Shopping question

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I normally shop very late around 1.00am, it is peaceful, but you get the shelf stackers instead. My social worker is trying to get me to shop in normal hours, so she said try less populated supermarkets, waitrose is good if you use their hand held scanners as you shop, scan and pay. Then get out.

If you wanna satisfy her somewhat, but not like, go when everyone else is there, try shopping in the morning, if it's possible. 9-10AM or earlier, usually not too many people there, then more senior citizens than anything.

Now that I think of it, I invariably leave the aisle and come back later in hopes that the shelf in question will be vacated. I will walk past the end of the aisle and look in to see if it's all clear. If not, I will silently curse the person for hogging the aisle.

Speaking of grocery stores, I must say I love the new trend towards stores installing a few self checkout stations. This has removed one major source of anxiety for my grocery store visits. Not having to answer the clerk's obligatory, "hi how are you today?" and watch the clerk fondle my groceries and make comments about my choice of items is a major relief. Now if only they would put those in other stores. Like book stores. Book store clerks appear to be duty bound to comment on the buyer's book choice. Hate that.

I'd speak up and get what I needed. I arrange my grocery list from the back of the store to front, because if I pass the aisle I need I usually won't double back. If I jump around on the list, I'm probably going to forget something important anyway.

Before having my service dog, I would come back instead of talking to the person. But I have found now that I use a service dog, people either steer clear of me or focus on her and ask to pet her. In some ways it totally sucks as I can't remain invisible anymore, but in other ways it isn't too bad as people are focused on her (she is cute as a button and super friendly).

If someone is standing in front of whatever item I need I usually just come back to that aisle later on. I'm usually in a hurry to get out of the store so I zip up and down the aisles anyway. I get the rest of my shopping done and return to that aisle.

If the item is food related I will say "excuse me" and move in to get the item, no matter if they respond or not. When the item is not food I will get something in another area and then come back when they are gone. I try to grocery shop once a week, otherwise its too stressful. I wish these things didn't bother me so much...just be a "normal shopper".

I can relate. I try to shop late weekday nights, too. Last time we went a bit too early, like before 8pm. I was so irritated. There are so many people shopping in groups, chatting and stopping everywhere. Don't people have better things to do? Why does it take 3 adults from the same family to shop together? Those shopping alone are usually yakking on their cell phones. It seems a lot of people consider any moment not talking wasted.

In my case I'll most likely go away and come back later if it's a woman there. If it's a man I'll just reach out an arm in front of him and grab what I want. If they're seniors or children I'll say excuse me.

Where I live, the local grocery store closes at 7 pm. On the other hand, the store is rarely very crowded even if it is pretty small. The store in the next town over is bigger and closes at 8 pm. In either case, it's kind of difficult to shop late.

I used to live in Houston. Grocery stores often didn't close at all in Houston and so when I lived there, I tended to shop at midnight. Sometimes I think it is stranger that late than earlier in the day.

For example, one night I parked in front of the grocery store to go shopping at midnight. When I got out of the pickup, there was a little girl, maybe three years old, just standing there out in the parking lot looking completely lost. I took her into the grocery store and had the employees page her parents in case they were in there. A few minutes later while shopping, I saw the girl and two adults so I guess they were there.

I wondered how she could have wandered into the parking lot without them noticing. The only thing I could figure out is that they left the kid in car -- maybe she was asleep and they didn't want to wake her up -- and she got out of the car and started wandering around.

In stores that I visit often, I quickly settle on one particular path through the store. In many cases, the path was not an optimum path at all -- it goes back and forth crossing itself several times and is determined by the order of importance in what I want to look at.

At one bookstore one night I started on my path and found some women in my way right in front of the rack I always looked at first. So I patiently waited for them to move out of my way.

Several times that night in the store I found them in my way. About the fourth time I had to wait for them to move out of my way, one of the woman remarked to the other that I was following them. The other one gave me such a dirty look that I left without completing my path that night.

I was ignored when standing in the queue, only to see the person behind the counter help the woman that came after me. The woman that arrived after me started talking before I could even get a word in. I just left.

Late night shopping is amazing. Its when all the weirdos come out.

I enjoy late night shopping. I find the people out there (both employees and customers) are much more "real" and easy to talk to. I've even found the night stockers to be extremely helpful at times in helping me find things. I feel very comfortable at the store when I shop after midnight.