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Grocery Shopping

HavaDrPepper said:
My local grocery has senior discount day on Tuesday. It is great when I do need stuff on Tuesday but it doesn't always work out. As for Wal-Mart, I do try to go before 10 a.m. when it isn't so busy. I started doing that during covid. Same for the grocery although it isn't busy in the afternoon some days. Today was one of those days. I was in and out, home and groceries put away in 25 minutes. I only needed 3 things but picked up a couple of other items as well.
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I did that one day last week, about 5 items on my list and left with probably 10! But it was a quick trip.
 
I shop based on my menu plans for the upcoming week, so I don't really do "go-to, always have on hand items." But the items I buy nearly every time I shop are beans/tofu, clementine oranges, tortilla chips, and hummus. Other basics I always have in my kitchen such as grains and soy milk take me longer than a week to use up, so I don't buy them every week.

I am a one-store shopper. Wegmans. I only go elsewhere if I just need to pick up something after work or something like that. Wegmans is five miles from my house, but I have a Giant and a Publix just a mile from my house (both smaller than Wegmans but still full sized stores).

For the last couple of years, I've been shopping after work on Fridays so I have everything I need for my weekly food prep on Saturday morning.

I have never ordered groceries for pickup. Not interested because I want to choose them myself. I have ordered non-food items for pick-up, however, and it's one of my favorite new things about this decade.
 
Lynnette said:
What are your go-to, always have on hand items that you purchase most every week?
various fruits & veggies, milk, bread, greek yogurt, protein shakes

Are you able to get everything from a single store?
No, I do a mix of Costco, Smith's, and Trader Joe's

Do you have a set day(s) that you do your food shopping?
No - I meal plan about five meals at a time, plus there are a few meals I always have ingredients for... and we eat out at least once a week... so I just do a grocery trip when it's time to meal plan again (or we are running low on everything)

Have you tried or do you regularly do pick-up orders?
I always do pick up at Smith's
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I love the idea of meal planning, but I’m not doing well at that these days. Mostly rotating through some old stand-by’s
 
I think I've shared this recently but in case anyone who is interested may have missed it, I've been using Paprika on my phone for easy recipe collecting, meal planning, and easy grocery list-making for a few years now. https://www.paprikaapp.com/ It downloads recipes from websites, getting rid of the clutter and making as complex or simple of a database as you like. You can sort by category but I just scroll through my recipes and choose, or use the strong search function when I look for something specific. When meal-planning, it has a calendar feature on which you can place breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack plans, and when you're looking at a recipe, there's a function that lets you put the ingredients into a grocery list. The grocery list is very easy to read on my phone and you can either checkmark when you pick up an item, or delete it from the list (I do that latter because I like seeing the list diminish as I go through the store). Oh, and a great feature of the grocery list is that it indicates which recipe the grocery item is intended for. You can also add items manually.

There is a desktop version also, but when I balked at the higher cost, it occurred to me that I don't even need it. I don't know if android phones work this way, but with my Mac and my iPhone, I can open recipe websites on my computer, then open them in Safari on my phone just by swiping up on the phone homescreen and tapping on the bar at the bottom that says "Safari; From "Michele's iMac." When it loads in Safari on my phone, I use the Share Sheet to download the recipe into Paprika. It's very smart too, getting the details about the recipe creator, the cooking time, ingredients, procedure, and even nutrition info if that is on the recipe webpage.

Highly recommend! I don't remember how much I paid for it several years ago, but (1) it wasn't much, and (2) I bought it in November when they were having a half-off sale, which they've repeated for at least a few years. It's one of my favorite, most used apps, so I feel like it was a bargain, whatever I paid.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention one of the most important best features! The Paprika app overrides whatever sleep setting you have on your phone and stays awake the whole time you're cooking!
 
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michelepixels said:
I think I've shared this recently but in case anyone who is interested may have missed it, I've been using Paprika on my phone for easy recipe collecting, meal planning, and easy grocery list-making for a few years now. https://www.paprikaapp.com/ It downloads recipes from websites, getting rid of the clutter and making as complex or simple of a database as you like. You can sort by category but I just scroll through my recipes and choose, or use the strong search function when I look for something specific. When meal-planning, it has a calendar feature on which you can place breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack plans, and when you're looking at a recipe, there's a function that lets you put the ingredients into a grocery list. The grocery list is very easy to read on my phone and you can either checkmark when you pick up an item, or delete it from the list (I do that latter because I like seeing the list diminish as I go through the store). Oh, and a great feature of the grocery list is that it indicates which recipe the grocery item is intended for. You can also add items manually.

There is a desktop version also, but when I balked at the higher cost, it occurred to me that I don't even need it. I don't know if android phones work this way, but with my Mac and my iPhone, I can open recipe websites on my computer, then open them in Safari on my phone just by swiping up on the phone homescreen and tapping on the bar at the bottom that says "Safari; From "Michele's iMac." When it loads in Safari on my phone, I use the Share Sheet to download the recipe into Paprika. It's very smart too, getting the details about the recipe creator, the cooking time, ingredients, procedure, and even nutrition info if that is on the recipe webpage.

Highly recommend! I don't remember how much I paid for it several years ago, but (1) it wasn't much, and (2) I bought it in November when they were having a half-off sale, which they've repeated for at least a few years. It's one of my favorite, most used apps, so I feel like it was a bargain, whatever I paid.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention one of the most important best features! The Paprika app overrides whatever sleep setting you have on your phone and stays awake the whole time you're cooking!
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I had this a long time ago, but maybe not my current Apple ID because I couldn’t download it again. I never really spent enough time with it to really get it loaded up with many recipes and take full advantage of it. Might have to look into to it again.
 
What are your go-to, always have on hand items that you purchase most every week? Diet Coke, cottage cheese, eggs, yogurt. Other things I don't need to buy every week because I just shop for myself. Those things are a low carb bread. butter, peanut butter, raspberry jam, fruit/berries. I recently started a subscription meal service, so I'm really only shopping for breakfast now.

Are you able to get everything from a single store? Not always. But that would be things that aren't food. I tried to order some gift wrap ribbon once for my pick up order, and they said they were out. So, had to dash into Target.

Do you have a set day(s) that you do your food shopping? Depends on when the Diet Coke stash gets low, but it's usually a Thursday or Friday right after work, or a Sunday after church.

Have you tried or do you regularly do pick-up orders? I pick up my orders from Fred Meyer. If they don't have something I want, I'll walk in to my nearby Albertsons. My roommates both work for Walmart, but the one by my house is so crazy crowded all the time, I can't stand it. Which is a reason I don't have a Costco membership either, and now prefer to order groceries online for pick up!
 
scrapchyck said:
What are your go-to, always have on hand items that you purchase most every week? Diet Coke, cottage cheese, eggs, yogurt. Other things I don't need to buy every week because I just shop for myself. Those things are a low carb bread. butter, peanut butter, raspberry jam, fruit/berries. I recently started a subscription meal service, so I'm really only shopping for breakfast now.

Are you able to get everything from a single store? Not always. But that would be things that aren't food. I tried to order some gift wrap ribbon once for my pick up order, and they said they were out. So, had to dash into Target.

Do you have a set day(s) that you do your food shopping? Depends on when the Diet Coke stash gets low, but it's usually a Thursday or Friday right after work, or a Sunday after church.

Have you tried or do you regularly do pick-up orders? I pick up my orders from Fred Meyer. If they don't have something I want, I'll walk in to my nearby Albertsons. My roommates both work for Walmart, but the one by my house is so crazy crowded all the time, I can't stand it. Which is a reason I don't have a Costco membership either, and now prefer to order groceries online for pick up!
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The crowds drive me batty too. I’ve done a few pickup deliveries from WalMart, mostly they went well. Once I’ve had to wait a bit longer for them to bring out my order. I don’t get very many groceries there, but they do carry my favorite Greek yogurt and it’s cheaper than any other store, but not always in stock.
 
elseepe said:
The crowds drive me batty too. I’ve done a few pickup deliveries from WalMart, mostly they went well. Once I’ve had to wait a bit longer for them to bring out my order. I don’t get very many groceries there, but they do carry my favorite Greek yogurt and it’s cheaper than any other store, but not always in stock.
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It is hard to beat their prices!
 
Here in Norway we have a grocery store on every corner. No, seriously. I don't think many people in Norway live outside of walking distance (15 mins on foot) of a grocery store.

We have 3 kids, where 2 are teenagers and maaan, do they EAT!
Some things we always have are milk, different cereals, bread, cheese, carrots, potatoes, garlic, broccoli, bell peppers, onion, eggs.

We used to be really good at planning our shopping, doing one big trip at the beginning of the month. Making maybe 10- 13 dinners and freezing them for reheating in the crockpot etc. And weekly shop after that.
Lately we have been tired- life has happened. Meetings at school and just a whole lot. Working to get back to it.

We get everything from one store- usually Kiwi, but Rema has better bread.

We don't have pick up here in Norway. You can order home from different sites, but no pick ups (as far as I know)

Shopping day is Thursday (because of trippel trumf- cashback day) or Friday. I find it so strange how you are shopping on Sundays. Everything except gas stations are closed here on Sundays
 
somehow the idea of a grocery store within easy walking of everyone is appealing. Norway sounds lovely. Actually, I worked with someone for many years who was from there.

Many years ago, most of our stores in the US were also closed on Sundays, not so much anymore, but many still have reduced hours.
 
Meliora said:
Here in Norway we have a grocery store on every corner. No, seriously. I don't think many people in Norway live outside of walking distance (15 mins on foot) of a grocery store.

We have 3 kids, where 2 are teenagers and maaan, do they EAT!
Some things we always have are milk, different cereals, bread, cheese, carrots, potatoes, garlic, broccoli, bell peppers, onion, eggs.

We used to be really good at planning our shopping, doing one big trip at the beginning of the month. Making maybe 10- 13 dinners and freezing them for reheating in the crockpot etc. And weekly shop after that.
Lately we have been tired- life has happened. Meetings at school and just a whole lot. Working to get back to it.

We get everything from one store- usually Kiwi, but Rema has better bread.

We don't have pick up here in Norway. You can order home from different sites, but no pick ups (as far as I know)

Shopping day is Thursday (because of trippel trumf- cashback day) or Friday. I find it so strange how you are shopping on Sundays. Everything except gas stations are closed here on Sundays
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I wish more things were closed on Sundays here!
 
scrapchyck said:
I wish more things were closed on Sundays here!
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It's both a blessing and a curse. It makes for a very calm Sunday. You can't run errands and such. And if you work in retail etc, you have sundays off!
But on the other hand- sometimes it would be nice to use Saturdays for something different than running all the errands you didn't have time for during the week. Also everyone is out shopping on Saturday because of this.
 
elseepe said:
somehow the idea of a grocery store within easy walking of everyone is appealing. Norway sounds lovely. Actually, I worked with someone for many years who was from there.

Many years ago, most of our stores in the US were also closed on Sundays, not so much anymore, but many still have reduced hours.
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It is very practical! But I'm afraid Norway has taken it a bit too far.
Here is what google is saying:
Norway has one of the highest concentrations of grocery stores per capita in Europe, with roughly 22.9 supermarkets per 10,000 inhabitants as of 2022.
The U.S. has a varied distribution of grocery stores, generally averaging highest density in Northern/Northeastern states and lowest in the Southwest. Top states include New York (4.3 per 10,000 residents) and Vermont (3.3), while Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Texas have lower densities.

I'm not sure if there are any statistics on it, but it seems to me that they would need to turn the prices up to keep all these stores open. With workers, rent, electricity and so on.
 
Are you able to get everything from a single store? It depends. There are times where multiple stores are necessary. For example, for those of us in the US who shop at Trader Joe's, it doesn't carry every type of product you would need.
Do you have a set day(s) that you do your food shopping? No, I'm not the primary grocery shopper in our household ;)
Have you tried or do you regularly do pick-up orders? I don't do pick up, but I do regularly get delivery from Costco.
 
What are your go-to, always have on hand items that you purchase most every week?
Pretty much always eggs, fruit and veggies, milk, yogurt and chicken, often beef.

Are you able to get everything from a single store?
I could but I don't because the two closest grocery stores to my house are very expensive so we shop at a few stores for sales, store specific brands, etc.

Do you have a set day(s) that you do your food shopping?

Either Saturday or Sunday

Have you tried or do you regularly do pick-up orders?

Not usually pick up orders but we do have an Amazon Grocery membership which I use for grocery delivery often, along with Walmart+, and Sam's Plus. I usually just use those two for a big order once or so a month on stuff like paper goods, laundry detergent etc. Traffic here near D.C, is nuts so I'm a bit spoiled in that I would rather spend the extra money in a membership and tip for someone to do the driving, and actual shopping so I don't have to! :lol
 
ScrappyHappy82 said:
What are your go-to, always have on hand items that you purchase most every week?
Pretty much always eggs, fruit and veggies, milk, yogurt and chicken, often beef.

Are you able to get everything from a single store?
I could but I don't because the two closest grocery stores to my house are very expensive so we shop at a few stores for sales, store specific brands, etc.

Do you have a set day(s) that you do your food shopping?

Either Saturday or Sunday

Have you tried or do you regularly do pick-up orders?

Not usually pick up orders but we do have an Amazon Grocery membership which I use for grocery delivery often, along with Walmart+, and Sam's Plus. I usually just use those two for a big order once or so a month on stuff like paper goods, laundry detergent etc. Traffic here near D.C, is nuts so I'm a bit spoiled in that I would rather spend the extra money in a membership and tip for someone to do the driving, and actual shopping so I don't have to! :lol
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Sometimes that tip is worth the convenience of that "free delivery".
 
Meliora said:
It's both a blessing and a curse. It makes for a very calm Sunday. You can't run errands and such. And if you work in retail etc, you have sundays off!
But on the other hand- sometimes it would be nice to use Saturdays for something different than running all the errands you didn't have time for during the week. Also everyone is out shopping on Saturday because of this.
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That's true...and it is nice for people who do various kinds of shift work or service work (hospitals, firefighters, etc)
 
What are your go-to, always have on hand items that you purchase most every week? Fresh dairy, meat and veggies.
Are you able to get everything from a single store? Mostly, yes.
Do you have a set day(s) that you do your food shopping? totally depends on how low we run. I like Mondays and Thursdays.
Have you tried or do you regularly do pick-up orders? No, never really got into that. I like the tactile joy of choosing my own goodies.
 
What are your go-to, always have on hand items that you purchase most every week? Let's see, brown bread, 1% milk, cream, bagels, cream cheese.

Are you able to get everything from a single store? Usually.

Do you have a set day(s) that you do your food shopping? DH does the shopping every day on the way home from work. We don't plan to far ahead, and we like our ingredients fresh.

Have you tried or do you regularly do pick-up orders? Never. I don't think they would be as picky as I am in picking out the produce.
 
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