Share w/me Your Shopping Experience!

[MelissaH]

I love going to the grocery store  I love it so much, that I thought I would share my grocery store experience with you.  I'd also like to learn how other people shop and if you are as crazy as me (or my mother).  Please answer the following questions and feel free to add in other info as you see fit

Do you go to several different grocery stores?

Do you clip coupons?

What do you usually buy at the grocery store?

Do you tend to buy more meat or more produce?

Are you too ashamed to make purchases from the "reject bin?"

Do you make a list?

How many refridgerators and pantries do you have for food storage?

Do you enjoy grocery shopping as much as I do?

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I'll take these one at a time.

1. We do lots of our shopping at the local Price Chopper. We pretty much ignore the other supermarket in our town because it's regularly more expensive. In season (mid-May through mid-October), we'll get produce at the farmer's market. I'll sometimes get birdseed and produce, especially apples, at the orchard store; I've noticed that their stuff generally brings more fruit flies in than supermarket produce so I'm less enamored of them than many in this area. Milk comes from the dairy store. Stuff that we want to get in bulk comes from BJ's, which is down by Wegman's. (Read on...)
   Of late we've been finding ourselves driving the 35 minutes to the northern part of Syracuse and the Wegman's there at least once every couple of weeks. Wegman's has more pleasant employees, does a much nicer job of displaying produce, and they generally have a better selection of everything. (Exception: they only carry HUSKED tomatillos, packed in little plastic boxes!)
   As of next summer, we'll probably be doing lots more of our shopping at Wegman's when one of our two bridges across the river goes down for rebuilding. Right now with no traffic, it's an 8 minute trip across town to the supermarket. We're figuring that will be tripled, at least. Once you're talking that kind of time, we might as well go to the more pleasant shopping experience.
   
2. My husband's better about clipping coupons than I am. We'll take them along with us most of the time, and sometimes we'll even use them. We have all our keychain discount cards on the same keychain (grocery stores, pet stores, wine store, etc.) and that keychain lives in the car so it's always there when we need it. (Yes, we share a car.)
   
3. We buy whatever we're going to need for the week. I'll sometimes make a run out mid-week, especially if I'm doing something else on that side of town (like bringing a load of trash and recycling to the transfer station).
   
4. Usually more produce than meat. Unless something's on sale and we're feeding the freezer.
   
5. I've never really noticed a reject bin. The orchard store will put produce that's on its last legs on special near the entrance, but the better the price, the more the fruit flies.
   
6. Yes, we make a list. We generally get everything on the list, sometimes a few extras also. Without a list, we forget stuff that we need.
   
7. We have a full-size fridge/freezer in the kitchen, a small chest freezer in the garage, and a wine fridge (which currently contains cheese and beer) in the family room. At the moment, our "walk-in" (the deck) is not in operation, since the outside temperature has not consistently been cold enough. Since redoing our kitchen we have much more food storage space in the kitchen, but we continue to use our hall closet as a pantry.
   
8. We almost always grocery shop together. It wouldn't be as much fun otherwise! If I want to surprise my husband with something, I need to do the shopping for that alone. For that, I always make a list...and stick to it tightly.
   

MelissaH

[Toasted]

This is really fun!

Do you go to different grocery stores?

Yes, either Big Y or Stop & Shop or both depending what's on sale. I also shop a couple of times a week at our local health food store and at BJ's if I need a lot of canned stuff.

I don't use coupons but I do use the value cards.

What do I usually buy? Juice, produce, yogurt, Diet Coke and tons of it, pasta, cheese, beans, tofu, bread.

Meat or produce? We're all vegetarians

The reject bin? Love it! I buy all the marked down produce I can get and make broths to freeze and and oh, all sorts of things.

I usually use a list but never stick to it.

We have two fridges with freezers, a big pantry and extra storage shelves in the garage.

Do I enjoy shopping? I love it which is why I could never do one of those order-online- delivery things so popular today. My only peeve is that I usually have to shop with my two little one's which can be distracting at times.

[chile_peppa]

Do you go to several different grocery stores?

Yes. My everyday choices are Jewel (Albertson’s) and Dominick’s (Safeway), but I take side trips to other places [Aldi’s, Sam’s Club, Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Whole Grain (pan-Asian), Mitsuwa (Japanese), Bobak’s (Polish), plus smaller Italian, Mexican, and Indian places]. We also have several independent grocers nearby. I visit them all as the fancy strikes me. I’ll buy food anywhere.

Do you clip coupons?

I don’t buy the processed foods promoted by most coupons, and I can’t remember to bring the useful ones with me, so I don’t bother.

What do you usually buy at the grocery store?

The usual staples, things I need for a specific recipe, and things that look interesting. I’ve gone into a store for some bread, and come out with stuff that I have no idea what to do with. I have lots of fun figuring it out.

Do you tend to buy more meat or more produce?

Depends on which store I’m in and who's joining me for dinner, but generally more produce.

Are you too ashamed to make purchases from the "reject bin?"

Few stores have reject bins any more, but I do take a look when I find one.

Do you make a list?

Sometimes. But I usually forget the bloody thing on the kitchen table when I fly out the door, after I've spent quite a lot of time writing things down.

How many refrigerators and pantries do you have for food storage?

One regular refrigerator/freezer in the kitchen, one small refrigerator and one large chest freezer in the basement plus one full pantry in the back entry (used to be a porch, apparently) and one full pantry in the basement.

As an experiment earlier this year (after the last of the sons found a place of his own), I avoided shopping for anything but essential fresh items and tried living off what I had already. It took about six months to use up everything in the big freezer. It was great to clear things out – I found all kinds of things I had forgotten – and then I got to go out and replenish!

Do you enjoy grocery shopping as much as I do?

Probably. I even make a point of stopping at grocery stores when I’m on travel just to see what I can find.