Grocery shopping -anyone else?

I currently do 99% of my grocery shopping online. My stepdaughter is talking about shopping in store more. With online shopping there are various links to click to get to different sections and then choose. I have something of a set pattern of doing things which works for me.

However in store shopping is something I struggle with. I am bad at organising myself to get what I need. I struggle to make shopping lists , and tend to shop haphazardly . I think this is to do with executive functioning difficulties.

I wondered whether this was a problem for anyone else. How are you at in store grocery shopping?

  • If I'm on my own, I'm fine. With others... not so much. As I'm not in control of the situation and more likely to be called out on anything I've misbagged or not put in the trolley correctly, which can set me off as it makes me feel useless.

  • hi guys my name is robyn i go to the shop all the time for my shopping but i end up getting panic attacks every time i walk into a big groccery store and can only last 5 minutes in there before having the attack! does anyone have any suggestions on how to cope with this or a mechanism i could try to distract myself from my panic attacks?

  • Aldi try to keep customers moving very fast through the tills.  

    My local Aldi is friendly, no shouting at customers and late night shopping means small queues.

    The shopping experience at different hours is very different.  During the day it's normal busy, evening it gets very hurried with people rushing everywhere.  Then it quietens down.  my local supermarkets are Aldi, Asda and Waitrose.  All are different.  If I walk further I find Sainsbury and Morrisons.

    The people are also different.  Some I see regularly in a particular supermarket.  The scruffs in Asda,. The snobs in Waitrose.   I shop everywhere.

  • One of the things I struggle with is the choice. If I want a tin of baked beans, I'm presented with 12 different types - the store's own brand, the economy one, Heinz, sugar-free, other brands...and then when I've finally narrowed it down, I have to decide if getting a 6-tin pack which is on offer is better than getting a 4-tin pack which isn't. I just want a tin of beans and this sort of choice makes it really difficult to find what the "right" one is.

    I shopped at Aldi once which helped, because there was no choice, there was just a tin of beans. No brands, no reduced-salt, just 1 type of beans. Of course that was all offset by the fact that the cashiers shout at you for packing shopping into your bag after it's gone through the checkout, as apparently you have to dump it all into your trolley and then pack your bags in a designated area behind the checkout. Very odd.

  • I went into a 24-hour Tesco once at midnight on my way back from a night out, it was amazing. It was like they'd opened the place especially for me.

  • Same here, I love the late night shopping.  The atmosphere is very different.

  • I hate grocery shopping. Even with a list I will forget at least one thing as the slightest distraction will throw me off and I will the just stare at the shelves blankly not knowing what I am even looking for.

    It really bugs me when it is too busy as it feels like I am being rushed by the crowds of people so end up getting so stressed I will cut my trip short just to get out of there.

    One thing that does help is going late at night when it is quieter as I don't feel as rushed and get less distracted.

  • 9:30pm on a Friday and pubs & bars are full of happy and joyful people.

    And I'm supermarket shopping again.  The atmosphere is very different from the early evenings.

    Also, on one of my daytime walks I met an acquaintance from the employment agency that the job centre has forced me to attend.  My friend explained why he hated that agency and left it.  He's just succeeded in making a appeal to get the ESA.  And admitted he has mental health issues.  I confessed my autism.  We got along fairly well.

  • I tend to dump and run.....,and can procrastinate terribly about getting myself to the shop....

  • Lol not days but longer than I need to be and I end up buying things I don't need. Or go the other way and put it all back and leave the shop

  • It’s good to find out 5he best times to hunt and gather provisions xx

  • Saturday night and I'm so bored I actually went grocery shopping to two late night supermarkets.   Not many people there at this time so no problem with noise or too many people or queues.

  • Sounds horrible..,I have visions of you being stuck there for days!

  • Yes! I feel like my brain is a ping pong ball going from one idea to the next. I zip from one aile to another and spend more time walking around than I do shopping.

    Then I get frustrated with myself for being unproductive and then overwhelmed by all the people in the way and all the movement around me. Then I feel dizzy and like I am suffocating inside.

    I have to follow strict rules to go shopping where I make a list in advance and follow it step by step. Otherwise I spend hours unproductively shopping

  • . said:
    but I am sure that he will come back with more than we need/want....... :)

    Even better than that...

  • Not something I have a problem with, I do virtually all other shopping online but grocery shopping is done in the store. I tend to follow a set circuit of the store working through my mental list of items I need and will only deviate if there is something I specifically need outside of my normal route (for instance I don't buy dishwasher or washing machine tablets weekly as I buy in bulk and they probably last 6 months at a time). It normally takes me between 10 and 15 minutes to get round but if I have to go to a different store to one of my usual ones I can find that might more than double in time. I also tend to stick headphones on and listen to music as it cuts out unwanted interactions.

  • I haven't gone through diagnosis of being on the ASD spectrum.  However, I can not cope with going shopping in supermarkets unless I plan meticulously in my head the night before, what I need such as ingredients for making and decorating a cake.  If one piece of the ingredients isn't supplied, the whole thing falls apart for me.  I can't do grocery shopping very well, I get overwhelmed with choice and then end up choosing nothing or choosing stuff we don't need.  I can't cope with lots of people and trollies, I can feel my temper rising.  I can't stand waiting in line, especially if I think the customer in front is talking to much to the till person.  The amount of times I've filled up a shopping basket with stuff, then halfway round supermarket completely changed my mind and emptied the whole of the basket, to then fill it up with crap.  I get very stressed very quickly in all shopping situations, including clothes shopping.  My cheeks and neck go red.  But I am happy to shop online, I could do that all day every day.  But I suppose that would come under doing activities on my own

  • We'd love to hear from participants in this thread who have tried the National Autistic Society's Autism Hour this week. You can plan your visit on the map: http://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/tmi/autism-hour/map.aspx

  • Hey....I tell my A Level students that a U is just a C grade that is having a rest!!! :)