(TikTok screenshot)
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Only people who’ve never been inside a shop think it’s an age thing.
Unless you’re a child, for whom everyone is old to you. *Notes that it’s from Tiktok.* Oh, never mind.
children literally do this as well lol, but it’ll be with one of those small toy trolleys, and they’re smaller so you can probably still get around them
Stores are also pushing the boundaries of how far they can reduce aisle widths. Every one of the corporate retailers in my area who have remodeled their stores since the COVID era, have reduced aisle widths. Having had to travel quite a bit the past year and change, my impression is that this seems to be an industry-wide thing.
Also since the COVID era, all or nearly all of the restocking happens during the day time now. In the before times, the bulk of shelf restocking happened during low-volume hours and/or over night. Now, the people stocking shelves are competing for aisle space along with customers.
And don’t forget that pretty much all the stores have order pickers (for online pick-up orders) roaming around with large trolleys. In theory this helps reduce foot traffic to the stores, of course, but for a variety of reasons, the way they currently operate seems to negate any of those potential benefits making them a wash at best.
THEN you add the shoppers (particularly older shoppers) whose primary outlets for socialization are church and impromptu meetings in the grocery store aisles, and it is a recipe for frustration for shoppers. People around here are generally nice and courteous, until group dynamics kick in and they get distracted by the news that Betty Parsons was just diagnosed with a heart valve condition and Wanda McCabe’s grand daughter just graduated from college.
While true, especially having to maneuver around stockers …… people manage to block Costco aisles that are like 15’ wide. I can’t even conceive how one person and one cart can do this but they manage
A couple in front of me walked into Costco recently and they each went to a separate card reader. What. The. Fuck.
That’s just blatant antisocial behavior.
I have to go shopping on Saturdays often enough that this is a elephant sized pet peeve for me. The aisle widths are like three people wide, and there’s seven trying to get through, two of them pushing carts. I have to shop like I’m dodging bullets in the fucking Matrix, swinging around the shopping basket to fit through gaps as they form.
And what’s even the result of all of that stocking during daytime? Shelves are empty half of the time anyway, I have to wait actual weeks for something to come back in stock sometimes, the shelf is empty every time I’m there and it’s at different times on different days. I don’t believe I’m always there just after a magical rush where all of it gets sold out.
Covid just straight up ruined everything about shopping in person and it never went back. They realized people will still shop there even if they offer dogshit service and that’s how it stayed. We need to demand better.
Why do retired people shop on a saturday.
I went to home depot yesterday to get some plumbing crap, some finish nails, some metal stock, some bolts, and furniture sliders.
Metal stock / finish nail isle, they were remodeling to install tool cages. I could barely get down the aisle, they had 4 ladders and 3 workers, boxes everywhere, carts everywhere. go to plumbing, forklift. wait 5 minutes, get my crap, find out i need sharkbites from another aisle, go down there, same forklift. Fuck, ok, go get the furniture sliders, different forklift. fuck back to bolts, they’re in that initial overloaded aisle.
Should have been a 10 minute trip, took 30. place was full of contractors trying to get shit for the day.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who gets overstimulated at the grocery store.
Costco drives me insane. I like Costco but not being in Costco.
I put off going to such places as long as I can. Sometimes I’ll think, “I could go to Costco after work,” but once work is over I’m like, “Bruh, no, I do not have the energy to put up with that crowded place.”
I’ve been seeking out small, more specific stores lately. I already don’t want to go to Walmart or Target for a number of reasons. Despite knowing they’ll have what I need and it’s not far away, I’ll go farther just to visit the smaller hardware store, or smaller grocery store, or smaller housing goods store, etc. Even without the ethical issues, dealing with the sheer size of those places is too much.
I really hope our generation of collective anxiety could bring about at least one benefit - the downfall of massive stores like Walmart and Target.* Granted, it won’t happen for a while (if at all, especially in rural places), but I highly doubt we’re as rare as we feel we are. Big box stores had their moment, for a generation that wanted that. But times change, people’s preferences change, and just as those stores once drove out local competition, someday the tides can turn again.
*Costco can stay, though. They treat their employees well.
My costco hack is to stay out of the two main aisles.
Enter, go right. Approach any right side aisles from the right.
Hit meat and produce section
Go wide for the exit aisle.
Park… Next door. Idk. Their parking lots are the worst part.
Similar strategy works for parking, at least with mine. The parking layout is bad and there is consistently a line of cars trying to handle it … as they all go straight or left to get to the front half of the lot. I turn right and get out of the traffic for a quick parking spot.
Yeah it’s a huge lot and I’m parked pretty far away, but the mess in the front half means I do save time by going for the first available spot rather than a “good” spot
My costco has a gas station and the entire parking area is a god damn zoo.
It’s utter chaos. You can choose left which includes the front or right which includes gas station and auto bays for tire stuff.
Left is the right call, but if you get halfway down any aisle of parking without finding a spot, you are forced to cross the front of the store in your vehicle. This is never advisable.
Going right is chaos. You might get lucky, but if you don’t, you’re at least spared passing the entrance. You are however stuck with the gas line, the auto bays, and the access to the deliveries/etc.
That’s tough.
My Costco doesn’t have gas: back when I drove a car that ran on dead dinosaurs I wished it did. My town has been refusing to let them put gas pumps in unless they can figure something to do with traffic, but it’s a pretty congested area so they just don’t have any room or road access
You’re not alone. My preference is shopping at places like that “off hours” if possible. Sunday morning (while a lot of people are in church) is a must-do for me.
I miss 24hr and late-night grocery stores. 10PM shopping used to be incredible.
You just slowly but firmly push your cart into that whole situation while saying “sorry! Scuse me! Sorry!”
Wednesday is Senior Discount Day at my local grocery store and it’s unbridled chaos. I do my best to avoid Wednesdays.
Yup, gotta stop just a notch shy of “I’m the Juggernaut, bitch!” in these situations.
It’s not just old people I find. Just anyone else in the shop.
I get stressed out when I’m out shopping because I get claustrophobic - I feel like anywhere I am in the shop, there’s always someone up in my grill.
Call me mad but I’ve tested this by going to stand out the way, (no trolley or owt) for instance by a pillar or where there’s no products, or people wanting to pass… Low and behold someone will come up and stand next to me.
I appreciate they could be shop detectives but they certainly don’t look like it…
Also, I live in Spain and two people can easily take up the whole pavement ambling along, this is probably a factor with the aforementioned comment.
They’re probably thinking “¿Por qué está esa guiri de pie allí?” or something and come to have a nosey
My thing is why don’t people commit to one lane like driving rules? Why do they think it makes sense to have 2 people going the same direction right next to each other in the aisle?
The same people who rush onto the subway as soon as the doors open.
They don’t follow driving rules either. Most people on this planet are fucking stupid. It’s a valid theory that cannot be disproved. I rest my case.
When I’m in the grocery store, I constantly have to remind myself that other people do indeed exist. My brain becomes 80% nonsense, 15% is focused on the thing on the shelf, and 5% spatial awareness.
If you ever intend to pants me, the grocery store is a great place to try it.
The magic spell you’re looking for is “excuse me” or “pardon me” or maybe an “excuse me please” if you’re feeling verbose. Most people will move, the ones that just stare blankly you can look them in the eye and say “thanks” to help them finish rebooting.
I will say “excuse you” in a sharp tone, and folks typically hop to it. Those who do not get a free cart relocation service on the spot.
“Ha…fuck you milleanial…I’ll go back to my house I paid 8 acorns for, enjoy your avocado and costco chicken dinner!”
"Milleanials are old at this point
This is Boomer shit. sociopaths
Hah, that’s why I just cropdust their aisle upon turning around.
I’ll just go down the next aisle and wait for the old person to be so grossed out that they move on.
Lots of old people can’t smell and are perpetually crop dusting.
Source: spend a lot of time with old people
It depends on the person and of course their age.
Older people shopping are probably in their 70s or less. You just don’t see many beyond that age shopping on their own very often.
Source: Am in my 50s.
Some of them tell you they can’t smell but just dgaf
I especially don’t get why some people are rude enough to turn their carts sideways like this. That’s never acceptable and seems like it would be less concern them as well.
It does make it easier to block a wider aisle but that implies it’s intentional
The POV is me standing there, seething but not doing anything.
I meticulously read labels on everything. I kind of have to since I can’t just eat anything off the shelf - it’s complicated.
But one thing I do is to be aware of how much room the cart/trolley/whatever is taking up. I much prefer to use a hand-basket or smaller cart if available. I’ll also park the damn thing outside the aisle if there’s room nearby, or next to my person parallel to the flow of traffic. Why gack up the whole lane?
At the same time, I also appreciate that a typical supermarket is an assault on the senses where even the neuro-normative struggle. It’s not hard to find people that are clearly stuggling, doubling-back-and-forth through the whole market to complete their shopping list (just peek in the basket then consider where you are in the store). The frequency of this happening is kind of staggering.
Yeah I read labels a lot too. The main thing is just making sure your buggy is as out of the way as possible so people can get by and retaining enough situational awareness to move if someone needs at something on the four feet or so of shelving you are still blocking.
Why is it that they’re always exactly where you need to be too? Or, you try to hit an empty store aisle at 2:00 on a Tuesday and suddenly there’s 6 people all around you on opposite sides, trapping you in the middle.
It also doesn’t help that they always play some random pop music you’d rather not hear loud enough to be annoying but still quiet enough for people to be confused on why the music is bothering you, and how the lights are always way too bright.
Some one please explain what is this dude doing?
Disregarding the fact that maybe other people need to traverse the aisle
