Explanation: Seriously!!! I've shopped for whole community organizations for at least a decade and now I help my parents take my mum's mum [my gran]
shopping once a fortnight! I am the ULTIMATE grocery shopping consumer!
Here are my tips [mainly for the blokes OK!]
Leave the women and the trolly BEHIND you as you escape that "evil wicked break ya bloody balls of a trap SitX!"
Grab a hand basket and THE LIST and haul you backside to the FAR end of the store, which of course being a BLOKE should be easy as you have previously
mapped it out to the MAX! [or refer to your GPS gizmo]
Avoid going down isles with more than 2 trollys etc. Skip and backtrack as required! Ask people nicely if they need a hand with anything such as
getting things down from high shelves etc. Most will politely refuse but some will be very grateful and what goes around , comes around!
Stop being so SHY and politely ask if they can pass you what you require if they won't or are unable to move etc. SMILE as it Helps!
Inform the staff if you notice any problems as they will be grateful when the problem doesn't blow out of all proportion later on!
For example... I noticed the swinging arm at the entrance of a local supermarket was closing to soon and was seriously hitting everybody in the hips
as it swung shut. It hit my Gran and within 5 mins I had the storemanager having it fixed as a extremely high priority [sensors were recalibrated] and
they were very glad to not end up being sued.
Give yourself the time so that you can take your time! Patience is a VIRTUE!
Personal Disclosure: Plan to shop outside of the PEAK shopping traffic jam times as logistics becomes an overriding factor! I've cut my parents
previous total shopping time by over 3hrs [75% reduction] by helping out.
P.S. Get your partner a DECENT shopping trolly. My Gran is 80+yrs and has tunnel vision, partially deaf and is only about 5ft tall and so a WORKING
trolly is imperetive. I'll go through a ton of trollies to find one that spins freely left and right and floats back and forth with minimal effort
required for her to use.
Edited to add the following for clarity. soz me a
Go directly to the far end and work your way back to the person pushing the trolly. Using this method I save my gran about $10 in impulsive buys etc
and in 2 x 5min round trips I've grabbed 75%+ of the things on the list and saved her pushing the trolly over 2/3rds of the store.
[edit on 26-1-2010 by OmegaLogos]