It’s only memorable for me when people are buying the same things as me. Twice I’ve been in front of someone who was only buying a loaf of Cuban bread, and I was doing the same.
The dog’s on a diet.
Yes, I can see how healthy people are by what they put on the belt. In the last 20 years the things people normally buy is changing. Less raw vegetables and more frozen items. Lots of frozen pizza.
Around Valentines Day there was a guy in front of me and he looked grubby. He put two 12 packs of beer on the belt and a single fake rose on top of it. I thought, Wow, What a lucky lady!
For me it’s canned pumpkin. The dogs only get a tablespoon or so mixed with their food but we go through a can a week so I buy a case every time it’s on sale.
Oh and shopping with my husband. My son used to work at the closest grocery store so I know most of the kids who work there. Last time I was there the checkout girl laughed at me when hubby went wandering in Aisle 5 while we were in the process of checking out the reasonable food I was buy. Aisle 5 is chips, candy, chocolate, pop - it’s Temptation Aisle.
Sometimes I glance at other people’s carts, but don’t usually give it much thought. I do wonder what people think of my cart, because I do shopping at more than one store. If we meet in one store, my cart will be full of fresh produce, and occasionally seafood. At the next store, the cart will be mostly meat, frozen fruit for smoothies, and packaged snacks for the teenager to give her friends when they come by (they’re welcome to the fresh fruits and vegetables, too). Then at the other store, the cart is full of the name brand staples that were more expensive at store #1, or non existent at the store that only has house brands. There could be someone out there who thinks we never/only eat fresh food, or never/only eat meat and snacks.
My favorite was at the Walgreen’s near my office right before the most recent Valentine’s Day. Young guy in front of me had a hand-held basket filled to the brim with some cooking utinsels (measuring cups, a whisk maybe), scented candles of various shapes and sizes, a box of chocolates, lube, and a box of condoms.
I worked for Safeway for 12 years, the first few running a register and I can tell you it’s quite amazing the details you can glean about people’s lives based solely on the things they buy at the supermarket. Funniest ones were the 300-lb. women who came up with a cart loaded down with junk food with a case of Slim-Fast perched on top(this occurred at least 3-4 times a day), or the couple who came in at 1100PM and bought just strawberries, whipped cream and condoms.
I tend to find other people’s shopping more fascinating and alluring than my own. I go “shit, why didn’t I buy one of those? Where did s/he get that from?! Damn!”
Sometimes I even leave the line to go and find whatever it was I saw that they had, which I then coveted.
I had a dog with inflammatory bowel disease that needed homemade food for awhile. This resulted in my getting a membership to a warehouse club and going there every two weeks to buy 12 5-lb. frozen turkey breasts. Sometimes I’d also buy a couple bottles of wine since they had pretty good discounts there.
I did get asked about all that turkey, more than once!
And Moonlitherial, our current dog gets canned pumpkin but because the stores have been out of it so long, I ordered a case of food-service size cans to tide us over until the new harvest season. I often wonder what the curbside recycling guys think when they see a 6.6-lb. size empty pumpkin can in there …
Talking about slimming products with a pharmacist friend, she told us about having to explain to a customer that Slim-Fast type things are supposed to be taken instead of other food, not in addition to :smack:
In addition to looking at other people’s carts, I like to watch for amusing/odd collections of things people have decided not to buy and just stuck on a random shelf instead of putting away properly. For instance just a couple weeks ago in Walmart I found a thing of lube, a box of tampons, and a pack of disposable razors dumped together in the hair color/accessories aisle. I can come up with scenarios where you’d get all those things at once, but I have trouble envisioning what would lead you to decide you don’t need those things after all. And why would the revelation come when you’re standing in front of the bobby pins?
I really don’t notice other people’s carts and now you all have me freaked out about my own purchases! Come on, I don’t need yet another anxiety trigger! I thought I had that kicked when I no longer had to use food stamps. There’s an embarrassing situation for me. I always felt the cashier was judging me so I could never buy anything frivolous. I was ashamed to get the dog food because I thought people would either think I was eating it or judging me for needing the taxpayer’s assistance for my own food when I could afford to feed pets.
Oh boy. . .I’m a fat girl who eats cookies occasionally. I wonder if other people smirk when they see my diet sodas next to the Chips Ahoy.
There is a cashier at the Giant Eagle where I shop who always commented on what I buy. If it is anything remotely snack-related (pretzels, soda pop), he would say “You must be having a party! Am I invited to the party? When is it? How come I’m not invited to the party?” After a while I would stop going through his lane, and I have noticed he does not do this with anyone else. Last week I was in line and the supervisor came over to tell me another lane was open and I could move over. I looked and saw whose register it was, and I looked her in the eye and said “No.” She drew back and said “Sorry.” No way.
Some people like beer & tomato juice. Beer with a tomato juice/clamato juice blend is, well, I hesitate to use the the word ‘common’, but not unheard of, at any rate. Kind of a low-rent bloody mary. But I don’t know anyone who’d buy a tomato instead of actual juice.
Red Beer is a breakfast staple on golf courses across the South.
I tend to find myself behind the obese lady with 5 kids buying 20 frozen pizzas and 10 2 liters of store brand pop, and 4 cartons of generic cigarettes trying to pay with her WIC card.
I’m fascinated by what other people buy.
I live 5 minutes from a major grocery store and I have to drive by it to get home from work so I stop by there a lot usually just to pick up a couple of items. Like today I am planning on stopping by just to get some milk and hand soap.
Since I stop in so frequently and I’ve been going to the same store for 6 years I am on friendly chit-chat terms with all the cashiers and one of the best times happened one early saturday morning where I popped in to get some Cap N Crunch and vodka. The cashier commented something like, “Wow breakfast of champions huh?” and I responded with, “Nah, the cereal is for later.” which made her laugh and for a little while later she would ask me what I had for breakfast.
Funny, i look at other people’s with no judgment (hey maybe i can discover a combination of food that looks good together) but i think about what people think of mine. I look a hell lot younger than my real age. Sometimes people’s eyes show some surprise if all i buy is fruits and vegetables. They probably think i’m buying them for my mother to cook…
I tend to mark down stuff we’ve run out of on a shopping list and then just go get everything at once when I end up near a store, so I’ve probably unintentionally come up with some weird-looking combos. I don’t intend to use all the items that night, it’s just that we’ve been out of this random stuff for a while.
Once I wanted to try making homemade soap, so when I was at the local hardware store, I bought some lye, along with industrial-strength long rubber gloves and safety goggles. I paid with my debit card. On the way out the door, I realized that all I’d have to do to really set off the proverbial government surveillance is to stop at the drugstore and buy some pseudoephedrine (which requires an ID and signature), to really make me look like I was setting up a meth-making lab. :smack:
The local grocery chain used to deliver to the house free via the PeaPod service - it was wonderful. It would even keep a running list of items you’ve ordered in the past. I could do about 75% of my grocery shopping in 10 minutes or less and then just pick a 2 hour window for them to deliver it to my house.
We would get a delivery about every 2 weeks - and typically had the same driver. Along with my food, I would typically order a case or two of Scott toilet tissue (the individually wrapped kind). The driver didn’t say anything at first, he’d just bring the order to our small condo and unload it, then wait for me to hand him back the bags, my coupons, and the check. But one time I saw him trying to peer down the hallway and then blush.
“Ma’am - is it just you and your husband living here?”
“Yes, just the 2 of us and the 2 cats - why do you ask?”
“That sure is a lot of toilet paper. . . .”
I laughed and explained that the toilet paper was something we donated to the church’s food bank - that they included a few rolls with people’s monthly food order, and as part of the emergency kits we prepared for battered women who escaped and were having to start over. From that point on, he would always help me load the tp right in to my car for me, and even got his manager to donate some cases. But it was funny to wonder what he must have thought about our bathroom habits!