Nosying other people baskets

[curlywurlyfi]

a slab of beer

Never heard that before. What constitutes a "slab"?

a slab is 24 cans of beer (or any other tinned drink/food) shrinkwrapped onto a cardboard tray

[Carlovski]

Slightly worrying the number of 'lubricant' anecdotes this thread generated!

I don't think I have ever struck up a conversation over shopping in a regular supermarket, but seem to do so every time I shop in a chinese supermarket - normally discussions over best brands, what do do with various strange looking ingredients.

[StudentChefEclipse]

I had to give up shopping after school, because people would ogle my school uniform (chef's whites, school logo.) Then they'd ask me to come up with a menu plan based on what they'd put into their cart. A fine mess usually. Corn dogs with pepto-bismol sauce, anyone?

Actually i like scanning the people who are in the spice aisles --- anyone with a packet of saffron can't be all bad.

[Al_Dente]

Weirdest thing I ever saw while perusing someone else's selections:

Two very large bags of store brand cheetos

Two enemas

[Jason Perlow]

People looked at me very strangely yesterday coming home with this:

In fact, I actually had to explain to some people... the check out girl gave me a quizzical look and said "yo man, whatcha gonna do with all them hot dogs?"

"Its for a web site. We're going to test them"

"damn, that Internet shit is crazy!"

[Susan G]

I *really* like seeing men buying diapers or tampons.  I think, "This is a man who puts his family above pride".

I think the funniest thing that happened to me was I had said items (tampons and diapers) in my trolley one time and the guy at the checkout looked at me and said:

"You might as well stop and pick up a couple of bottles of JD coz you're weekend's screwed"

Cheers

Tom

The more I thought about this, the harder I laughed! Thanks for the anecdote!

[GG Mora]

I can only imagine what the meals are like at some of these people's houses when they're buying 4 cases of capri sun, 5 lbs of frosted flakes, and an entire half a cow.

Um...the meals might be pretty good, actually. My visits to Costco always result in 4 cases of Capris and at least 5 lbs. of Honey-Nut Cheerios in addition to shocking quantities of other stuff that may seem unsavory until I explain that I have an 11- and 13-yr. old eating me out of house and home (and that I only get to Costco about every 2 months). I'm not in love with the idea of Capri Sun juices, but since the kids have real grapefruit juice at most breakfasts and drink about a quart of milk each PER DAY and the Capris are one-a-day in the lunch box, I don't feel too bad.

I think I'm coming across a bit defensive here, but really I'm as shocked as you are since I'm still adjusting to the growing kids arrived newly in my life just 2 years ago. I happened to slip into Costco one day with my best friend in tow...she's known me since before the husband and kids and she was pale and speechless by the time I checked out.

indeed.

[StInGeR]

I *really* like seeing men buying diapers or tampons.  I think, "This is a man who puts his family above pride".

I think the funniest thing that happened to me was I had said items (tampons and diapers) in my trolley one time and the guy at the checkout looked at me and said:

"You might as well stop and pick up a couple of bottles of JD coz you're weekend's screwed"

Cheers

Tom

The more I thought about this, the harder I laughed! Thanks for the anecdote!

At least someone gets it ---- it still makes me laugh

Cheers

Tom

[sparrowgrass]

I once saw an immense man sitting at the "self serve" blood pressure machine in the Walmart pharmacy. His cart held a giant sack of pork skins. Atkins, I guess, but it made my blood pressure go up just to look at that.

[Gifted Gourmet]

"damn, that Internet shit is crazy!"

Did you at least get her to sign up for eGullet?? maybe her curiosity was piqued ...

[jetsie]

Even though I'm otherwise a dedicated people watcher, (some would say voyeur), I don't bother to look into peoples' grocery carts. Sometimes I notice the stuff people have in the checkout line, if it's a particularly bizarre, intriguing combination.

This attitude comes from the way I shop at different stores for different items. I'm also feeding a family that includes a teen of massive appetite, a picky toddler, an infant, and a skinny domestic partner with peculiar tastes. Observers at GreatBigGiantGroceryStore might think I'm a junk-food maniac who doesn't eat vegetables or meat. Observers at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's might wonder how such a veggie-crazed health nut stays so fat.

We have all these stores within a mile of each other, so I think a number of people shop this way around here.

[RSincere]

Observers at GreatBigGiantGroceryStore might think I'm a junk-food maniac who doesn't eat vegetables or meat. Observers at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's might wonder how such a veggie-crazed health nut stays so fat.

I used to always be 120 lbs, a size 8, even after my son was born. I cooked standard Wisconsin food, casseroles, canned soups for sauces, frozen chicken tenders. No one ever looked in my cart that I ever noticed.

Fast-forward several months, after I go on a medication that is notorious for causing weight gain. I blow up 40 lbs in 4 months and gain a total of 60 lbs in a year before my doc finally takes me off of it. I am only 5 feet tall, so it's drastic. Now it seems like everyone wants to look in my cart. It's very pointed, for instance, looking at me, looking at the butter in my cart, then looking at me again, then looking away. I am very self-conscious and make sure my produce is prominently displayed.!

[chefs13]

I love ogling other people's shopping and trying to work out what event they're shopping for, eg:

I do exactly that, one fella had pinenuts and fresh basil. Can any one guess what he was going home to make. He was impressed that I knew "Going home to make pesto are we?"

I do agree that shoppers do buy alot of junk. Glad I'm not paying for their groceries. Or putting it in my body for that matter

[CompassRose]

I used to be an inveterate cart-watcher, but I've mostly given it up since my bout with disordered eating. I'm too diet-conscious. I want to shake the very large women with very large children and carts full of pop, sugary cereal, and snax, and drag them to the produce aisles. "Look! It was the first thing you passed when you came in! How could you miss it?"

However, what really stops me is the painfully skinny, rather pallid girls, very pretty if they weren't so thin and chapped round the hands, with carts loaded to the brim with ice cream, cakes, chips, and floods of diet soda. They make me want to cry. There are two universities in my town, so I see a distressing lot of them.

[JAZ]

A few years ago, I was stocking up at Trader Joes for my holiday baking, with about 4 pounds of chocolate, 6 pounds of butter, several varieties of nuts, and a big bottle of vanilla. On the way to the checkout stand, I noticed a pretty good Scotch on sale, so I snagged a bottle. While I was checking out, the clerk said, "Going to do some baking?" I smiled and replied, "Yes, what clued you in?" to which he replied, "The Scotch."

[CompassRose]

He must know that stupid "recipe" for fruitcake that at least six wiseacres email me every Helliday Season.

[Heartsease]

Tom's "your weekends screwed" encounter cracked me up, that is priceless.

We shop pretty much twice monthly so we always have a pretty good size haul. We shop so many different stores because only that store carries such and such we don't get a lot of flack. I do have to admit to being one who looks at other peoples carts and if I see someting interesting I ask about it. I don't ever remember anyone being offended or crappy about it. We have met many nice people that way. The nicest comment I have had made in a checkout was that they wish they lived at our house as our cart was zero junque food and they knew we had to cook really great meals to not have any.

Of course I have no shame in general, I will ask people about almost anything. One house in particular that we drive by regularly looks lopsided, I mean seriously listing to port. New house that is less than ten years old. It drove me crazy and people talked bout this house being off kilter so I knew it wasn't just me. I drove past it for months and finally couldn't take it any longer. The girls had friends with us and the kids were raving about the crooked house and that my friends was the straw that broke the camels back. I whizzed right into their driveway, parked, walked up to the door and knocked. When the owner opened the door I explained that I knew she would think I was totally nuts but I couldn't take not knowing any longer and asked her is your house really that off kilter. Her eyes got huge then she lost it completely, had tears running down her face. Told me I was the first person who had ever had the guts to ask them about thier house. They had heard people talk about their house when they were out and about but no one had ever asked. They gave me a tour, we drank ice tea, sat on the deck and talked herbs, found out she had gone to school with my BIL and that their architect had a warped sense of humor and designed the one end of the house to look as if the house were indeed sinking into the ground. Lovely couple of hours and my kids and their friends decided I got coolest mom of the year award. After that scoping a grocery cart is nothing!

LA

[dumplin]

I am now paranoid about going to the grocery store. (I'm afraid of fellow Egullets stalking me. Like a lot of you, I get veggies and meat at one market, go to Trader Joes for some things, and use the local mega marts for quick trips in-between my regular visits. Sometimes my cart doesn't look that healthy. Also, Like RSincere, I was on medication that made me gain a lot of weight. I felt self-conscious buying anything not healthy...but even when your dieting you deserve a little ice cream every once in a while.

I have a very embarrasing basket snooping experience. The disease that I have is called Interstitial Cystitis. Its a painful bladder disease and one of the effects of the disease causes the sufferer to need those stupid Poise Pads. I'm 26 years old...its hard to accept the fact that you need them and buy them. The cheapest place to get them was the local Super K-Mart. A friend of mine worked there. She came up to me to say hi and then said, "Oh, let me see what you're buying today!" I tried not to be embarrassed, but it was a little more information about myself than I wanted to share. I am now very conscious about who is looking in my cart.

[ms. victoria]

I am a veteran cart snooper. I look to see what people are buying and what they might be cooking and yes I am occasionally appalled or saddened. The single guys buying stacks of frozen dinners and a case a beer, or the elderly gentleman with a Marie Callander's and a fifth. ANd yes, the woman with three hyper children hanging off her and the cart full of sugary cereal and sodas makes me scratch my head.

We do our twice monthly shopping at Kroger, but for milk and various other things in between trips we go to the Harris Teeter that is just down the street. Twice now I have gone in and bought two six packs of import beer and a half pound of organic European style butter. The same checker has rung up my order both times. The first time he looked at me kind of funny. The second time he looked a little frightened. GOd knows what he thought I was doing with that butter.

[Lady T]

The number of times I've wound up having to teach the checker the difference between Italian flat-leaf parsley and cilantro still astonishes me.

[Suzi Edwards]

Weirdest thing I ever saw while perusing someone else's selections:

Two very large bags of store brand cheetos

Two enemas

you can buy enemas in american supermarkets?

now i am *really* glad i boycott supermarkets.

[Raynickben]

ANd yes, the woman with three hyper children hanging off her and the cart full of sugary cereal and sodas makes me scratch my head.

Guess what....that sugary cereal and soda is actually for my husband. The kids get none of it!

[Jason Perlow]

How many of you will admit to looking at the groceries of other people in the checkout line? Or worse, playing what I like to call the "what are they making for dinner tonight?" guessing game?

Example: Feta cheese, tomatoes, onions, tomatoes, skinless and boneless chicken breasts

Greek Salad with grilled chicken!

Today the lady in front of me had rice, plantains, cut up chicken peices, and the dead giveaway, a Goya "Sazon" spice packet. I asked her, "Arroz con Pollo?" she replied quizzically, "Uh, Si!"

Do you ever come up with new ideas by looking at someone else's basket? Or try new products you haven't before? 'Fess up!

[SobaAddict70]

Well, yes, but for a different reason.

I check out what other people have in their shopping cart because of the health snob that I've become.

[touaregsand]

I've already fessed up to being a total supermarket snooper in another thread. It's the only time I am a snooper. (No I will not look in your bathroom cabinets). I'm pathologically nosy at the supermarket though. I think I can probably guess what people will buy based on appearance even outside of the grocery store.

Most of the time I'm turned off by the amount of sugary drinks and packaged/premade stuff that appears in most carts. This is just as true at Whole Foods as it is at a mass market chain.

But when I go to the Mexican, Asian, Middle Easterns, Indian/Paki places... I'm usually inspired by what other people buy. Sometimes I can guess what's for dinner or it makes me want to try something new.

I saw this Armenian couple at the Korean store buying all the fixings for meheun tang (spicy fish soup) and I started to crave it on the spot. At the Middle Eastern last week I was standing in line when I notice this woman with fresh chickpeas, fava beans and green almonds so I ran to get some.