BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Cooking For Kids What's Your Grocery Store Pet Peeves?

Tammy, Wendy Tall One, and Elleise, thank you so much for your posts!

Tammy, I agree about the little shopping carts. I know that kids love them. However, I think that excited young kids with their own carts can be a dangerous situation, especially in a crowded grocery store.

When you think about it, some adults with regular size carts can be hazardous enough, lol!

Wendy Tall One, I can relate to shopping early in the morning to avoid crowds. Isn't it great to zip in and zip out of the grocery store in twenty minutes with NO lines?

Elleise, I can only imagine your shock when the lady put the apple back after biting into it! Ugh...I've seen people go up and down the salad bar at the grocery store feeding their kids snacks (but not actually purchasing a salad). What I can't figure out is that there are sample stations throughout the store, but they choose to stand in the salad bar line and sample the salad bar so to speak.

It's nice to talk with others who share the same pet peeves. At first, I thought I was just a grumpy grocery shopper, lol!

Feel free to share more of your grocery store pet peeves here. This can be your official "grocery store vent" thread!

I have a few grocery store pet peeves. I live in a small Appalachian town where a majority of people are on food stamps. I have nothing against food stamps. I've even had to use them myself. What really gripes me is to see people on food stamps with a shopping cart full of nothing but junk food. Even worse, a shopping cart full of junk food and this person smells as though they haven't bathed in months. My daughter used to work at a local grocery store. Sometimes she checked out customers who smelled so bad that she ran to the bathroom as soon as they were gone and threw up. Just because you receive food stamps doesn't mean you have to give up bathing.

Another pet peeve of mine are parents who allow their children to run like mad through the aisles of the store without regard for anybody else trying to shop. Or children who whine and cry until they get what they want before they will be quiet. I've even seen children hit their mom when she wouldn't give in to their demands.

I'm grateful there are no shopping carts for children to push here. I would put in a complaint if those were available.

I do have to brag about my offspring when they were children. They are 21 & 22 now. The grocery clerks and store owners all knew my children. Not because they misbehaved so much, but because they were so polite and well-behaved. They never ever threw a fit (at least not in public). As a result of this, they were given free items (such as orange juice or a pop) by those who ran the stores. My children could not understand why all the other children misbehaved so much.

I can't stand the parents that stand there and block the aisles talking with one another while their children are running up and down pulling things off the shelves and causing all kinds of havoc. It never fails where the parents are gabbing is the one thing I need on that aisle, then I have to contend with their children on the next aisle running into me or using their cart as a battering ram.

Lisa, I know what you mean about your children, mine to this day at 27 & 21 are amazed at what the kids get away with in the stores. They never got away with it and if they did happen to throw a fit, they were taken outside to discuss it so that other shoppers didn't have to hear them throwing their tantrum. I can't stand to hear a kid screaming the entire time I'm in the store I will literally walk out and come back later to do my shopping.

I hate going to the grocery store on weekends. The husbands are with their wives and they stand in the middle of the isle because they don't know what to do with themselves.

Usually if the kids are standing around, the mothers tell them to move to the side to get out of the way.

I like to go to the grocery store early in the morning. The less people the better. My pet peeve (like other posters) is children running up and down the aisles and shoppers who leave their cart in the middle of the aisle and they usally in the next aisle over. I've thought of doing my ordering online and then pick up at the store. Haven't done it yet.
Sundancer
www.mikessportingoods.ecrater.com

Lisa, Kathy, Lynne, and Sundancer, thank you so much for all of your pet peeves!

Isn't it nice to know we're not alone, lol!

One time, I became the pet peeve by accident.

I had more items in my cart than the express line allowed, so I was heading to the next isle over.

The nice cashier, however, said, "I'm open, come on over"...

I let her know I had quiet a few items over the limit and that I'd just take it to the next isle.

She said it was no problem, since they were not busy.

As she began ringing me up, wouldn't you know that a rush of people came out of nowhere to check out. All of them in the express line with 12 items or less.

Then, there's me. With more than 12 items.

The looks and the comments from those behind me in line... Yikes!

I tried to explain that she told me to check out there because it wasn't busy, but it just sounded like I was "that" shopper that just makes excuses and doesn't follow the rules.

I still feel so bad about that!

The nice cashier offered to do the same thing a few weeks later, and I thanked her, but said I had a few more things to add to my cart.

Patiently waiting in line in the dairy section for a carton of eggs (there were three people ahead of me who were picking out their eggs).

Eager shopper just goes right in the middle of the line, completely ignoring those of us waiting in line.

Then, as if on cue, an adorable preschooler said very solemnly to his Mom, "Mommy, if you break the line at school, you have to go all the way to the back!"

My pet peeve...
People standing in the middle of the aisle with their cart as though they are the ONLY person in the store and then don't move when they see you coming.

Kids that are yelling and creating havoc and their parents just let them continue.

People that push their shopping carts forward and not looking where they are going, running people over as if AGAIN they are they ONY person in the store.

People that stand in the middle of the aisle (without a shopping cart this time) blocking the aisle talking to their friend OR worse, on their cell phone AGAIN as if thy are the ONLY person in the store.

Hi Dianne!

I can relate to each of your grocery store pet peeves!

It's so nice to know I'm not the only one with these--I said earlier that I was worried I had become a "grumpy grocery shopper" lol.

The next time I encounter some of the pet peeves on this thread, it will make me smile knowing it's not just me, lol!

Dianne, I thought about your first pet peeve the other day, but I had the opposite problem. I was headed to the meat counter. I was delighted to see that there wasn't anyone in line. There were four ladies catching up with each other, and their kids were hanging out as well.

I said, "Excuse me" politely so that I could go by them on the side without having to go through their circle. They continued to talk while rushing to the counter to place their orders.

They were not even on the subject of deli meat (or close to the counter). My happy thought of "no line" went to four ladies placing two and three orders a piece.