Also, and still going strong, Monterey Market.
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I miss shoppers corner in Santa Cruz
I love self checkout and scan as you go, and I generally enjoy weighing my own produce. Digital coupons is the gravy on that.
I like produce where I can pick my own. Many grocery stores offer this, but some of the items that get pre-packaged or bundled is a pain. It’s either too much for my needs and/or mixed bag of quality.
And this is a rarity, but every once in a while I see a store that has a little stool or ladder to help me reach the high shelves. Maybe a worker just forgot to put it back, but as a short person you can’t imagine how much I appreciate that. I’m surprised it isn’t more common.
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Step stools are not common because of liability issues.
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True that. But I just skim my receipt as I’m walking out (I’m usually just getting 2-10 items in a bag and only load up a cart 1/month on food pantry runs).
I’ve had something ring wrong(*) only once, which turned out to be a systemic problem at the source. I hadn’t looked at the label of a chicken package, but on the way out the door it struck me that it couldn’t be 4 pounds. So I put the other stuff in the car and came back in with the receipt/chicken, checked it on a produce scale and sure enough, it was more like 2 pounds.
I went over and eyeballed the whole chicken area and just at a guess, close to half of them were wrong, and all in the overweight direction. I told the manager and he started weighing and tossing into 2 piles, one to sell and one to… (?? I don’t know if they have some way to relabel at individual stores, but I doubt it, so he may have just sent them all back).
(*) Try saying “ring wrong” 4 times rapidly. 
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If I can’t find an employee to assist me, then I go and search for a ‘hoe’ or a long implement to pull an item closer to me. Usually works. I always say ‘thank you’ to the employee if I get assistance.
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At the risk of outing myself as a true connoisseur of cheap crappy beer, I’ve grabbed a longneck beer bottle out of a six pack and used the bottle’s cap to grapple-hook onto the top rim on Fosters Lager cans that were pushed to the back of the top shelf. I tip the can over toward me, then hook the rim again and drag it out to where I can grab it.
The packages of bamboo or metal skewers in the cookware mini-section are also pretty handy.
P.S. I’m always searching for hoes. 
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One of my favorite features of the local grocery store that I frequent up in NoCal is their “Improvement Box” – which is just their fancy name for “suggestion box”.
And it’s not just fancy nomenclature that makes me giddy. It’s the fact that they actually take your suggestions, er, improvement ideas, seriously.
Example.
We had suggested that they carry Doritos (yes, Doritos). And they complied.
So what, you say. Doritos are, um, sort of ubiquitous and easy to source.
Well, this is sort of a community non-profit market. Well, not just “sort of” but actually one. And they carry chips that are akin to Billy Goat, or Wrap City, or Rusty’s – y’know, supposedly small batch, handcrafted, organic thingamajigs.
So for them to carry Doritos would be like your Hummer dealership displaying a Prius in the showroom.
Cool shit.
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If I can’t find an employee to get something off a high shelf for me (and the bottom shelf is unsuitable as a step), I’ll ask a tall customer if one happens to be nearby.
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I just go shopping with a tall customer.
I’m 6’ 1" and quite often people will ask me to get stuff off the higher shelves for them. I gladly help them.
One lady saw pesto in my cart and asked “Where did you find pesto??” I told her it was right above the spaghetti sauce on the top shelf. I walked back to the aisle with her and retrieved some off the top shelf for her.
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As a tall person that gets these requests all the time, all I can say is “Thank you for asking me for help”. Some days helping someone out, even in a small manner, is one of the only positive things I can look back on.
And it builds karma, which is always a good thing.
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I am also that tall person. Always helped my petite mom and grandma, so I’m used to being asked. And I’m glad to help.
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I have almost stopped giving feedback, after being asked for feedback, providing some, then receiving an email from the company’s employee telling me why I am wrong, and why they like whatever I said was an issue or a problem 
It’s happened with the Canadian Opera Company and my local Costco.
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I made a larger than usual grocery run today. BOGOs were:
- Slabs of frozen babyback ribs, and St. Louis style ribs (got 4 for a total of about 15 pounds; most of us like ribs)
- Springer Mountain frozen, pre-cooked chicken wings - I’d never buy otherwise, but as bogo they’re $2.25/lb
- Fresh (cryovac pack) pork tenderloin
- Mrs. T’s pierogis (various flavors)
- Hillshire Farms kielbasas
- Pork shoulder (bone-in), which got it down to $1.50/lb
- Daisy sour cream
- Hebrew National franks, got 4 packs for baked chili-cheese dogs night (Ball Park and Nathan’s also BOGO)
- Philly cream cheese
- Store-branded “fruit on bottom” Greek yogurt cups
- Planters regular mixed nuts and deluxe (no peanuts) mixed nuts (got 8 of these, my main snack food)
- Heinz ketchup
- French’s mustard “spreads” (never seen these before; got the “creamy roasted garlic” flavor)
- Sweet Baby Ray’s bbq sauces
- Sweet onions
- Green tomatoes and “heirloom” tomatoes (getting them both down to $2.50/lb)
- Nectarines (getting them down to $2/lb)
I got some other items not BOGO but my total was $197 and would have been $340, were all the BOGO stuff at full price. But of course, I generally wait for a lot of this stuff to be BOGO before I buy it. The above represents about 15% of what was BOGO this week, so despite appearances I’m not completely indiscriminate in my shopping.
I am pretty sure that in the last several years, I have not bought coffee, any sort of condiment, pork ribs, cheeses (whether brick/shred/slice), kielbasa, hot dogs, pierogis, canned/bagged nuts (one of Planters, Blue Diamond, Emerald brands is bogo nearly every week), and many others that don’t come to mind right now that were not sold as BOGO at this store. OTOH, I’ll buy butter, cream cheese, fruits/produce and many other things no matter their promotional status if we need them.
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I go shopping early on Saturday mornings. Forever, another local fella I’ve seen at the usual haunts has shown up when I do. He has no arms nor legs, obviously bound to the wheelchair. Anymore, we walk around together so I can grab what he can’t. I’m only 5’9", though. Jump. One day, he asks me to follow him home. I go “wassup?” He says he thinks his battery is about to kaput. Sher as sht, it dies halfway to his home, another mile or so. Throw him in the truck and chair in the bed, and got to see how he lives. Pretty cool how dude makes it all work.
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My arms are not that long. I have used a spatula from the cooking utensil rack once.
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Im 6’8" . I have been asked more than once .lol .i love reaching for the top .
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Thank you for your service!
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Barbecue tongs also work. (I use them at home, for non-breakable, relatively lightweight stuff on the top shelf.)
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