To think that Xmas food shopping isn't a sodding family day out?

[loveawineloveacrisp]

Just been to M&S for final food shop and the bloody place was over run with entire families shopping together. Just why? If the kids are old enough to be left then they shouldn't be traipsing around and getting in the way when the place is crowded as it is at this time of year.

And as for people who can't drive the right way round a one way car park: kindly fuck off and don't drive if you can't follow road signs.

That's all. Now can someone please pass the 🍷

Meh. I like the company of my dc while food
shopping.

Where I live, there is a group of 8 mums all with pushchairs, then about 10 kids between them - all but one goes to school.

They have to go into shops together when only 1 or 2 of them needs to buy stuff. So they block self scan/aisles etc. It does not need 18 people plus 8 babies/toddlers in pushchairs to enter a supermarket for 2 of them to buy 6 items combined. This was during October half term.

Why do they do this? It really winds me, other customers and retail staff off.

The mentality is exactly the same. My reason for being here is legitimate and unimpeachable, however many other options I might have had. Other people are the ones in the way, the obstacle.

WE used to shop as a family. After 12 hour working days, every chance of being together was important.

Why?

The lone shopper who stands in front of me at every cabinet on their phone describing every bloody option is just as bloody irritating.
It's fucking cheesecake with red gloop on top,
It does not require a conversation about whether to get strawberry gloop or raspberry gloop.

Just back from Asda and it was a blissful shop! Very quiet and easy to get parked right up close (weather v stormy or I wouldn’t care). Got everything I needed except bloody tattie scones (potato cakes) for Christmas and Boxing Day breakfast but hopefully can pick some up at a local shop tomorrow.

Nice of you to go and spread it round Sainsburys for Christmas 👍

Smile. I am being facetious. 😊

I'm going tomorrow. How hellish will it be? 😬

My primary school aged kids enjoy choosing their own treats, so they would definitely want to join us for a Christmas shop! They're not fools, they know that I'm much more likely to say yes to their various treat requests during the festive season than any other time of year and they make sure to take full advantage of it.

Did you meet us in Marks and Spencer this afternoon by any chance? I'm afraid we went as whole family of four people to do the Christmas shopping. Teenagers though, not small children. We walked around each choosing the things we wanted to eat over the festive swason, and talked and teased each other and laughed. They helped pack and cary stuff to the car (which was parked a fair way away due to the actual car park being inaccessible due the traffic). Then we had a fun trip home listening to Christmas music, with more talking and laughing. I'm very sorry if that doesn't meet with your approval.

Supermarkets would be potentially much less hectic if people were shopping on their own/in pairs rather than a whole family.

possibly, but it's not my problem or my responsibility to ensure other people have a "shopping experience" they enjoy. If everybody else stops using that supermarket, it would close very quickly.

So posters might be annoyed by a busy supermarket, but that's how it stays open!

Everyone is in the supermarket because they need food and for whatever reason aren't shopping online. Whether that needs one person per household or 6, is debatable.

What reasons do you think kids need to be on scooters inside a supermarket...? 🤷‍♀️

I don't think people care about a supermarket being busy i think they care about families using it as a day out and a playground for their children its not a safe child friendly environment and shouldn't be used as one. I think if you witnessed some of what I did today you would understand what people are saying or are you one of the parents who let's their children lay on the floor blocking exits, climbing on equipment and throwing things around why you stand their on your phone ignoring them or repeatedly shouting their name and swearing at the top of your voice so that everyone in the supermarket knows your child's name by the time you leave.

I don’t go into the shops at the best of times. Everything online. I wouldn’t go right before Christmas if you paid me!

No… which does suggest nobody actually wants one.

All those bloody light up/musical biscuit tins are crap with very little content inside.

It doesn't bother me personally but only one of us does the food shop in general any time of year
It would be easier if less families was in their yes but tbh their could be many many reasons why the children are their with them no baby sitters no partner can't leave them for other reasons etc who knows

Many congrats on your fab day out!

(And getting a dig in at the OP like countless others have already on this thread)

I talk and laugh with family members at home too! It's great.

Most likely because other family members that would normally help out are doing their own Christmas prep

I went to Lidl yesterday. They have that area where all the self checkouts are and the queue was to the back of the store. Family in front of me had a trolley that dad was pushing plus three children. One in a buggy that mum was pushing plus two small ones on foot.

I spent the whole time in the queue thinking SURELY mum is going to leave the queue with the children while he goes and does the check out.

No. They all four with buggy and trolley went into the very crowded pen (and let the children ‘help’ with putting things on the scanner. It was mayhem in there already with several couples doing their check out together.

People are interesting.

Ps. It was bright and sunny. Pedestrianised area outside with the Salvation Army band playing carols and lots of space.
I was cheerful, the family seemed lovely. No stress, grumpiness or drama. It was just a weird bit of obliviousness to that particular situation where they got in the way and held everyone up more than necessary.

I'm talking specifically about the presence of kids in the supermarket, which is what both the thread and the post that began this subdiscussion are about.

And in fact, for all that you frame this about need, people who are in a supermarket on the Sunday just before Christmas are unlikely to be there because that food at that time is both a necessity and their only option. Some of them will have been able to shop online but prefer not to. Others will have had the space to buy and store in advance but are there because they prefer fresh. Still others could've come at a less busy time, but went because it was most convenient to them.

Of those who genuinely had no other option to get food in that location at that time, lots will have been there for treat and nice to have food rather than merely essentials, thus spending more time in the supermarket than necessary and consequently getting more in the way. That too is a choice.

And nobody who falls into any of these categories has any business deciding that other people's choice to bring children out is less legitimate than any of the ones they've made that involved them both being in the supermarket at the same time.

But that's the point of the thread it's not about children being in there it's about them being in there with 2 or 3 adults