped at Raley’s a lot, in addition to Trader Joe’s and Grocery outlet. I like the 99 cents store only for certain staples, dishwashing detergent, other cleaning supplies, tissues, I only go every 4-6 weeks, but I have bought produce there, raspberries, tasted as good as what I got at Farmer’s Market. Have also bought mushroom, carrots etc. have always been good quality.
I totally agree with you. I shop at the same places you do. I love to cook and shop too.
I was out at 17…. it was better for all of us.
I do a big shopping at Winco once a month, saves me a lot of $$$. Safeway, definitely hate shopping there. The employees are stressed out & overworked. Since Albertsons took over the prices just keep going up and the employees keep thinning out. Very often they have empty shelves. They offer free items on their Just For You program and then don’t stock it in the stores. I like grocery shopping because I cook, but not Safeway unless I have no choice.
I like the winco. sometimes they even have good meat for my smoker