Thursday 25 February 2016

How do you tackle the supermarket?

I ask for two reasons, one is the rather naughty cartoon in today's paper. It shows a blue half and a pink half. The blue half shows the male passage through the supermarket - straight to the item(s) and then out again. The pink half shows the female dance through all the aisles. The other is the question of whether the approach to supermarket shopping is similar to the way people approach life.
The layout of the supermarket I normally shop in is well known to me. I go shopping with a mental list of the things I need. I grab one of the "small" trolleys and prowl in. I am intent on getting what I need but I observe other items. If there is a "special" on and I judge it worth buying now then I may add it to the trolley as I pass the item.
I can put things in the trolley in an orderly fashion, starting at one end of the supermarket and ending at "frozen" foods/refrigeration at the other. I rarely, almost never, need to back track. I don't go down aisles containing things I don't need that day. At the check out I try be ready, I even try to put items together to make it easier for the checkout person. I try to be ready to pay.
It isn't because I am a particularly well organised individual and I am certainly not a tidy one but supermarkets do that to me. I don't particularly like shopping in a strange one unless the aisles are very clearly marked. (Yes, I know - joke.)
Middle Cat is all over the place in the supermarket. If we go together for any reason I leave her to it. I go and wait outside until she has finished. It can take her some time. There is the strong possibility that she will see someone she knows and they will stop and talk. (I can say hello in passing, even exchange a word or two, but I like to keep prowling on.) She changes her mind about what they will be eating and goes back for something else. (I can change my mind too but not if it involves the effort of prowling back for other ingredients.)
 I don't know what the Senior Cat is like because, if he goes at all, he goes because I am not there to do it. I suspect he has "bewildered male" syndrome in the supermarket. At least he won't be one of those males with a phone firmly clamped to one ear, trying to control a  wild trolley with another hand saying, "Right, I'm in that aisle, on the shelf on the right? No? Oh, that one? Do you want the blue packet or the yellow one?" 
I shift my paws sharply out of the way of such shoppers. They are dangerous.  It does suggest however that some women are well organised in supermarkets.
Some years ago I remember queuing behind a man who had his trolley filled with breakfast cereal and long-life milk, tea and instant coffee. There were a couple of household cleaning items in his trolley.
        "I only come in here twice a year,"  he told me. He lived alone and ate his other meals "out" or used frozen meals supplied by someone else. "I hate it when they move things and I don't know where to find them."
I am with him on that one.  That cartoon was just a little unfair.
 

1 comment:

Helen Devries said...

Being on autopilot in a supermarket if something is moved I've had it...I look at offers,but hate having to hunt for something I need.