"grocery shopping" news and stories

You go to your local grocery store to buy a frozen pizza and walk out with a bag of frozen peas on the side. (Well, they were sitting right next to the Three-Cheese Pie.) Or maybe you visit the produce aisle and find yourself feeling as if you're in a cozy kitchen -- the lights are diffused, and they're shining right on those turnips. Why not buy turnips for dinner, you think. Huh? Where did that come from?

The marketers who tempt you with end-of-aisle displays of wildly colored cereal boxes and eye-level rows of boxed mac-and-cheese are now being employed by supermarkets to help customers select more fresh food, reports NPR. Moving fresh food to the front of the store works (the path of least resistance usually does), Brian Wansink, the co-director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Program told NPR. When stores change their marketing schemes, such as trading in the harsh fluorescent bulbs for softer, more direct spotlights, he says, they sell around 30 percent more.

Let's face it. Produce spoils and the markets have to move it or lose it. That it's also better for you than a bag of chips is the bonus. And consumers are trying to eat more healthy foods, or at least that's what we claim. Just remember when you reach for the veggies, that placement, lighting, and even signage (calling eggplant "French aubergine," for example), are now giving you a helping hand.

I can't tell you how many times I've gone into the grocery store and decided to grab a hand-held basket instead of a cart, only to curse myself halfway through the shopping trip as my arm is ready to break with the weight of all my purchases. I end up staggering to the register, looking like a crazy woman as I half-carry, half-drag my items to the counter.

One grocery store in the Boston area has solved the problem of the overloaded hand basket by introducing ones that behave like the traditional baskets, save for the fact that when they get too heavy to carry, you can place it on the ground and wheel it along. Available in Shaw's Supermarkets, this basket has become a hit with shoppers (some might say too much of a hit, until the stores implemented a loss-prevention program, the baskets were wheeling themselves right out of the store). The store likes them too, as they encourage shoppers to toss a few more items into the basket than they might otherwise have done had they had to heft the full weight of the load.

You can also find these rolling baskets at New York-based Wegman's, Marsh Supermarkets in Indianapolis and Roundy's Supermarkets in Wisconsin.

[via Consumerist]

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I enjoy grocery shopping and spend more time in Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Shop Rite and my local produce store than is probably necessary. However, I know that lots of folks don't see grocery shopping as pleasurable endeavor in the same way that I do. For those of you, the folks at Unclutterer have put together a series of helpful tips on how to get in and out of the grocery store quickly and effectively.

They start by recommending that you make a weekly meal plan, so that you know what you'll be eating for a series of days. That way you can create a list and shop accordingly. They also suggest that you try to shop during off-peak hours so that you can move through the aisles and check-out stands in a more timely fashion.

I know that there are expert grocery shoppers among you out there. What are you secret tricks to keeping your kitchen stocked with a minimum of time and frustration?

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I have always enjoyed going grocery shopping. I've been doing it since I was 13. In those days, my mom would park in front of the store and send me in with a list and some money. It was a break for her and an adventure for me, so we both won. When I was 16 and had gotten my drivers license, I would beg to be sent to the store as it was an excuse to drive and opportunity to feel like an adult.

Even these days, I love buying groceries. I enjoy the opportunities for creativity that the aisles of food offer, as well as the escape and peace of it all. However, one company is looking at intruding on that peace, which makes me sort of sad. Modstream is looking at installing digital displays into the handles of shopping carts that will scroll text messages as you shop. These screens would give food companies another way to promote their products to any consumer who grabbed a cart.

[via Switched]

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Aside from the occasional late-night trips down the grocery aisle at the CVS across the street from my apartment building, I am a fairly predictable grocery shopper. I tend to hit Trader Joe's at least once a week and then supplement those groceries with a trip to the farmers market or a local produce stand. On a weekly basis, the top 10 things you will almost always find me buying are yogurt, milk, cheese (I like my dairy products), tofu, quinoa, light coconut milk (a recent obsession), fruit (nectarines, plums and apples these days), grass-fed beef, arugula and tomatoes (not a very titillating list I'm afraid). Of course, there's always loads more coming in and out of my kitchen than that (I'm a person who buys a new variety of salt nearly every month) but those are the basics.

What are the 10 things that you find yourself buying most often? Snack foods? Bread and peanut butter? Kraft singles? Share the dirty details of your grocery bags.

This post inspired by Mary at the WC Dish. Picture by Esther17.