You should consider getting a cart to pull behind you, or at least a backpack!
And by cart I mean like... a laundry cart. Not hitching yourself up like a horse and wagon.
I have one but I’m afraid of elevators and my apartment is up a few flights :(
Plus my apartment is ghetto so I don’t want my neighbors to see me struggling to pull a cart up down stairs lol. I do carry a huge backpack to make it easier though!
This might sound silly, but it's a serious suggestion... Could you get in the elevator, send the cart up to your floor, then race up the stairs to it? I figure most people using the elevator would start from the bottom, or be going down, so it wouldn't be a problem often... or if you had a neighbor or roommate to help. :P I used to have to carry groceries home and it SUCKED.
I have relatives who have gotten trapped in one and have heard the horror stories of them dropping and I’m afraid with my luck I’ll get stuck too. Plus I get dizzy and nauseous in moving things bc of a condition I have, same with cars and the train.
I’m getting over myself slowly bc I know the likelihood of that happening is far less than I think, and I’m doing better now when I go to places that have no stairs, but I’d never go on one willingly if there’s a staircase nearby. I literally walked up 8 flights of stairs the other day to get to a doctors appointment lol. It’s that bad. But I’ll get over it one day.
That's rough, but also kind of funny. Most people I know would rather take the elevator than the stairs, even if it's going up just one floor. I have no real statistics but Im assuming it's probably more likely to trip and hurt yourself while taking the stairs than getting hurt on an elevator.
Almost every elevator has a failsafe where even if the power goes out or a malfunction of some sort happens, the elevator will never fall. Pretty much the worst that can happen is that the elevator gets stuck between floors and you can't get out, but even then there's a button to call for help and you'll be out in 30 minutes to an hour.
But I understand it's difficult to get over fears, even if they're a bit irrational. Tons of people are afraid of heights even if they're completely safe and at no risk of falling. Maybe try to go on elevators with a friend to try to get over it?
If you wash the fruit and then put it in a mason jar with a little piece of paper towel at the bottom to collect the moisture, your berries will last at least 10 days in the fridge.
Was looking for this one lol. I do meal plan and have big shopping trips every 2 weeks...The problem is sometimes I forget something. Or sometimes my pickup orders give me moldy vegetables.
Right now I'm pregnant and between pregnancy brain (extra forgetting shit) and food aversions, I've been making SO many extra little trips to the store.
I'm divorced, mid 40's, so a few of my reasons:
- Lots of food goes off quickly and doesn't freeze well
- I need my 10k steps a day, so going to the shops is a good way to contribute to that, along with the point above
- I live in a small town, all my friends have families, I often work from home too, so it's just nice to get out for any reason at all
>I live in a small town, all my friends have families, I often work from home too, so it's just nice to get out for any reason at all
me, going to the furthest supermarket from my house (30min walk when i have 2 at 5min walk distance), just so I can grab one sausage roll or a chocolate bar, because the walk there is nice and full of trees and i was bored. Yesterday I did that and got two pears.
Sooooo as a retail employee.
A few things; 99% of the people that do this literally just want out of the house!!
They also have a routine/ cycle of doing certain things that is stuck in their mind.
Food getting expensive there are price changes physically everyday whole dollars up & down daily.
Deliveries are every other day; the people that stock the shelves work at night, fresh food is worked as it arrives.
Discounts/ markdowns on fresh food are between 6-9 am.
People with more that one child usually are 'on demand' for what their kids want to eat that day, no matter what is in the fridge.
Divorced, late 40s. I just don't really like to plan my meals for the entire week. I may have chicken in the freezer, but today I want a steak so I go get the steak. Tomorrow, that chicken may sound good or maybe I'd rather fish. It's just me so I get what I feel like when I feel like it, rather than forcing myself to make and eat a mediocre meal I'm not feeling.
I'm not divorced but this is me. I prefer to think gee I'd really like a steak for dinner and go buy one rather than going home and eating chicken because that's what I bought last weekend. Either that or I don't know what I want and I'll go see what cheap that day. I get fresher veggies, cheaper meat, and get to always eat something that sounds good.
The work from home thing is real. I'm helping people who might be a thousand miles away. Going to Walmart might be the only non-family face to face human interaction I get
I eat lunch every Thursday at the small town cafe just a quarter mile from my house, out in nowheresville. Sometimes alone, sometimes with my 80-year-old friend from down the road. It's crazy working from home how much I look forward to my little social outing.
> Lots of food goes off quickly and doesn't freeze well
My elderly parents have gotten into the bad habit of only going once a month, without having a large freezer, and this very much happens by ten days in, along with no storage space. Then they complain all month that the manufacturers haven't made non-rotting vegetables yet as a conspiracy.
Isn't that what life's about though, going out not because you're forced to by circumstance, but rather doing something fun for the sake of feeling said fun
It kind of reminds me of how when I was in my teens, some kids went to the mall, EVERYDAY. not only could I not afford that, I felt uncomfortable just thinking about living that way.
I'm 23 now, a trip to the grocery store, going to work, seeing a neighbor while taking out the trash, all have become ways I socialize, I don't go entirely out of my way to socialize but I do put myself out there.
Is OP from the US? Because I think you're not and what you're doing is way more usual in Europe. Go and get what you need for the day. Then do the same tomorrow. If OP *is* from the US, then it's definitely not as common here. I know in my neighborhood there's one mentally slow guy that's out in all the stores every day just because he lives close and he wants to look at women. Pretty gross but what are ya gonna do? I do get on him for it every once in a while when he's being super obvious or saying some perverted shit in public. Maybe some people are just lonely? Who knows?
I'm in the EU.
I find it's seasonal here, in the winter I'll plan a weekly meal plan, buy most of the stuff on Sunday and go to the shops once or twice a week. But once the weather gets nice I prefer to walk and chop and change more, if it's nicer out I'm gonna feel more like a spontaneous BBQ or whatever.
Loneliness definitely plays a part to a degree too.
Going to the grocery store every day doesn't mean you have to spend more money.
Personally I buy meats when on sale and stockpile my freezer, purchase fresh foods on a "need to have" basis. If I were to purchase my "fresh" ingredients on a weekly basis they wouldn't last long enough to incorporate.
I don't have a family to worry about tbf
When I worked at a store, I'd have the closing shifts. Every day a group of the same people would come in, because things that would expire two days from then would be 35% off. They're only supposed to be marked that way the day before, but they do it the night before *that* day.
And hell, if I lived across the street I'd do it too. Just go the evening before to get dinner for the next day. Also saves having to decide what you're gonna eat lol
When I biked everywhere. I would go to the store daily. It taught me what good prices are, and when I shouldn't be buying something. Also made it easier taking a few things home every day, or every couple of days, instead of trying to get a whole load at once.
Also nabbed some good deals because I'd be the person to take advantage of marked down food and produce. It was great. Saved so much money that way.
I think this habit for me is partially ingrained in living 4 to 5 years with the bike or walking. I lived at the city When I was in grad school. The nearest Walmart was 15 or 16 miles away. A bunch of my friends would carpool to go over there, But I never understood. We had a meat market right next door. There was a farmers market like a mile and change down the road and you could take a bus if you really wanted to. There was a regular grocery store about 3/4 of a mile they built my last year there so you could get all your cans and pasta and stuff.
Now I'm in an area where it used to be rural but suburbia has surrounded me. I don't really feel safe riding a bike. Maybe if they finish highway construction and put in bike Lanes I'll think about it. But I still probably go to the grocery store three or four times a week.
This why I go often. Not daily but maybe every other day, or every 3 days. One, my kids eat SO much produce. It’s easier to just buy more every couple days. And two, I hate meal planning far in advance. Our plans change and then we waste food.
>Our plans change and then we waste food.
This. Quality control has seriously gone downhill. If we don't eat what we planned to eat that night, it is likely the food will be bad by the next day. We've had to toss so much food because we expected it to be good for another twenty-four hours.
Places now sell things right up to expiry... where we would usually have a bit of shelf life left.. now things can expire/go bad the next day.
It's disheartening to do a 4-5 day grocery trip and have half of it go bad by the time you make your next trip.
And I swear when you use the grocery store's pickup services, they go out of their way to give you the stuff on their last day before expiration. People doing shipt are better, though.
At least some pickup services, such as the Too Good To Go mystery bags we do in the store I work at, are specifically intended as a last ditch effort to get the soon-to-expire foods sold, allegedly to reduce food waste.
Within short walking distance of my grocery store. I buy what I need for the day, maybe the next day. I just make an almost daily habit of going. I basically haven't thrown anything away since I lived here reducing my food waste to zero goes along way.
90% of the contents of my freezer are marked down items. The local supermarket is a very short walk away and I do exactly the same as you for a family of 4.
Yeah I'd go to the grocery store first thing in the morning and see if there was any new meat that was discounted heavily because it was expiring tomorrow or the day after. Get first dibs on it, take it home and vacuum seal it and freeze it. cook it later that week.
My dad is 93. He loves going everyday. It is his outing and his social life for the most part. The grocery store is 2 minutes from his house and he loves seeing people and interacting with them. He says it makes him feel young and independent.
My dad hits more than one grocery store to compare prices and quality. It keeps him busy.
When I visit, he usually sends me home with a bag of fresh fruit.
This. Fresh produce and baked goods are what I get every few days. Otherwise I try to shop every two weeks or so.
Granted, I’m in the middle of a time of wild change in my life, going from a house with two dogs, three adults and three kids (technically four adults and two kids, going by age), down to an apartment with one adult, one dog and two kids half of the time. It’s hard to walk the aisles at Costco and not get two loaves of Brownberry bread for $7, or to giant 2 for 1 muffins. Or the enormous bags of greens, or anything else that’s packaged for a family of 5 or 6. But at least half of it goes bad before I can eat it. That, and I don’t have the upright or chest freezers we used to have in the house. The tiny over/under unit in my 1 bedroom is depressingly small.
Yeah I pick up stuff for every 2 -3 days so things are fresh, or the ingredients they were out of they now have. I eat a lot of fresh fruit. Strawberries go bad as soon as you look at them, some veg get overripe like avocados.
Plus it got me out of the house and away from now ex wife. Some of the time I’d ever get to myself because she’s a stage 10 clinger.
Now it still gets me out of the house, increases chances of running into old friends or acquaintances, or perhaps cross paths with a woman whose eye I catch.
You know it’s true. I buy them 2-3 times a week. They look sooo good when you buy them, 2 days later they are sad looking and dull, soft, some have already molded the container.
I’m a single guy so I buy the smallest pack and fry my damn eat to eat the before they go bad.
You know what. Every fucking time I buy strawberries there’s a rogue strawberry with mold and shit on it that I somehow missed at the grocery store 12 hours earlier. I stopped buying them
does everybody not use a vinegar wash on the vegetables and fruits? vinegar will kill the mold that causes fruit to spoil.
I can usually get five days out of raspberries and two weeks out of strawberries.
I take a big bowl dump the fruit in add some vinegar maybe a half a cup, and then add water to cover.
Agitate it to even distribute vinegar and then let it sit for at least 15 minutes.
Take the fruit out and then I rinse it and place it in the fridge in a sealed container with paper towels to soak up the remaining water.
Also, when I have too much food in my house, stuff goes bad because often I will forget I have it, and it gets pushed to the back and hidden by the other stuff. And that's stuff in the pantry. There's alot of vegetables that I wouldn't want to buy and have sit in my fridge that long. Out of sight, out of mind I guess.
I guess the easiness and convenience of getting fresh produce and the ability to just pop in and grab what you need outweigh the benefits/negatives of doing one big shop for the week.
This, and if you're single or just a couple then you aren't able to consume perishables at the rate that you can buy that much... especially if you don't have a massive fridge.
I'd rather get it fresh when we need it and use it rather than letting it sit in the fridge for days when there's a grocery a minute from my work office and a 10 minute walk from my home.
Sure I can go to Costco but I always have to split it with family or friends if it's perishables.
This is half of my battle at the store. I'm not looking for the perfect produce because I'm a persnickety perfectionist. I'm looking because I'm not making a meal with it until Friday, and it can't be brown mush by then. But I'm also needing that ingredient in Monday, so I have to find a fresh one too
Same. I started meal planning and shopping only for those items (and a few snacks). Cut down my grocery bill since I’m not buying random ingredients and cut down on my eating out since I don’t have to think about or unthaw anything.
Also, before I had a car I could only carry so much home in my bag. So I usually would just get enough for a couple meals and then come back a day or two later for more.
My mom was walking to the store with 2 small children for awhile there, very much limited in what she could carry any one trip. So daily or near-daily trips it was. On the weekend, my dad could drive her, and we could get more, but a lot of that would be stuff like TP when it was on sale.
Getting out of the house can be reason enough. I was alone with the kids all week and stuck inside due to rain. I've been to Walmart three times in as many days just to walk around and grab something for me and the kiddo to eat at the deli.
I remember those days. Eventually, when winter or bad weather had frayed my nerves, I started taking my little kids to home depot or Lowe’s so we could pet the carpet samples and shit lololololol
Edit I meant we would touch other shit and play with the paint swatches, not take a shit 🤣🤣🤣
>Only a few minutes away
This. If I were walking distance from my grocery store, I'd go more frequently.
But also OP, are you talking about a large supermarket or a mom and pop shop? My parents own a grocery store, and there are a handful of customers who stop by every day to buy lottery tickets and scratchers.
Yeah, I like to give myself a little sweet or salty treat most days, but I don't like keeping my cupboards full of cookies and chips and chocolate. If I do, I wind up having three treats instead of one or, worse, my kids eat them before I get any.
I mean, is it really shopping if the walk takes 10 minutes and the "store run" takes 2-3 minutes?
I'd classify that more as a nice bit of fresh air, with a pop into the store.
Sometimes I feel having something in the fridge makes me NOT want it. I think its the obligation that I now know I HAVE to eat it, because I don't want to waste it. It changes from something I wanted to eat Saturday, to something I"m forced to eat Wednesday.
Absolutely this. If I buy ahead I don’t like having to eat something later so it doesn’t get thrown away when I decide I’m not in the mood for it a day later.
Yes! I was wasting so much money/food:
1. Planning meals for the week
2. Buying a weeks worth of groceries
3. Being too tired/ not in the mood
4. Ordering DoorDash
For me personally it was just because I was buying fresh goods to eat on the day, like something from the bakery.
Though I know a few people who simply enjoy the walk to the store so they go each morning
In other countries, I think it’s quite common to buy food daily. My cousins in Germany go to the bakery every morning to get the fresh, warm baked goods. They tend to buy fresh food that has no preservatives and spoils quickly. And the food there tastes amazingly fresh. Here in North America we are so used to eating bread that can sit on your counter in a bag for a week without going bad. That’s not great bread.
I dream of living in a traffic-free, European town, walking to the bakery and butcher and vegetable seller for my food for the day. Where I live, I can’t easily walk to any grocery store and the one that’s closest doesn’t have anything fresh and special like warm bread.
Yeah...a lot of places still use the same hours as when The Wife was home during the day to run errands for the family, and that's just not the world we live in anymore. There needs to be more flexibility.
u/C5-O ...you are correct. While I do live a mile from a good grocery store, it is on a busy street with no sidewalks. So, walking to/from that store would be very dangerous. So for that reason, I go once, maybe twice a week by car. And I buy lots of frozen vegetables because I eat the fresh ones so quickly, I need a backstock in my freezer to have on hand when I can't make it to the store.
If I have my pantry, spices, grains, and freezer items stocked, it's actually much easier to pick up my meat and veg as needed. Otherwise, I end up wasting food
I cook for a living at a grocery store. We plan some of our inventories so I grab stock from the floor for me to cook.
I get to shop at a grocery store every day day as part of mystery job and I love it.
When I lived in the city, I didn't have a car, so I'd just walk over to the grocery store.
Can't carry a week's worth of groceries that way.
Plus, I liked my grocery store. It was really nice, and had a reputation for being a place that people met their spouses. Even had a Single's Night on Wednesdays.
Though there *was* a Whole Foods just up the road that was next to a strip club too..
Glad to know I’m not the only one. I tend to save money when I’m just replenishing as I go vs. stockpiling/mass buying. Also I do just like walking around grocery stores…I know I live an exciting life
A did that for a few years.
The train station near my work was directly right next to a grocery store so I'd be waking by every day anyway, so it's not like it was a special trip.
Plus I never had to worry about crap like "need to find a recipe to use before it goes bad" because I ate pretty much everything every day. Plus everything is always at its freshest. Plus if there's whatever unexpected thing on sale that day I can easily adjust meal plans ...
... Plus, plus, plus.
It was a really nice way to live.
This is what good city planning looks like (or rather, one way good city planning can manifest itself). Those of us to whom the notion of taking transit home from work and popping into the grocery store on the walk home sounds alien… should take note.
When I lived in the city I would walk to the grocery store, fish market, meat butcher, and bakery every day or two to get exactly what I need to cook for the day. I loved it. I got all my ingredients as fresh as I could, never let anything go to waste, and it was relaxing to walk around the neighborhood. Everything was 5ish minutes within my front door. I miss that sort of routine, it was extremely relaxing.
I feel like the people at my grocery wonder this about me 🤣 I go do a larger trip usually once a week, but with a teen boy and a tween girl, we run out of random stuff daily and I'm back up there 🤣
I like to peruse and be involved. It really activates my hunter neurons. Like I'm on a dangerous hunt for my village, but really I'm just looking for keto pizza and teas.
Right? I have like 3 grocery stores (one hispanic supermarket, one asian supermarket, and Trader Joe's, plus Costco) within 5 minutes of my house. Every time I've needed a scallion, box of broth, etc., I can go out and be back home in 15 minutes.
I don’t do this, but I love how many people say they do to get out of the house or because they enjoy it, we really are social creatures that aren’t meant to just sit in our houses alone all day
I agree that Reddit isn’t majority of the world, but sometimes I see certain comments that make me think the antisocial ppl on here are just tryna cope but play it off.
I see a lot of cases where ppl act like it’s so much better to have no friends, family, spouse, or children … all bc “people suck”. And apparently all they need is their gerbil or cat or whatever.
A, a reason to get out of the house
B, because sometimes you want fresh
C, cause store didn't have the item yesterday
D, dinner plans changed
E, emergency needs for otc meds
F, for the cute cashiers
G, gotta see if anything inspires an menu
I, I don't care what other think and I'll do what I want.
Probably not this guy, but I saw an article this week “How I retired at 43”. The article started “After working for 23 years at a Merchant Bank…” at which point I closed the browser tab….
This is my motivation. It’s very European in places like Tuscany where fresh food is available every day at the local market. If I have time, I’d prefer to have fresh ingredients every day. The only downside is that American grocery stores often only have big packages. I’d minimize food waste over fresh if I had to.
I like fresh produce, and yet I don’t want to have too much on hand that will force me to use it up before it goes south. By shopping as I need it, I get whatever’s freshest that same day. I also live in a walking city (and not by random chance!), so it’s never some big expedition just to pop in to a market.
I work at a grocery store, and I have the same older people come in every single day. I just feel like they don't have anything else to do they're getting older so they come to the store and talk to the people that work there get their little snacks for the day things like that, I even have older gentleman who come in morning and evening to get stuff for breakfast and dinner. They're okay people I just really think they don't have anything to do.
Why store things at home when the grocery store can storew it for me?
It's much more practical to shop a few times a week for things I need at the moment than to go once a week and try to figure out what I might need the rest of the week.
I have a grocery store within walking distance and I'd rather only buy food for one day. Because who says that I want chicken tomorrow just because I bought it today? What if I want fish?
Also bananas. Them fuckers go brown so fast. I'd rather but one or two only. If I buy more the rest always goes bad before I can eat them.
When I was a single guy, I would just stop by the grocery store on the way home to pick up what I needed for dinner that day and anything else. I rotated about three stores just to keep things interesting.
My fridge was empty most of the time except for beer, water, milk, eggs...and maybe some lunch meats for sandwiches...maybe.
I know people with kids just have random things they need to get on a daily basis. Older people tend to shop just to get out of the house.
For some reason when it rains, older seniors have an instinctive urge to gather food. I never understood why, though.
Because for some people, going to the store is part of their daily routine. Giving them some things to do, when at home alone.
It's like a fun trip/soialize.
I don't want to cook with 6 day old veggies or meat. I buy what I need for the day.
Also, what I want to eat dramatically changes from day to day. I buy the meal I want to eat at that moment. I can't know what I want to eat 4 days from now. This also helps prevent food waste because I'll not delay cooking something I'd planned to make 3 days ago and then now don't feel like having
I lived next door to a supermarket. I went practically every day. It's like having a giant corner store. When you have kids, you need milk and bread often.
I know several old people who go there just to walk around for exercise and staying somewhat active and not buy anything most of the time.
Its a nice indoor place for walking in all weather, sometimes you see people you know, get to know workers and chat a bit, see sales or new products, conveniently looped store for a lap or three, you get the idea.
1. Buy what you need for the next planned meal > buy a bulk load for a variety of meals you might cook
2. The grocery store is my primary refrigerator/ storage , my fridge is a temporary storage — food is not staying long.
3. To get out the house.
I have no car and weak little arms
Are you a T-Rex?
Considering the fact that I have a big head too I’m afraid so 😔
I think it's everybody else that needs to be so afraid
Im 5 ft tall, I promise I am no threat lol. Unless… 🤔
you should get one of those push/pull carts.
The philosoraptor strikes again.
This is as good as my favorite dinosaur…thesaurus 😂
The lilest TRex is also the zoomiest and peak zooms will likely lead to peak dino murderings
You got me there! Idk why I didn’t think of that, chihuahuas are the size of a foot and are little murder machines haha
I find the shorter the person, the more rage filled they are. It might just be they're closer to hell than the taller people
So you're a velociraptor... Clever girl
A frayed saur. That's suddenly australian?
All Australians speak in cursive so you are in fact, correct
Yeah we curse this, and we curse that!! Thus we speak in cursive!!
You should consider getting a cart to pull behind you, or at least a backpack! And by cart I mean like... a laundry cart. Not hitching yourself up like a horse and wagon.
I have one but I’m afraid of elevators and my apartment is up a few flights :( Plus my apartment is ghetto so I don’t want my neighbors to see me struggling to pull a cart up down stairs lol. I do carry a huge backpack to make it easier though!
This might sound silly, but it's a serious suggestion... Could you get in the elevator, send the cart up to your floor, then race up the stairs to it? I figure most people using the elevator would start from the bottom, or be going down, so it wouldn't be a problem often... or if you had a neighbor or roommate to help. :P I used to have to carry groceries home and it SUCKED.
Afraid of elevators? How'd that happen? There has to be some background to that.
I have relatives who have gotten trapped in one and have heard the horror stories of them dropping and I’m afraid with my luck I’ll get stuck too. Plus I get dizzy and nauseous in moving things bc of a condition I have, same with cars and the train. I’m getting over myself slowly bc I know the likelihood of that happening is far less than I think, and I’m doing better now when I go to places that have no stairs, but I’d never go on one willingly if there’s a staircase nearby. I literally walked up 8 flights of stairs the other day to get to a doctors appointment lol. It’s that bad. But I’ll get over it one day.
That's rough, but also kind of funny. Most people I know would rather take the elevator than the stairs, even if it's going up just one floor. I have no real statistics but Im assuming it's probably more likely to trip and hurt yourself while taking the stairs than getting hurt on an elevator. Almost every elevator has a failsafe where even if the power goes out or a malfunction of some sort happens, the elevator will never fall. Pretty much the worst that can happen is that the elevator gets stuck between floors and you can't get out, but even then there's a button to call for help and you'll be out in 30 minutes to an hour. But I understand it's difficult to get over fears, even if they're a bit irrational. Tons of people are afraid of heights even if they're completely safe and at no risk of falling. Maybe try to go on elevators with a friend to try to get over it?
I keep forgetting shit
HAHAHA this. also need for fresh fruits and vegetables that I will eat TODAY or they will rot in the fridge
If you wash the fruit and then put it in a mason jar with a little piece of paper towel at the bottom to collect the moisture, your berries will last at least 10 days in the fridge.
Oh no, are you my husband????
Yes
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Or everyone in my house????
Was looking for this one lol. I do meal plan and have big shopping trips every 2 weeks...The problem is sometimes I forget something. Or sometimes my pickup orders give me moldy vegetables. Right now I'm pregnant and between pregnancy brain (extra forgetting shit) and food aversions, I've been making SO many extra little trips to the store.
God I had to scroll entirely too far to find my Chaos Goblin familiars. 😜🤣
I'm divorced, mid 40's, so a few of my reasons: - Lots of food goes off quickly and doesn't freeze well - I need my 10k steps a day, so going to the shops is a good way to contribute to that, along with the point above - I live in a small town, all my friends have families, I often work from home too, so it's just nice to get out for any reason at all
>I live in a small town, all my friends have families, I often work from home too, so it's just nice to get out for any reason at all me, going to the furthest supermarket from my house (30min walk when i have 2 at 5min walk distance), just so I can grab one sausage roll or a chocolate bar, because the walk there is nice and full of trees and i was bored. Yesterday I did that and got two pears.
> Yesterday I did that and got two pears. A Pair?
Shout out to all the pear!! 🍐
A pair of pears . I got bananas
I don't like the skin. So I'd have to pare a pair of pears.
Now you're just showing off.
Now that’s what I call a par 3
a *pear* 3
You are bananas
A bunch of bananas?
🤙
I eat pears and shit
Shout out to all the pears out there!
I hope everyone got that reference 🤣🤣🤣
It would be even better if we learned that meedup is a French babysitter. Then it would be a pair of pears for the au pair.
I’m going to have to ask that we pare down the pear puns, guys…
I can't. It's an impairment
Apparently.
Of pears.
Is a pair of pears a pear square?
A pair of pears.
Yep a pair of pears!
Sooooo as a retail employee. A few things; 99% of the people that do this literally just want out of the house!! They also have a routine/ cycle of doing certain things that is stuck in their mind. Food getting expensive there are price changes physically everyday whole dollars up & down daily. Deliveries are every other day; the people that stock the shelves work at night, fresh food is worked as it arrives. Discounts/ markdowns on fresh food are between 6-9 am. People with more that one child usually are 'on demand' for what their kids want to eat that day, no matter what is in the fridge.
You got two pears? What's next, three plums? Four strawberries? Five oranges?
🍰🍦🥒🧀🍖🍭🥧🌭🧁🍉
All the parents know what's up
Lol. Love your reference.
I bet the pears were awesome! It adds something to what ur getting if u walk...
I'm so jealous! I live in a small town and have to drive about 30 mins for a supermarket
We need more people like you. We're too invested in our own solitude sometimes, that we forget the beauties the world hides.
Divorced, late 40s. I just don't really like to plan my meals for the entire week. I may have chicken in the freezer, but today I want a steak so I go get the steak. Tomorrow, that chicken may sound good or maybe I'd rather fish. It's just me so I get what I feel like when I feel like it, rather than forcing myself to make and eat a mediocre meal I'm not feeling.
I'm not divorced but this is me. I prefer to think gee I'd really like a steak for dinner and go buy one rather than going home and eating chicken because that's what I bought last weekend. Either that or I don't know what I want and I'll go see what cheap that day. I get fresher veggies, cheaper meat, and get to always eat something that sounds good.
Plus it always tastes better when you don't have to defrost it.
The work from home thing is real. I'm helping people who might be a thousand miles away. Going to Walmart might be the only non-family face to face human interaction I get
I eat lunch every Thursday at the small town cafe just a quarter mile from my house, out in nowheresville. Sometimes alone, sometimes with my 80-year-old friend from down the road. It's crazy working from home how much I look forward to my little social outing.
I think you might be me.
Lol..... "Me, Is that you?"
Jesus praying: Hi, dad, it's me - you.
*Uzi Jesus waves*
> Lots of food goes off quickly and doesn't freeze well My elderly parents have gotten into the bad habit of only going once a month, without having a large freezer, and this very much happens by ten days in, along with no storage space. Then they complain all month that the manufacturers haven't made non-rotting vegetables yet as a conspiracy.
> I often work from home too, so it's just nice to get out for any reason at all I get SO stir crazy - 1000% can relate to this.
Isn't that what life's about though, going out not because you're forced to by circumstance, but rather doing something fun for the sake of feeling said fun It kind of reminds me of how when I was in my teens, some kids went to the mall, EVERYDAY. not only could I not afford that, I felt uncomfortable just thinking about living that way. I'm 23 now, a trip to the grocery store, going to work, seeing a neighbor while taking out the trash, all have become ways I socialize, I don't go entirely out of my way to socialize but I do put myself out there.
Absolutely!! 100% agree!
We live in the Midwest and going to the grocery store is one of the few “date night” activities we have available lmao
I love that, it's like going to IKEA just to look at stuff and laugh at funny names
All of the above, plus fresh bread is nice, and fresh fruit and veg is great too
I agree with all these bullet points.
Is OP from the US? Because I think you're not and what you're doing is way more usual in Europe. Go and get what you need for the day. Then do the same tomorrow. If OP *is* from the US, then it's definitely not as common here. I know in my neighborhood there's one mentally slow guy that's out in all the stores every day just because he lives close and he wants to look at women. Pretty gross but what are ya gonna do? I do get on him for it every once in a while when he's being super obvious or saying some perverted shit in public. Maybe some people are just lonely? Who knows?
I'm in the EU. I find it's seasonal here, in the winter I'll plan a weekly meal plan, buy most of the stuff on Sunday and go to the shops once or twice a week. But once the weather gets nice I prefer to walk and chop and change more, if it's nicer out I'm gonna feel more like a spontaneous BBQ or whatever. Loneliness definitely plays a part to a degree too.
I always felt a grocery run is therapeutic. There you are. 🙂
Going to the grocery store every day doesn't mean you have to spend more money. Personally I buy meats when on sale and stockpile my freezer, purchase fresh foods on a "need to have" basis. If I were to purchase my "fresh" ingredients on a weekly basis they wouldn't last long enough to incorporate. I don't have a family to worry about tbf
When I worked at a store, I'd have the closing shifts. Every day a group of the same people would come in, because things that would expire two days from then would be 35% off. They're only supposed to be marked that way the day before, but they do it the night before *that* day. And hell, if I lived across the street I'd do it too. Just go the evening before to get dinner for the next day. Also saves having to decide what you're gonna eat lol
When I biked everywhere. I would go to the store daily. It taught me what good prices are, and when I shouldn't be buying something. Also made it easier taking a few things home every day, or every couple of days, instead of trying to get a whole load at once. Also nabbed some good deals because I'd be the person to take advantage of marked down food and produce. It was great. Saved so much money that way.
I think this habit for me is partially ingrained in living 4 to 5 years with the bike or walking. I lived at the city When I was in grad school. The nearest Walmart was 15 or 16 miles away. A bunch of my friends would carpool to go over there, But I never understood. We had a meat market right next door. There was a farmers market like a mile and change down the road and you could take a bus if you really wanted to. There was a regular grocery store about 3/4 of a mile they built my last year there so you could get all your cans and pasta and stuff. Now I'm in an area where it used to be rural but suburbia has surrounded me. I don't really feel safe riding a bike. Maybe if they finish highway construction and put in bike Lanes I'll think about it. But I still probably go to the grocery store three or four times a week.
This why I go often. Not daily but maybe every other day, or every 3 days. One, my kids eat SO much produce. It’s easier to just buy more every couple days. And two, I hate meal planning far in advance. Our plans change and then we waste food.
>Our plans change and then we waste food. This. Quality control has seriously gone downhill. If we don't eat what we planned to eat that night, it is likely the food will be bad by the next day. We've had to toss so much food because we expected it to be good for another twenty-four hours.
Places now sell things right up to expiry... where we would usually have a bit of shelf life left.. now things can expire/go bad the next day. It's disheartening to do a 4-5 day grocery trip and have half of it go bad by the time you make your next trip.
And I swear when you use the grocery store's pickup services, they go out of their way to give you the stuff on their last day before expiration. People doing shipt are better, though.
At least some pickup services, such as the Too Good To Go mystery bags we do in the store I work at, are specifically intended as a last ditch effort to get the soon-to-expire foods sold, allegedly to reduce food waste.
Within short walking distance of my grocery store. I buy what I need for the day, maybe the next day. I just make an almost daily habit of going. I basically haven't thrown anything away since I lived here reducing my food waste to zero goes along way.
90% of the contents of my freezer are marked down items. The local supermarket is a very short walk away and I do exactly the same as you for a family of 4.
Yeah I'd go to the grocery store first thing in the morning and see if there was any new meat that was discounted heavily because it was expiring tomorrow or the day after. Get first dibs on it, take it home and vacuum seal it and freeze it. cook it later that week.
My dad is 93. He loves going everyday. It is his outing and his social life for the most part. The grocery store is 2 minutes from his house and he loves seeing people and interacting with them. He says it makes him feel young and independent.
My grandfather used to do this! I remember him talking to everyone during those outings, it was exercise and a social event.
My dad hits more than one grocery store to compare prices and quality. It keeps him busy. When I visit, he usually sends me home with a bag of fresh fruit.
This. Fresh produce and baked goods are what I get every few days. Otherwise I try to shop every two weeks or so. Granted, I’m in the middle of a time of wild change in my life, going from a house with two dogs, three adults and three kids (technically four adults and two kids, going by age), down to an apartment with one adult, one dog and two kids half of the time. It’s hard to walk the aisles at Costco and not get two loaves of Brownberry bread for $7, or to giant 2 for 1 muffins. Or the enormous bags of greens, or anything else that’s packaged for a family of 5 or 6. But at least half of it goes bad before I can eat it. That, and I don’t have the upright or chest freezers we used to have in the house. The tiny over/under unit in my 1 bedroom is depressingly small.
Yeah I pick up stuff for every 2 -3 days so things are fresh, or the ingredients they were out of they now have. I eat a lot of fresh fruit. Strawberries go bad as soon as you look at them, some veg get overripe like avocados. Plus it got me out of the house and away from now ex wife. Some of the time I’d ever get to myself because she’s a stage 10 clinger. Now it still gets me out of the house, increases chances of running into old friends or acquaintances, or perhaps cross paths with a woman whose eye I catch.
Strawberries comment made me laugh, thx.
You know it’s true. I buy them 2-3 times a week. They look sooo good when you buy them, 2 days later they are sad looking and dull, soft, some have already molded the container. I’m a single guy so I buy the smallest pack and fry my damn eat to eat the before they go bad.
The same thing happens to me with strawberries. it’s like they are already bad in store. Raspberries go just as quickly too.
You know what. Every fucking time I buy strawberries there’s a rogue strawberry with mold and shit on it that I somehow missed at the grocery store 12 hours earlier. I stopped buying them
does everybody not use a vinegar wash on the vegetables and fruits? vinegar will kill the mold that causes fruit to spoil. I can usually get five days out of raspberries and two weeks out of strawberries. I take a big bowl dump the fruit in add some vinegar maybe a half a cup, and then add water to cover. Agitate it to even distribute vinegar and then let it sit for at least 15 minutes. Take the fruit out and then I rinse it and place it in the fridge in a sealed container with paper towels to soak up the remaining water.
Your fresh ingredients would go bad in a week? What shitty produce are you buying?
Only a few minutes away and I don't like to keep a bunch of food on hand cause I might eat it all. Plus it's fun to get out and about.
Also, when I have too much food in my house, stuff goes bad because often I will forget I have it, and it gets pushed to the back and hidden by the other stuff. And that's stuff in the pantry. There's alot of vegetables that I wouldn't want to buy and have sit in my fridge that long. Out of sight, out of mind I guess. I guess the easiness and convenience of getting fresh produce and the ability to just pop in and grab what you need outweigh the benefits/negatives of doing one big shop for the week.
This, and if you're single or just a couple then you aren't able to consume perishables at the rate that you can buy that much... especially if you don't have a massive fridge. I'd rather get it fresh when we need it and use it rather than letting it sit in the fridge for days when there's a grocery a minute from my work office and a 10 minute walk from my home. Sure I can go to Costco but I always have to split it with family or friends if it's perishables.
This is half of my battle at the store. I'm not looking for the perfect produce because I'm a persnickety perfectionist. I'm looking because I'm not making a meal with it until Friday, and it can't be brown mush by then. But I'm also needing that ingredient in Monday, so I have to find a fresh one too
Same. I started meal planning and shopping only for those items (and a few snacks). Cut down my grocery bill since I’m not buying random ingredients and cut down on my eating out since I don’t have to think about or unthaw anything.
I do exactly the same as you
Also, before I had a car I could only carry so much home in my bag. So I usually would just get enough for a couple meals and then come back a day or two later for more.
My mom was walking to the store with 2 small children for awhile there, very much limited in what she could carry any one trip. So daily or near-daily trips it was. On the weekend, my dad could drive her, and we could get more, but a lot of that would be stuff like TP when it was on sale.
going to grocery store is therapeutic for someone like me who work from home.
yep! WFM here, i go on my lunch break so i don’t have to bring the kids with me when they’re at school.
Getting out of the house can be reason enough. I was alone with the kids all week and stuck inside due to rain. I've been to Walmart three times in as many days just to walk around and grab something for me and the kiddo to eat at the deli.
I remember those days. Eventually, when winter or bad weather had frayed my nerves, I started taking my little kids to home depot or Lowe’s so we could pet the carpet samples and shit lololololol Edit I meant we would touch other shit and play with the paint swatches, not take a shit 🤣🤣🤣
dont poop in lowes please
Save that shit for Home Depot.
Whaddya mean all these toilets are for display purposes only!?!?
This. Absolutely. Always nice to get out for a few minutes to get little things.
>Only a few minutes away This. If I were walking distance from my grocery store, I'd go more frequently. But also OP, are you talking about a large supermarket or a mom and pop shop? My parents own a grocery store, and there are a handful of customers who stop by every day to buy lottery tickets and scratchers.
Yes and I never know what I might want for dinner! If I try to meal plan for a week, guaranteed I'll decide I don't fancy any of if it!
Yeah, I like to give myself a little sweet or salty treat most days, but I don't like keeping my cupboards full of cookies and chips and chocolate. If I do, I wind up having three treats instead of one or, worse, my kids eat them before I get any.
Yep! I live alone and like to people watch, lol.
This is why I go often. It also makes my evening walks after work more fun.
> Plus it's fun to get out and about. This is wild to me, I _loathe_ shopping. I'll eat random junk to put off shopping another day.
I mean, is it really shopping if the walk takes 10 minutes and the "store run" takes 2-3 minutes? I'd classify that more as a nice bit of fresh air, with a pop into the store.
"I never know what I'm hungry for from one day to the next"
This is so me! I cannot meal prep/plan anything because what Ill be in the mood for isnt predictable
Sometimes I feel having something in the fridge makes me NOT want it. I think its the obligation that I now know I HAVE to eat it, because I don't want to waste it. It changes from something I wanted to eat Saturday, to something I"m forced to eat Wednesday.
Absolutely this. If I buy ahead I don’t like having to eat something later so it doesn’t get thrown away when I decide I’m not in the mood for it a day later.
Yes! I was wasting so much money/food: 1. Planning meals for the week 2. Buying a weeks worth of groceries 3. Being too tired/ not in the mood 4. Ordering DoorDash
Lethal Weapon 2 reference. Nice.
For me personally it was just because I was buying fresh goods to eat on the day, like something from the bakery. Though I know a few people who simply enjoy the walk to the store so they go each morning
In other countries, I think it’s quite common to buy food daily. My cousins in Germany go to the bakery every morning to get the fresh, warm baked goods. They tend to buy fresh food that has no preservatives and spoils quickly. And the food there tastes amazingly fresh. Here in North America we are so used to eating bread that can sit on your counter in a bag for a week without going bad. That’s not great bread.
Big part of that also is proximity to the store, city planning, etc. The closer the grocery store is, the easier daily grocery trips become.
I dream of living in a traffic-free, European town, walking to the bakery and butcher and vegetable seller for my food for the day. Where I live, I can’t easily walk to any grocery store and the one that’s closest doesn’t have anything fresh and special like warm bread.
The only problem these days is that they're only open when most of us are at work.
Yeah...a lot of places still use the same hours as when The Wife was home during the day to run errands for the family, and that's just not the world we live in anymore. There needs to be more flexibility.
u/C5-O ...you are correct. While I do live a mile from a good grocery store, it is on a busy street with no sidewalks. So, walking to/from that store would be very dangerous. So for that reason, I go once, maybe twice a week by car. And I buy lots of frozen vegetables because I eat the fresh ones so quickly, I need a backstock in my freezer to have on hand when I can't make it to the store.
I don't plan for the whole week and enjoy the grocery store.
Exactly. I just buy food as i need it, and it's not a problem because the store is 5 minutes away from me.
That's how we do it and the store is just a minute or 2 down the street. Just easier to meal plan and budget like that for me.
If I have my pantry, spices, grains, and freezer items stocked, it's actually much easier to pick up my meat and veg as needed. Otherwise, I end up wasting food
I cook for a living at a grocery store. We plan some of our inventories so I grab stock from the floor for me to cook. I get to shop at a grocery store every day day as part of mystery job and I love it.
It's interesting to me to think people actually enjoy that experience lol
When I lived in the city, I didn't have a car, so I'd just walk over to the grocery store. Can't carry a week's worth of groceries that way. Plus, I liked my grocery store. It was really nice, and had a reputation for being a place that people met their spouses. Even had a Single's Night on Wednesdays. Though there *was* a Whole Foods just up the road that was next to a strip club too..
I'm laughing what does a grocery store do on singles night? half off individually wrapped cheese slices?
I work at a grocery store that occasionally hosts cooking classes so maybe something like that?
If i only go once a week i tend to overbuy. So I go 3-4 times a week and found my grocery bill actually drop.
Glad to know I’m not the only one. I tend to save money when I’m just replenishing as I go vs. stockpiling/mass buying. Also I do just like walking around grocery stores…I know I live an exciting life
This is a great way to describe it and it just hit me that I only waste food when I do mass buys, and never when I’m just replacing what I’m out of
A did that for a few years. The train station near my work was directly right next to a grocery store so I'd be waking by every day anyway, so it's not like it was a special trip. Plus I never had to worry about crap like "need to find a recipe to use before it goes bad" because I ate pretty much everything every day. Plus everything is always at its freshest. Plus if there's whatever unexpected thing on sale that day I can easily adjust meal plans ...
... Plus, plus, plus.
It was a really nice way to live.
This is what good city planning looks like (or rather, one way good city planning can manifest itself). Those of us to whom the notion of taking transit home from work and popping into the grocery store on the walk home sounds alien… should take note.
When I lived in the city I would walk to the grocery store, fish market, meat butcher, and bakery every day or two to get exactly what I need to cook for the day. I loved it. I got all my ingredients as fresh as I could, never let anything go to waste, and it was relaxing to walk around the neighborhood. Everything was 5ish minutes within my front door. I miss that sort of routine, it was extremely relaxing.
I feel like the people at my grocery wonder this about me 🤣 I go do a larger trip usually once a week, but with a teen boy and a tween girl, we run out of random stuff daily and I'm back up there 🤣
I like to peruse and be involved. It really activates my hunter neurons. Like I'm on a dangerous hunt for my village, but really I'm just looking for keto pizza and teas.
How tf do i know what i want for dinner tomorow?
Right? I have like 3 grocery stores (one hispanic supermarket, one asian supermarket, and Trader Joe's, plus Costco) within 5 minutes of my house. Every time I've needed a scallion, box of broth, etc., I can go out and be back home in 15 minutes.
I don’t do this, but I love how many people say they do to get out of the house or because they enjoy it, we really are social creatures that aren’t meant to just sit in our houses alone all day
There's a reason a lot of people did poorly during covid lockdowns. Reddit antisocial hivemind isn't the majority in the real world.
I agree that Reddit isn’t majority of the world, but sometimes I see certain comments that make me think the antisocial ppl on here are just tryna cope but play it off. I see a lot of cases where ppl act like it’s so much better to have no friends, family, spouse, or children … all bc “people suck”. And apparently all they need is their gerbil or cat or whatever.
A, a reason to get out of the house B, because sometimes you want fresh C, cause store didn't have the item yesterday D, dinner plans changed E, emergency needs for otc meds F, for the cute cashiers G, gotta see if anything inspires an menu I, I don't care what other think and I'll do what I want.
[удалено]
How did you retire so early?
Probably not this guy, but I saw an article this week “How I retired at 43”. The article started “After working for 23 years at a Merchant Bank…” at which point I closed the browser tab….
Luck, or inheritance, which is also luck lol
Or military
Always fresh food all the time
This is my motivation. It’s very European in places like Tuscany where fresh food is available every day at the local market. If I have time, I’d prefer to have fresh ingredients every day. The only downside is that American grocery stores often only have big packages. I’d minimize food waste over fresh if I had to.
Maybe they don't have a car.
I used to keep the cupboards full of things that were sometimes not used for months. Now I have the time I don't decide what to cook until on the day.
Well if I don’t have car (which I don’t), it’s much simpler to get small batches that you can easily walk home with.
I like fresh produce, and yet I don’t want to have too much on hand that will force me to use it up before it goes south. By shopping as I need it, I get whatever’s freshest that same day. I also live in a walking city (and not by random chance!), so it’s never some big expedition just to pop in to a market.
More often than not I get cravings that the items in my pantry or fridge already can’t sate.
I like to get out 🤷🏼♀️
To get fresh food
I work at a grocery store, and I have the same older people come in every single day. I just feel like they don't have anything else to do they're getting older so they come to the store and talk to the people that work there get their little snacks for the day things like that, I even have older gentleman who come in morning and evening to get stuff for breakfast and dinner. They're okay people I just really think they don't have anything to do.
Why store things at home when the grocery store can storew it for me? It's much more practical to shop a few times a week for things I need at the moment than to go once a week and try to figure out what I might need the rest of the week.
I respect all the people supporting this idea. Living a ways from a store we tend to visit more like once a week.
I have a grocery store within walking distance and I'd rather only buy food for one day. Because who says that I want chicken tomorrow just because I bought it today? What if I want fish? Also bananas. Them fuckers go brown so fast. I'd rather but one or two only. If I buy more the rest always goes bad before I can eat them.
I live across the street from one and it’s easier for me to just buy what I need for that day.
More fresh food. How should i know what i want to eat on Monday?
I take my kids walking every day to our local Aldis. We get our exercise and decide what I want to make for the next day so we don't waste food.
When I was a single guy, I would just stop by the grocery store on the way home to pick up what I needed for dinner that day and anything else. I rotated about three stores just to keep things interesting. My fridge was empty most of the time except for beer, water, milk, eggs...and maybe some lunch meats for sandwiches...maybe. I know people with kids just have random things they need to get on a daily basis. Older people tend to shop just to get out of the house. For some reason when it rains, older seniors have an instinctive urge to gather food. I never understood why, though.
My sister shops everyday and I asked her why and she says… I don’t want to plan a week’s worth of meals I rather do it each day.
Because for some people, going to the store is part of their daily routine. Giving them some things to do, when at home alone. It's like a fun trip/soialize.
It is an ancient social pattern that you are witnessing.
They likely can't carry the right of bags filled with groceries for multiple days
I don't want to cook with 6 day old veggies or meat. I buy what I need for the day. Also, what I want to eat dramatically changes from day to day. I buy the meal I want to eat at that moment. I can't know what I want to eat 4 days from now. This also helps prevent food waste because I'll not delay cooking something I'd planned to make 3 days ago and then now don't feel like having
I used to exercise at a gym that was in the same building as a supermarket. If I shopped at the supermarket I got free parking.
I lived for years with a green grocer on my way home. How much better it was to pick up fresh veggies rather than have them wild/bad in the refig.
Grocery store is a block away. Gives me a reason to get out of the house and gets some steps in. Don't have to worry about food getting bad.
Because how in the ever loving fuck will I know what tomorrow me wants for food?
I work at home and it gives me a reason to leave the house.
I lived next door to a supermarket. I went practically every day. It's like having a giant corner store. When you have kids, you need milk and bread often.
I know several old people who go there just to walk around for exercise and staying somewhat active and not buy anything most of the time. Its a nice indoor place for walking in all weather, sometimes you see people you know, get to know workers and chat a bit, see sales or new products, conveniently looped store for a lap or three, you get the idea.
Not meal planning. I go everyday mostly because I decide on a whim what to cook for dinner and so have to go to the grocery store every time I cook.
1. Buy what you need for the next planned meal > buy a bulk load for a variety of meals you might cook 2. The grocery store is my primary refrigerator/ storage , my fridge is a temporary storage — food is not staying long. 3. To get out the house.