Annoying characteristics of supermarkets.

Their are many things about supermarkets I dislike. 

Things like the car park, the layout of and constant rearranging of the layout, people not being prepared to pay for their comestibles after waiting in the queue and then waiting until everything is rung up before hunting for their purse, the long queues, far too much choice in brands of goods.  But my gripe today is about bread.

There is always plenty of sliced bread.  But I don't like sliced bread except to toast.  I like a nice fresh bakery loaf. Most times.I bake a loaf myself using a breadmaker.  Bit with no yeast I found myself looking in the supermarket a full two hours before it closed both last night and today

And what did I find? The instore bakery had sliced all of a full score of loaves, both wholemeal and white leaving no loaves uncut.  When I asked about this, I was told they 'have to' slice the loaves when they have finished the day's baking which put me close to meltdown. it does not make any sense to me as I am sure that many  other customers would also prefer an unsliced loaf. I refuse to have a sliced loaf. I like my bread cut three inches thick so I can delight in the texture of the fluffy inner, feeling it melt away in my mouth. If I want sliced bread there is plenty of choice of sliced loaves, and I am quite capable of cutting it myself. Even a loaf sliced from the bakery loaf tastes totally different when it is cut into half inch thick slices rather than the chunks I like.

On both occasions they have lost a customer and I made do with a bowl of shredded wheat instead. And I will get some.yeast and continue continue to bake my own bread which will only be sliced at tje point of eating, and I can savour the flavour of a nice chunky piece.

What do others find annoying about supermarkets,, or is there anyone who thinks supermarkets are like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way.

  • I also get annoyed when people stand in the queue for ages and dont get their money ready to pay until the end. People who get too close to me. 

    I had to visit a large supermarket last week as it had a pharmacy.theyd changed the layout the last time I'd been so I was prepared but already unhappy. I arrived and theyd not only changed the layout again but had brighter lights, were painting somewhere as it smelt so strong and the tanoys were so loud! I ended up in tears sobbing struggling to breath when I reached the car. 

    I love my local small morrisons who arent perfect but arent as terrible as asda near me

    Oh and people smoking around the doors! One it affects my asthma and two I have this fear of cigarette smoke and damage it does so I hold my breath as long as I can

  • I listened to a very interesting article from The Guardian about Aldi. Many people suffer from "checkout panic" as their items whizz towards them faster than they are able to get them into the trolley or bag! I think Alldi approve of this. They like to keep their customers as well as their staff in a state of anxiety.

  • The lighting

    Lack of Windows 

    Illogical ordering of goods on shelves

    Other customers

    The trolleys squeaking

    The thought of all the other people who have touched the trolley handles

    The light reflecting off the floor

    Shoes squeaking on the floors

    Entire families doing the shop when one person could take the list

    Too much choice

    Too much packaging

    The announcements over the speakers

    The tinny music

    Having taste tests thrust at me

    Screaming children

    Goods that aren't groceries and shouldn't be in a supermarket

    The capitalist, corporate greed

    The consumer greed

    The carrier bags

    The car park

    Wonky signs that need straightening

    Wonky produce on shelves that needs straightening

    People putting goods down in the wrong section

    The beep at the tills

    The Americanisation

    The dead animals in the meat section which is impossible to avoid

    The dairy free section containing products which have animal derivatives in them that just aren't from cows. 

    The lack of natural light

    No clocks

    The waste of my life that will never be returned to me after spending time there

    The rudeness of other customers

    Other customers trying to make conversation 

    Other customers blocking aisles 

    The lack of a one way system to navigate the aisles

    The ridiculous slogans used to sell goods 

    They're just the ones that come to mind straight away but I've not been to a supermarket in four years so in all likelihood things have deteriorated further.

  • I enjoy some supermarkets , hate others.

    One of my favourite ones was a Safeway near Roundhay park in Leeds.  It was a nice medium size, never too busy and never empty, large windows on three sides, so lots of natural daylight.  A large Tesco was built about a mile down the road.  And that took most of its business.  So this supermarket became a quiet backwater.  Nice and relaxing to visit whenever I was in the area.  Later it became renamed Somerfield then co-op.  But the atmosphere remained the same.

    A couple of years ago I got a shock.  It was taken over by home Bargains and rebuilt.  The windows were gone, replaced by brick.  All artificial light inside and different layout and stock . Absolutely hated my visit.  Haven't been back since then.

    Now for other supermarkets and my opinions.

    Aldi, in my city Aldi's all look the same,. Same stock in the same places, staff very busy and frightened, working very quickly.  Aldi run a tight ship.

    Lidil, very different from Aldi,. Stock similar, but very relaxed, fewer customers, and not as well stocked.  Atmosphere very different.

    Morrison's, again usually very relaxed.  I've gone off their  cafes,. Often long delays , out of stock meals and lukewarm food.  Overall an excellent supermarket.

    Sainsbury's, again no complaints.

    Waitrose, .again relaxed and good food.

    M& S,. One of my favourites.

    Asda,. Depends on the branch.

    Co-op.  Current branches very over priced in middle class neighborhoods. Even more expensive than Waitrose.

    Tesco.  I've only recently forgiven them for chucking me off one of their training courses for being autistic.

  • I usually pick up a basket in the supermarket. Armed with this new knowledge about how to pack your bags in Aldi, however, I decided on a trolley. All of the trolleys were chained together just outside the store. I spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out how to free one of them. Then I spent another couple of minutes looking for a loose one in the car park. Eventually I realised that people were starting to stare, the very thing I'd hoped to avoid, so I used a basket as usual.   Disappointed

  • Yeah .... I refuse to pack my stuff twice and just pack at the till ... to the disapproving stares from everyone else in the queue. Usually the check out staff starts the next persons shopping but I refuse to move and keep packing my stuff. Ha, little things : p 

  • I went in Aldi yesterday and tried to pack my bags at the checkout. This is bad Aldi etiquette apparently. You're meant to quickly shove all items back into the trolley, pay the bill and then pack your bags on a shelf at the back of the store.

    Gradually I am getting the hang of how to blend in unobtrusively with other bipeds.

  • My stepdaughter drives me to the nearest large Sainsbury. She comes round the supermarket with me. I give her the shopping list, and she then directs where we go. At the checkout she packs the groceries ,  and I then pay by debit card.

    There's a smaller Sainsbury in town which I've used a couple of times , and a Co-op that I've used once when I first moved here.

    The biggest hassle at my old address was the behaviour of other shoppers going round the supermarket. Where I am now people are far less pushy.   I mostly did an online shop though. 

    When I shopped in store I never used to make a list and ended up often buying stuff on a whim.  The amount of choice tended to overwhelm me.

    Here with a shopping list , and my stepdaughter guiding us round the aisles, it's far less overwhelming.

  • Years wasted as a youngster playing tetris on the gameboy perfectly prepared me for the checkout.

    Me too - the checkout people often comment on my amazing packing skills - I tell them I'm the European Tetris Champion 3 years running.

  • Spot on! This is my main contribution to the family weekly shop, after getting the kids their free fruit, helping by putting the garlic bread, milk and my weekly crisps in, the rest magically happens whilst I navigate the trolley and try not to over excite the kids!

    Years wasted as a youngster playing tetris on the gameboy perfectly prepared me for the checkout. I even hear the music when I logically order the products, sometimes I even sing it..

  • There is a right way:

    1. all large/heavy items first - so they end up in the bottom of empty bags

    2. all unbreakables (tins/packets) to fill in all the space around the bulky items

    3. all the fragile stuff so it ends up on top

    4.  squashy/fresh stuff like bread - maybe in its own bag.

    Also - in the boot of the car, all heavy stuff goes on the left - so if the load shift around roundabouts, it keeps the fragile stuff safe.

  • My checkout belt is more in a logical order than photogenic. Logical to only myself that is. Upside down

  • Took me a while to realise why I was attracting unwanted attention at the checkout in sainsburys. I finally realised that I was arranging my shopping much too neatly and carefully on the conveyor belt. It was partly a way to distract myself from all the noise and chaos going on around me I suppose. Anyway, one day someone asked if she could take a photo of my beautifully laid out shopping and then hurriedly added "only joking" when she saw the expression on my face.  Smiley

  • I'm a bit late to this thread, sorry!

    Mum and myself used to go to the supermarket later in the evening, precisely because it was more quiet, and only a few other shoppers and staff around.  At this time, I didn't have a diagnosis.

    But one time, a few days before Christmas, for some reason or another, we had to go one afternoon when it was full of shoppers, corny seasonal music (as another poster pointed out), and I absolutely HATED it.  I was so relieved when the shopping was done, and leaving the supermarket I told Mum I felt really drained, and was so glad to get out of the store and go home.  Once I read up about autism (not connected to the visit), I understood why I found that particular supermarket visit so stressful.

    It was soon after that visit we decided to do our shopping online, and it's SO much better to be able to sit at home and choose the items.  Having done online shopping for three years or more, we wouldn't go back to visiting a store now.

  • Yes, I am naive but again, not totally stupid.

    No, BlueRay.  You're not stupid at all.  You know exactly what you are doing.

  • I dread supermarkets.  From the shout outs on the loud speakers that I half miss then worry just incase there was some thing I should have done or heard, to the continuous music, to the person who starts to whistle - this is particularly bad for me as I find it painful.  Then you have the pickers who are doing others shopping with those massive carts that make me loose my balance when they go past.  The horrendous smell of meat and fish competing with perfume/aftershave or worse still body odour/smokers.  By the time I make it to the till I am often very worked up. The tills them self offer a whole new kind of hell.  First if you are unlucky you have the shopper behind you who think its ok to start moving your shopping up - after you have spent ages picking and digging for the least touched items in the first place.  Yes I do leave gaps in my shopping but I like to see what I have and plan how I am going to bag it so that I can get it home safely and unpack it in the best order possible.  Then you get trapped.  The one in front is yapping to the person at the till, you have got in line and the next person has come up behind.  I HATE the places.  I have be banned from one shop for an out burst because in the bakery part people were picking up the bread rolls with their bare hands and putting them back down, and being a germ a phobe it all became just too much for me.

  • Hi Blue Ray, sorry to hear that. I hope you change your mind.

  • faux-naivete-seeming comments that I find irksome

    Yeah, being autistic makes it difficult for me to pick up on those things and even if I were to monitor my every word I would still get it wrong because I have different values to most people. But don’t worry, like I’ve said to others, I might be on the more severe end of autism, but I’m not stupid and I can take clear messages, finally, so I will stop bothering you. I thought I might be welcomed in a group of autistic people but you’re more like nt people than autistic people (to me) you seem to know what to say and what not to say, when to say it and when not to say it, what things offend and how to avoid them etc etc etc. I don’t have that manual which clearly makes me an autistic nuisance. Sorry, I  didn’t mean to be. I only recent learned what one of those faux things are but I still don’t know all the things on the list so I’m bound to break the faux rules at some point, no matter how hard I try and clearly, that’s not accepted here. I guess I don’t belong anywhere on Earth after all. It seems I was right all along. I’m not made for a world that cares more about a tin of soup in its right place on a shelf, than people. Yes, I am naive but again, not totally stupid. I won’t trouble you good folks any more. 

  • I'm not a fan of anywhere where people randomly stop in your path, block entrances / exits to have a chat, don't have their payment method ready when at the checkout and excessively busy environments.

    Don't get me started on people that are seemingly unable to navigate efficiently with their own legs.

  • I used to work in a supermarket, well it mostly in the car park collecting trolleys. I loved it especially since I was literally working with a guy named James Bond.