Going into the grocery store to shop becoming a class signal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a SAHM, and eff you for thinking I have nothing better to do with my alleged oodles of free time than walk the aisles of the grocery store. It's not about being status conscious, it's about using my time well, and grocery shopping is a boring, time-consuming chore that I can now outsource for free with a pickup order. Occam's Razor, OP.

Amen sis, was just going to write something along these lines

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in Alexandria and I have noticed in the last year the Giant where I shop has more POC, more products aimed at them and more products locked up. A new Wegman's opened nearby so I assume a lot of people switched to that store because of its reputation even if it is more expensive. I never thought of grocery shopping being indictive of class, but it might be going that way.

There have always been tiers of grocery store based on class. Rich people don't go to food lion, poor people don't go to wegmans. Aldi is the weird outlier because shopping there seems like a point of pride for some people

[Anonymous]

Isn't Whole Foods order pickup inside the store? I never see workers in the parking lot with orders like I do at Target.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really don't think so. I prefer to do my own shopping because the substitutions are always ridiculous. I see older people shopping but it's because I work from home and shop at "off" hours intentionally. I expect other working parents who prefer to shop for themselves are there on weekends or after work hours.

Of course some people find grocery delivery worthwhile, but I'm not sure it's along SES lines. I've seen grocery delivery recommended as a cost-savings measure for lower income people because it helps force you to stick to a list and can be paired with economical meal planning.

and a time suck when I'm otherwise busy with something else. Also, I like to look at what I am getting and wing it sometimes!

--umc person who goes to the grocery store

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think this is status related at all. Maybe time related. Of course it makes sense that retirees with no job can go to the market and shop for hours every day. Busy parents doing grocery pickup or delivery just makes sense for how busy they are.

It's just an interesting observation is all. A broader theme of UMC becoming more and more secluded, seemingly outsourcing everything to a servant class. We don't go into coffee shops, we order from an app and don't have to speak to baristas. We don't go into grocery stores, worker bees deliver it to our door step. We take an uber and request the driver not talk.

We make a little over 300k (does this qualify us as UMC per DCUM standards?). But we pop out to the grocery store all the time. I’ve tried curb side and Instacart, but invariably there is some issue with missing items or weird substitutions. We WAH and have flexible jobs, so I’ve thought that being able to randomly go buy some milk and a few dinner ingredients at 10 AM on a Tuesday is a luxury. We often chat with the drivers when we take Ubers. We like to go sit in coffee shops. We are out and about chatting with neighbors, we are not secluded (it helps we are in a walkable neighborhood with stores close by so lots of people are out of the house during the day). I go volunteer at my kids’ schools as a room parent. Most days after work I’m shuttling kids around to activities.

We do outsource things like cleaning and yard work, but otherwise enjoy having a pretty nice flex schedule so we can go do things ourselves. I have no interest in outsourcing my entire life and living like a hermit.

You are the working poor. Why are you posting on this thread?

[Anonymous]

I have to assume people who rely exclusively on delivered groceries are indifferent to produce quality, in which case there are probably many things we don't see eye to eye on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, OP. They're quietly signaling their affluence by not walking into the grocery, hoping you notice their absence in the checkout aisle. And I hear the app doesn't even work unless you're wearing a Cartier bracelet.

They're signaling their affluence by never being seen in a grocery store pushing a cart around. They're in high-end leisure wear at home while the servants bring groceries to the back door.

Yes. And their valets are actually dressing them in their athleisure wear and ordering all the groceries for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can afford to order whatever I want, but I actually like grocery shopping!

I will say I do order sometimes and it’s only like…$10 more than just buying it in the store.

That’s a lot to me!

-someone who is not UMC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have to assume people who rely exclusively on delivered groceries are indifferent to produce quality, in which case there are probably many things we don't see eye to eye on.

This is a cope. There’s no difference in produce quality. High end American grocers have spectacular produce. The rare occasion something is bad you just tap tap on the app and customer service removes the charge for the item.

[Anonymous]

I love going to the grocery store. Always have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All our very rich neighbors with the $3M+ homes use grocery delivery services. They get EVERYTHING delivered, including two cups of coffee from Starbucks. It's literally a stream of delivery folks coming and going all day.

Us mere plebes with "only" the original $1.3M homes do our own shopping. We tried to use those grocery delivery services and they all sucked - bad produce, bad substitute items, etc.

I wonder if you are my neighbor in CCDC? There are 3 houses on the block that have a -constant_ stream of delivery drivers, all day, every day. They are the older millennials with kids under 8 y.o. Meanwhile, we GenX households, who have jobs in the same industries and much more household wealth, get very little delivered comparatively.

I do think it's generational. The slightly younger households began their professional lives ordering DoorDash a lot and taking once-cheap Ubers everywhere in Logan Circle and Navy Yard. It's almost as if they can't wean themselves. Meanwhile, we 50 somethings did not come of age in the gig driver economy and so were never dependent on it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have to assume people who rely exclusively on delivered groceries are indifferent to produce quality, in which case there are probably many things we don't see eye to eye on.

This is a cope. There’s no difference in produce quality. High end American grocers have spectacular produce. The rare occasion something is bad you just tap tap on the app and customer service removes the charge for the item.

Bich please. Do you think Whole Foods is high end? I assume you do.

They are delighted to send via InstaCart all the rock hard pears, plums and peaches that will never, ever ripen. The rock hard beefsteak tomato that doesn't smell like a tomato at all -- and was sitting in the bin next to bin with actual local tomatoes that, while ugly, do have that summer smell.

Is that spectacular? How about the pretty, yet tasteless table grapes? The canteloupe that, you guessed, doesn't have a scent and will not ripen properly.

I've had the same issue with Harris Teeter. USA produce in general is bleh, particularly on the East Coast. Why would I make it even worse by hiring an undiscerning shopper to throw the over-waxed apples in my box when the better apples were 3 feet away?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If doing my own grocery shopping is wrong, I don't want to be right!

+1000

[Anonymous]

I’m not comfortable giving a stranger the power to pick produce for me. I make time to shop for groceries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is dumb. I do pickup at Aldi to stay within my very MC grocery budget of $600/month for a family of 4. It's a $2 fee plus price increases that are still lower than buying groceries in store anywhere else. Trust me, I don't think it raises my status, it's just a chore I'm willing to pay an extra $2 for.

+1 It helps me manage the cost of groceries. I will never put groceries back on the shelf in person, but if the online order is too pricy, I’ll adjust to bring it costs down. I know there are markups and fees, but I find I still consistently spend less shopping online.

I do pickup at Giant and it’s fine. I work hard at other things during the week, and value my weekend down time too much to give up an hour of it inside a grocery store. I try to meal plan on Thursday, place a grocery order on Friday, and pickup the order Saturday morning.