I think people buy more snacks and prepared meals so don’t buy whole foods or meal plan as much.

Anonymous wrote:I think the "full cart" phenomenon is often people who eat a lot of canned and frozen produce and shelf stable foods. You can fill up on those every other week or once a month. My parents did that because they were shopping at a military commissary which wasn't close to our house.

If your diet is heavy on fresh produce and things that go bad fast, you're shopping more freuqently.

True. But also be aware that "fresh" is ALWAYS less fresh than frozen and not as good for you, plus "fresh" is often more contaminated with toxins.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stopped when they decided I need to provide manual labor and scan my own groceries. My stores typically don't even have a real cashier unless you beg them to open a register and I'm over it.

This! The crap they get away with! Now pay for your bags too!

PP lol. And someone called me a Karen because I brought it up!

I'm far from that, and although "worked up" as the person called me is silly, I did bring it up and I don't care if I'm being obnoxious.

I work just like anyone else, and I worked grocery stores when I was younger as a second job to make it. I don't have money to hire "help", don't get my groceries delivered and I do take my cart back all the way to the door...butttttttttt...YES it irks me that not only do I now have to shop, but also scan, bag and all of it myself. Am I being a princess because I want a normal cashier at the register? This doesn't help workers and cuts staff and their hours allowing them to cut benefits with "part time" workers while using customers as the labor. *shrug*

The "Karen" comments are lame, dated and the PP should be utterly embarrassed for talking like that. They only say that bs because they lack any intelligent thoughts or ideas to the thread and think it makes them feel superior when it just makes them look really, really stupid.

These same posters are lemmings and are the reason these stores get away with YOU working for THEM for FREE.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stopped when they decided I need to provide manual labor and scan my own groceries. My stores typically don't even have a real cashier unless you beg them to open a register and I'm over it.

This! The crap they get away with! Now pay for your bags too!

PP lol. And someone called me a Karen because I brought it up!

I'm far from that, and although "worked up" as the person called me is silly, I did bring it up and I don't care if I'm being obnoxious.

I work just like anyone else, and I worked grocery stores when I was younger as a second job to make it. I don't have money to hire "help", don't get my groceries delivered and I do take my cart back all the way to the door...butttttttttt...YES it irks me that not only do I now have to shop, but also scan, bag and all of it myself. Am I being a princess because I want a normal cashier at the register? This doesn't help workers and cuts staff and their hours allowing them to cut benefits with "part time" workers while using customers as the labor. *shrug*

O/T but I hate scanning my own groceries at Giant because the machine refuses to let me put a bag on the scanner. I don’t want to scan and rebag. Anyway, I switched to the price gun and bag as I shop. Then I just need to scan at the checkout. Doesn’t solve the self-service issue, but it’s more convenient.

Also, why is “Karen” still used as an insult. It’s sexist, lazy, and there are a lot of nice people named Karen.

#rant over

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stopped when they decided I need to provide manual labor and scan my own groceries. My stores typically don't even have a real cashier unless you beg them to open a register and I'm over it.

This! The crap they get away with! Now pay for your bags too!

PP lol. And someone called me a Karen because I brought it up!

I'm far from that, and although "worked up" as the person called me is silly, I did bring it up and I don't care if I'm being obnoxious.

I work just like anyone else, and I worked grocery stores when I was younger as a second job to make it. I don't have money to hire "help", don't get my groceries delivered and I do take my cart back all the way to the door...butttttttttt...YES it irks me that not only do I now have to shop, but also scan, bag and all of it myself. Am I being a princess because I want a normal cashier at the register? This doesn't help workers and cuts staff and their hours allowing them to cut benefits with "part time" workers while using customers as the labor. *shrug*

I go to TJs and Wegmans where they always have real cashiers. I won't go to places that are all self-service.

Anonymous wrote:I think the "full cart" phenomenon is often people who eat a lot of canned and frozen produce and shelf stable foods. You can fill up on those every other week or once a month. My parents did that because they were shopping at a military commissary which wasn't close to our house.

If your diet is heavy on fresh produce and things that go bad fast, you're shopping more freuqently.

Bingo. Look at those full carts. It’s all processed stuff.

The only time my cart is remotely full is when we stock up on soda when it’s on sale with those ridiculous quantity sales. Buy 2 get 2 free, must buy 5, etc. Those sales are only on the processed crap, which I do buy but it’s never on produce of healthy things.

I think the "full cart" phenomenon is often people who eat a lot of canned and frozen produce and shelf stable foods. You can fill up on those every other week or once a month. My parents did that because they were shopping at a military commissary which wasn't close to our house.

If your diet is heavy on fresh produce and things that go bad fast, you're shopping more freuqently.

Anonymous wrote:I went food shopping and noticed very few people had “full” carts. Like they were checking out with just a handful of items. I asked the grocery clerk if she noticed that too and she said she had and that their per person cart value had gone down. Are you still buying a weeks worth of groceries or just buying a few days at a time?

I have been trying to cut back on wasted food.

I used to load up the cart 2x month to try to avoid going to the grocery store, with maybe 1 or 2 trips in the middle for things like milk or eggs.

Now, I only pick up what I need for 1-meals, making more frequent trips to different stores, but only for what we are ready to cook or eat over the next few days, plus a big costco run on e a month for quick freezer items for the kids.

Shopping for just the meals I am actually going to cook is really cutting back on waste, especially for fresh things like veggies. I am not buying that much less, even though my carts are emptier. But I am shopping more thoughtfully so I am throwing out much less food each week.

I have never had a full cart, because my family is small. But also, we have TJ, Wegmans and Lidl nearby now. I buy different things from different stores and a basket is enough.
I would have to buy water to get my cart full at Safeway. There is nothing there I want.

I full a small cart almost every time I go. Probably every 6 days on average.

I go to TJs every two weeks or so. That's a full cart.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stopped when they decided I need to provide manual labor and scan my own groceries. My stores typically don't even have a real cashier unless you beg them to open a register and I'm over it.

This! The crap they get away with! Now pay for your bags too!

PP lol. And someone called me a Karen because I brought it up!

I'm far from that, and although "worked up" as the person called me is silly, I did bring it up and I don't care if I'm being obnoxious.

I work just like anyone else, and I worked grocery stores when I was younger as a second job to make it. I don't have money to hire "help", don't get my groceries delivered and I do take my cart back all the way to the door...butttttttttt...YES it irks me that not only do I now have to shop, but also scan, bag and all of it myself. Am I being a princess because I want a normal cashier at the register? This doesn't help workers and cuts staff and their hours allowing them to cut benefits with "part time" workers while using customers as the labor. *shrug*

Anonymous wrote:I stopped when they decided I need to provide manual labor and scan my own groceries. My stores typically don't even have a real cashier unless you beg them to open a register and I'm over it.

This! The crap they get away with! Now pay for your bags too!

Hmm. This topic did make me think and it's true it's rare to see a "full" aka overflowing shopping cart at my suburban Whole Foods. Plenty of half full carts.

Then I realized compared to the 1980s/1990s, we have so many more supermarket options and variety. Back then it was just a chain like the Giant with maybe one upscale family owned supermarket per metro area. Now we have Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Mom's Organic market, farmers markets, Fresh market, the Asian supermarkets, Wegmans, and so on to the point I'm surprised anyone even goes to the Giant these days. Add to it online deliveries for bulk items and Costco and Target. No wonder the family style overflowing shopping cart is less common.

I go to multiple stores so I never have a full cart. I spend about $300/wk on groceries. I can’t imagine if would ever be “full.” We don’t have teenage boys.

I am not sure if I got pickier or grocery stores stopped carrying things, but I can never get what I need at one store. In theory, I try to do one big grocery shopping trip a week, but in reality that is for 50 percent of what we need.

Also - over the past couple of years, the service in grocery stores has gone downhill so much that I try to limit the total amount of food I buy at one time. try to do self check out, but when I have too many items, I try to avoid having a full cart because if the lines with cashiers have baggers, they almost seem like they are trying to destroy the food. So I will put off buying heavy things and do a separate run for those. When it is cold out, I have gone into a store bought the max number of items I can to go through self checkout, put them in my car, and gone back in.