To ask if anyone else finds supermarket shopping stressful?

[Cathkidson36]

Just been to Asda and it was hell, entire families doing the shopping, kids running up and down aisles and screaming at top note, groups of young teenagers shouting and messing around, it's just a stressful environment.
I have misophonia which doesn't help but I don't think kids should be allowed to run up and down supermarkets shrieking.

I like supermarket shopping but I wouldn’t tend to go on a Saturday afternoon.

I have never understood entire families shopping where there are 2 parents in play. Especially in our supermarket which handily has a small park with a playground right next door.

Go on a Monday morning when kids are at school...so much better

I used to do my shop at a big Tesco’s on a Sunday early afternoon. In addition to the shoppers, there were also shelf stackers and online-delivery packers (and sometimes cleaners). It was just a horrible experience. One time I went, there was a couple walking up an aisle, taking up the WHOLE aisle (a big gap between them and on either side), totally oblivious of anyone else. I tried to nip between them with my trolley and I heard the bloke say ‘What the fuck’! I nearly turned round and gave him a mouthful. After that, I stopped going to that store.

Interestingly, I recently spoke to a Tesco delivery driver about her job. She told me that the stacking and packing jobs in-store as just as awful for the staff and that’s why she left to drive the delivery van instead.

This is why i like M&S, its never that full and there's no music or screaming families.

A trip to Tesco however is carnage, it's like supermarkets have become the new shopping centres.

I love cooking and trying new receipes/cuisines so feel better if I can see the produce in person rather than rely on a store picker which is why I go to the supermarket despite getting over whelmed by the noise!
I also hate the entitled @@@! Who think their chat in the middle of aisle 10 takes precedence over anyone getting past or trying to get to a shelf and if you stand waiting give you an annoyed look as if your mere existence is a massive inconvenience or the couples who stand consulting their wretched list while blocking all access to the cheese shelves (other shelves are available delete as required😂) etc and are un concerned that they are making a huge nuisance of themselves! Or the parents who let the little ones push the trolley into you and then say nothing🙄

One word - Ocado.

Problem solved. But bank balance takes a hit.

🤣

I saw the title to this and thought ‘no I don’t, my kids love it too’ and now I see we are part of the problem 😂 my girls don’t shriek though and will be in the trolley 9 times out of 10. They learn a lot by coming to be honest.

Yes, I really struggle with big supermarkets - massive visual and auditory overwhelm.

I moved from a place with reasonably-size shops to a place where the nearest supermarket is a monster. Who really needs an entire aisle of crisps to choose from? It's stupid 😕

...I do do online shopping, but vital ingredients like chillies seem always to be unavailable to order.

I go to Aldi but time it to avoid the shrieking kids and shouty grown ups. Go early doors, it's bliss

Thats why I go to Aldi or Lidl! Smaller, hardly anything in there, barely any choice, no dithering, no temptations. In and out.

Because Waitrose is less noisy and has fewer stray children.

Far too expensive

Try online shopping, OP, or going after about 7pm! (A further bonus, in addition to the lack of people, is that there are usually plenty of reductions at that time).

I don't find it stressful, although it's not my favourite outing because it's a chore. I was in a big Tesco this afternoon and honestly don't have any recollection of seeing children, although I'm sure there must have been some there.

I worked in FMCG, specifically supermarkets, for 10 years so naturally I hate food shopping with a passion 🤣 As soon as I moved out of the sector I started shopping online and do everything possible to avoid going into one. Food shopping is a chore to me not a pleasure, it feels like such a waste of time that I don’t want to spend a second longer than I have to. I also hate cooking, the two are probably linked…

This.

Very much so. I miss the times when the big supermarkets were open 24/7 and you could go at 2am.

I loathe going but DH enjoys it and isn't keen on online shopping. We go together on a Friday evening. It's fairly quiet and then it's out of the way before the weekend. I make sure we buy a good bottle of wine as a reward.

I used to love it until I got chronic pain with fibromyalgia and now it hurts to grip trolley and push trolley/lug food in and out of trolley

Weekend shops are going to be carnage this weekend - last weekend of the summer holidays where I am… my local schools are back on Wednesday…

I do agree though - DS has regular autistic meltdowns in supermarkets and we will
leave if need be - Last time DH took him out screaming the store and car park down because he didn’t like the layout changes…

Thursday was particularly bad as I did a last minute stock up to avoid this weekend - a very unpleasant family with absolutely feral kids swearing, getting in the way and climbing on shelves, eating food they hadn’t paid for….

Their mother made a huge stink at the checkout that some other customer was rude to her about her kids… they then set the security alarms off after putting the scanner through… and she got one of her foul mouthed kids to run to the security guard to ‘complain’ whilst holding an opened packet of food… something was mumbled by mum to kid who was definitely hiding something more likely to have set the alarm off in his hoodie…

I got out of there as fast as I could after paying at the same time as decoy kid swore loudly right by my face as I was passing….

I like supermarket shopping, although thankfully I've never encountered kids running around screaming or teenagers messing around. I probably go to the supermarket at least five times a week! I've never done an online supermarket shop and never will - unless I was really sick and couldn't get out.

The one thing which does annoy me is staff collecting goods for those who do online shopping, they are always in the way!!

If you want a Tesco delivery, it’s a minimum £50 spend (or you get a £5 surcharge, plus the delivery slot fee).

Not everyone wants/needs to order fifty quid’s worth of stuff in one go, and there’s a cost of living crisis and the delivery cost/surcharge could increase your shopping cost significantly.

Because some of us don't shop strictly according to lists and like to buy things we see and fancy, especially new products 😉I am a huge online shopper for many things, but online supermarket shopping is something I wouldn't even consider. I often pop into a supermarket when I had no intention of doing so when leaving home. In fact, it's almost a hobby!

I order from tesco for delivery.

Not half as stressful as working in a supermarket.
Thank god l'm retired now. At least now l'm in and out, and not stuck there for hours on end.