I hate grocery shopping! I do business process documentation for a living and grocery shopping is so inefficient! You take the food off the shelf you put it in the cart; you take it out off the cart you put it on the belt; you take the bags out of the cart and put them in the car; you take the bags out of the car and carry them into the house; then you take the items out of the bag and put them away. That is a total of five times that you touch the food by the time you get it put away. Let's not mention the times you will handle it to prepare it, cook it, and store the leftovers afterward.
Now this obsession with the inefficiencies of the process of food preparation is why I used to solely use Let's Dish for my meal preparation. I would be able to go into Let's Dish and the food would be all selected and chopped. All I would have to do is measure it out into proper portions, take it home, freeze, then cook, and eat and there were very few leftovers.
Now that I am on the Domestic Goddess journey I am sucking it up and going grocery shopping etc. I write my list as I decide which recipes to eat that week. I take your list and the items are all over the place. I shop at Wegman's because they have everything I could need and if you compare prices they have the best prices on staples (milk bread frozen veg). But that store is huge! It has been designed to make sure you have to walk down every aisle. They sections for meat, dairy, bread, and produce are at the four corners with groceries, retail, bulk food, organic, bakery, specialty cheese, organic, toiletries, all mixed in throughout the center. I went from my half hour at the bloom to pick up toiletries and produce to well over an hour and a half at Wegman's. I am always back tracking to get items in a different department that I have already been through.
Domestic Goddess Solution: This week based on an insert from Rachel Ray Every Day magazine I am putting my grocery list in order according to department in the grocery store. If I have to go to the store I am not going to waste time wandering around. In order to make sure your list doesn't get mixed up with last minute items leave a couple of spaces between departments when you write your list.
TIP: Rewrite your list if you get it too jumbled with last minute items. Two minutes at home can equal 30 in the store.
Or try an iPhone app for list making http://www.macworld.com/appguide/article.html?article=136247
You should switch to our Giant. We do the scan thing where we scan the food item, and bag it right there. It stays in the bag until we get home. I think that's the best system out there now. Maybe you feel the inefficient of it all cuz you shop at like the HUGEST store ever! (Almost as big as price club?!) And its overwhelming. So overwhelming....I love my shopping trips to the grocery store, for as long as I can remember. The Giant makes it so pleasant.
ReplyDeleteMay I add a tip that helps save time in the store? If you avoid as much as possible the aisles (which are, of course, mostly prepared and processed foods) and focus instead on the areas around the perimeter, you'll be eating healthier AND saving time! I've been doing our shopping (at Harris Teeter) for the last few weeks, and have been in-and-out in 45 or less minutes each week. Not bad for groceries for 4 to 5 people!
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