How do you like to grocery shop?

[1GoldenSun]

I absolutely adore the grocery store and would go every day if only we needed something.

I go early mornings after dropping my son off at school and it's practically deserted. I love it.

 

[morgan98]

I grocery shop once a week, on Saturday at 8:15 am or so. I go to Publix and Whole Foods, both of which are within 1.5 miles of my house. I make a list, but I also impulse buy. We eat basically every meal, every week at home and we like to cook and we like healthy and tasty food.

Before COVID, I used to basically go once a week too, but sometimes added an additional store, but also went later in the day. I love the earlier morning shopping. It is faster, far fewer people, better inventory, etc. I plan on continue this way even when things are "normal."

I did a few delivery orders last March and April, but since I am work from home after having a job where I travelled a bit, I honestly need to get out to grocery shop for my own sanity. I am always masked up and I have contact with no one besides my husband, so it is a risk i am willing to take..

 

[Skywalker]

I used to go every day. My favourite grocery store is on my way home from work, so I would just pick up fresh whatever I wanted to make for dinner and replenish whatever I realized was running low. Now, with COVID I work from home so things are different. I plan ahead and try and stock up....I would say I go once a week, or week & a half or so.

I miss just buying what I want to eat each day though.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Weekly with a meal plan.Usually 2-3 stores depending what we are buying which includes butcher.
Costco once a month.

Some of you go to the grocery store a lot!

It’s a pandemic. People should be minimizing their trips to stores.

 

[Disneylover99]

Once a week at the same store.
I used to shop around a couple of times a week, but not these days.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Two stores, Walmart at 7 am Sunday morning, local chain about 30 minutes later for meat and produce. Although Walmart has really stepped up the quality of their produce by sourcing it locally. Go once a week. Shopping list for staples, (milk, bread, soap) but meal planning is almost totally done in the store based on what is on sale or looks good. That saves us a ton of money and we eat better/healthier that way.

Wouldn’t it be best to do it via flyers before rather than in store?
I would think in store you see good sale on x and then not know if you have y and z at home for the rest of the recipe/meal.
Not sure how grabbing sale items help you eat healthier vs menu planning.

 

[PAsFab5]

I do a BIG Sams club curbside pickup and a HUGE Giant pickup every 2 weeks. I am so desperate to not visit the grocery store anytime between those 2 weeks, but I always find myself needing...something. Tonight I was at Sams club and Walmart getting odds and ends...kids want to spend eat Valentines dinner together tomorrow and have sloppy joes, homemade Mac and cheese and tater tots...which I had no ingredients to make any of that, but will never turn down a dinner with my adult and teen kids

 

[NYCgrrl]

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.

My only regular delivery comes from BJ’s and I’m currently in my third week of making a shopping list, LOL. The store charges 15 bucks for the service and I’m loading up on cleaning supplies and pantry items. The only produce I’m ordering from them are bananas and onions since they are hard to mess up.

Weekly I still get fresh produce from one of two markets as I like to pick it out myself.

 

[Lizgistix]

How do I like to grocery shop?
Through Instacart. Although lately I've been opting for curbside pickup to save on the delivery fees and the employee who brings the groceries out is super nice. Also last time I did delivery, the guy gave me someone else's order. Had I not checked on the walk back into the house, I would have been stuck with someone else's order.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Always had particular things I liked from particular stores (prices, brands or quality of produce) so pre-covid I shopped often and enjoyed the people watching part of it, but now it's wherever is most accommodating with curbside and that seems to be Wegmans with Instacart. I've adjusted brands and tolerate less perfect produce than normal. I still do it a few times a week because it's too much scrubbing to do it at once... so annoying but I'm not letting up anytime soon.
*Gotta say I am really happy with being able to order groceries through Wegmans Instacart or Target for my college student and get things dropped off so there is no mixing in the stores for my students sake and that of the community. This is once a week, I love that Instacart allows us to share a cart and then I can help with nutritious recipes. I think I spend more but this is healthier
*We also cover shopping for inlaws but so far they are not cooperating with the shared cart and just give DH a list that I pick up at curbside & one of us leaves in the garage.

I miss having the freedom to choose for myself.

 

[tvguy]

Wouldn’t it be best to do it via flyers before rather than in store?
I would think in store you see good sale on x and then not know if you have y and z at home for the rest of the recipe/meal.
Not sure how grabbing sale items help you eat healthier vs menu planning.

The flyers don't have all the sale items listed. And the managers specials and overstocked items are never in the flyers. Trust me, my wife keeps a vast inventory of non-perishable ingredients at home and a fully stocked spice rack and she knows what we have. Oh, grabbing sale items in the produce section has had a HUGE impact on eating healthy. We start at the produce end of the store, and baby carrots were on sale last week, so those were picked up as snacks this week instead of potato chips. Strawberries were on sale the week before. Turkey breast quarter roasts were not in the flyer, but in stock and on sale two weeks ago. Those tend to be sold out so to find them in stock and on sale was a double bonus

 

[CdnCarrie]

The flyers don't have all the sale items listed. And the managers specials and overstocked items are never in the flyers. Trust me, my wife keeps a vast inventory of non-perishable ingredients at home and a fully stocked spice rack and she knows what we have. Oh, grabbing sale items in the produce section has had a HUGE impact on eating healthy. We start at the produce end of the store, and baby carrots were on sale last week, so those were picked up as snacks this week instead of potato chips. Strawberries were on sale the week before. Turkey breast quarter roasts were not in the flyer, but in stock and on sale two weeks ago. Those tend to be sold out so to find them in stock and on sale was a double bonus

So if carrots weren’t on sale the only other option were potato chips for snacks?
Sorry not following the logic but if it works for you that’s great.
I just put healthy snacks on my menu plan and stock up if on sale.

 

[tvguy]

So if carrots weren’t on sale the only other option were potato chips for snacks?
Sorry not following the logic but if it works for you that’s great.
I just put healthy snacks on my menu plan and stock up if on sale.

On sale AND of good quality/condition. Too often with produce is on sale because the current supply is of less than prime condition. And a few years ago the big chain stores made it clear to keep prices down and waste less food, they were going to stock less than perfect produce.
My wife's nephew managed a chain grocery store location in Texas and he HATED the weekly ads because they frequently featured items he did not carry in his store. As he put it, you always knew when someone messed up at the warehouse ordering stock of something that was a slow seller. He refused to give rainchecks, and would call around to other stores if a customer came in asking for an item on sale. He would go pick it up and deliver it to the customer's home, because if he ordered items for rainchecks, it would trigger future automatic refills of an item he could never sell.
I ran into that with our chain store. Item on sale, an item my store had discontinued. Frozen food manager gladly gave me a raincheck and commented he had just ordered 50 cases because of the . He said in the past year, the records show he had ordered just one case of that item, and half the case got thrown out because it didn't sell before the expiration date.
Of course the flip side can happen too. Like with toilet paper during the start of the pandemic. We are at the store right when it opened and they put out the ONE case of TP they received. Stocker said they ordered 200 cases.

 

[TLSnell1981]

I mostly order online and have my groceries delivered. I may stop in and pick up items that I need NOW but not often. Delivery is way too convenient.

 

[Mysterian]

I'm there almost daily on the way home from work, and at least once on the weekend.

 

[DisneyMommy77]

I do one big trip a week on Saturday and pray to God I don’t have to go during the week after work because I forgot something

I do make a list of essentials, but always browse for new things to try. Besides my regular grocery store I will also visit Trader Joe’s every other week for the items I like.

I find grocery shopping to be overwhelming at times. With a big family I always hope I got it all. Sometimes I am amazed my family eats as much as they do each week. My cart is always overflowing!

 

[TwoMisfits]

I do one big trip a week on Saturday and pray to God I don’t have to go during the week after work because I forgot something

I do make a list of essentials, but always browse for new things to try. Besides my regular grocery store I will also visit Trader Joe’s every other week for the items I like.

I find grocery shopping to be overwhelming at times. With a big family I always hope I got it all. Sometimes I am amazed my family eats as much as they do each week. My cart is always overflowing!

I totally get this feeling - I grew up in a big family, so it helped my perspective now, but in the last 2 years, I'm always like "I eat less now - so, with no more people, how are we eating through more?" As an example, my 2nd small shop tends to be my "produce" shop, and I spend about $60-$70 solely on weekly produce at a large discount - it's why I have the 2nd shop (and I don't even want to think of the poundage). And we never throw any out - we eat that much per week. And yet the kids still have Amazon single serve chip bags and apple sauces to steal for mid-meal snacking...and yet, it doesn't matter. No matter how much I make at dinner, it almost always disappears (unless it's "too spicy" in some way - and then I might have a lunch or dinner left for me).

 

[klacey1]

I go about once per week, usually hitting 1-2 stores—Aldi, Stop & Shop and/or Costco. Occasionally Big Y, which is a Connecticut chain that is pretty pricey but has amazing produce. I have a flexible job so I try to go at non-peak times, like a Tuesday morning.

We order most of our meat and our pup’s raw food from a farm in Texas.

 

[720L]

I used to go 2 or 3 times a week, but since Covid, try to go only once a week. I make my list on Sunday while looking at the weekly ad, then we shop early Monday morning. I don't want to do delivery because I don't want another pair of hands touching & contaminating our stuff, I don't want to pay extra, and I'm very picky about my fresh stuff.

 

[tvguy]

So if carrots weren’t on sale the only other option were potato chips for snacks?
Sorry not following the logic but if it works for you that’s great.
I just put healthy snacks on my menu plan and stock up if on sale.

Yesterday is a good example. They had beef chunks for stew on sale. My wife grabbed a package, Yukon gold potatoes on sale, grabbed a couple. Carrots looked better than they have in months, grabbed some. Poof, in store meal planning. Tonight's dinner, beef stew that has been slow cooking for 12 hours.