I've had a variety of different shopping habits, depending on my living situation and, of course, pandemics or lack thereof.
When I lived alone or with roommates I didn't cook with, I shopped roughly every two to four days, picking up only what I needed for whatever I wanted to eat that night.
Now that I live with my partner, she does most of the shopping. I subscribe to a meal kit delivery service, so I cook that three times a week, and it covers almost half my eating. If I need anything else, I ask her to add it to her list. Before the pandemic, she was shopping probably an average of once a week.
In pandemic times, she's shopping a bit less than that, but not by much. Sometimes we use Instacart, though we did that more at the beginning of the pandemic than we do now. People are better at masks and social distancing than they were back then (and stores are better at enforcing it), and the research and contact tracing suggest that spending short periods in stores isn't usually as risky as spending longer periods in smaller, tighter spaces, like friends' and loved ones' houses.
We have a neighborhood grocery that I walk to if I need something last-minute. It's small and doesn't usually have many people in it. Despite the super-low crowds, they've been doing fine during the pandemic because they're by far the best-stocked beer store in the city... possibly the state.
Those of you who do pick up or delivery, do you have good luck with produce? I feel like I'm really picky about produce and I don't trust the store to pick out something good, then I figure if I'm going in for produce I might as well get the rest of what I need.
We've used Instacart enough to have experienced excellent shoppers and considerably less than excellent shoppers. Interestingly, produce has never been among the issues with the less-skilled shoppers. As others mentioned, it's in their interest to pick out good stuff so that they'll get good feedback and additional tips. The best shoppers take pictures and text them to you to ask your preference if they're uncertain about anything.
The kinds of issues we've seen more often include items forgotten or in the wrong quantities. Once or twice, they forgot to drop off one of the bags. We've had seemingly rushed shoppers mark a ton of items in the list "not found," sometimes so quickly that it was obvious they didn't look. And in one weird case, the shopper marked the delivery dropped off, but it wasn't. My partner contacted Instacart, which had another shopper repeat the order without incident. Four hours later, the original shopper brought the original stuff over, claiming she'd dropped it off at the wrong address — but the address she said she'd left it at didn't exist. These problem shoppings are in the minority, probably one in ten orders. But one thing we've never had an issue with is inferior produce!
I can't imagine going to the store daily or several times per week.
When I shopped that often, I'd generally either stop somewhere on the way home from work or else combine the shopping with a walking routine. In the first case, I wasn't going out of my way, since it was en route, and in the second, I was using small shopping lists as a way to get more exercise. When you're shopping that frequently, you're buying very little, so it's only about 10-15 minutes out of your day (not counting the walking, which I would've been trying to do anyway).
It's not a routine that makes sense for everyone. For instance, if you don't live in a city or otherwise near your grocery store, if you're shopping for more than one or two people, or if you like to buy in bulk, it's definitely not going to fit in with your situation and habits. But it worked well for me at the time because I'm not a long-in-advance meal planner and because I found I wasted very little food that way because I knew exactly when I was going to use everything I purchased. And my preference is to live near commercial centers, largely so that I can do this sort of thing.
