Much as I try to organize my shopping list in order I still end up doubling back. I’m getting a lot of extra steps in going down extra aisles to honor the one-way guidance.
In my Giant Food grocery the Giant/Peapod pickers have been courteous and indeed helpful. The Instacart pickers are just obnoxious.
“I still end up doubling back. I’m getting a lot of extra steps in going down extra aisles to honor the one-way guidance”
Same here. Even if I peek around the corner and the other way aisle is empty, that little man in my head is always there. So I just follow the right way arrows.
“Giant/Peapod pickers have been courteous and indeed helpful. The Instacart pickers …”
How can you tell who they are? I haven’t noticed anyone like that.
I noticed.this a few months ago and mentioned to my husband that employees returning items were taking up the aisles. He said those are pick-up orders. Silly me.
Those are the people to ask for help, they know where everything is. I did the same at a large retail place among a million other things.
The Giant/Peapod folks are all wearing Giant logo shirts and have the exact same wrist-mounted mini-tablet. The Instacart people are wearing street clothes and generally have a jumble of paper in front of them and a reasonably organized cart, sorting into bags (presumably by customer).
I imagine that to some people I look like an Instacart picker. Shopping list organized by aisle taped to the cart handle and using the remote self checkout scanner. grin
Around here (Chicago) the Instacart pickers wear shirts with the company logo on them, they also tend to be the ones standing in the middle of the aisle scanning the shelves for whatever item they’re looking for while making it impossible for anyone to pass without rubbing up against them. Peapod left the area in February just before all the fun began, wonder if they’re regretting that decision now.
I’m not shy about vocalizing.
I’ve been to Ralph’s, Albertsons and Sprouts here in SoCal(OC). Sprouts was the most organized, Someone at the cart area wiping down every cart; arrows in every aisle; pretty much fully stocked (only place I’ve found fresh garlic); long, winding line waiting for the next checker, but it moved surprisingly quickly. If only they’d had chocolate chip ice cream. 
Yes. I turn around, fix them with a nasty look, open my mouth slightly and hiss like a mad cat. They usually back right off.
I bet they do - good one!!!
No national retailers–Kroger, Target, Lowes, that previously recycled plastic film grocery bags are doing it now! 
I’m not sure anyone anywhere is recycling bags.
I’m not sure I want to either, though my main store will let us bring in our own shopping bags again. But it is the only one. Everyone else won’t allow any outside bags.
And that’s my issue. We have hundreds upon hundreds of these bags and nowhere to dispose of them properly anymore. We’re not going to put them in our trash to get rid of them because we know they’ll wind up in a landfill or an ocean and add to the poisoning of the planet. These companies that provided a recycling outlet before the pandemic, because it was a good business practice for them, are now playing us. And profiting for doing less for us then they did in the past.
Yeah, I don’t know what that’s all about - until a month or maybe two ago, Stop & Shop was (still) accepting them but then - even though they started taking recyclable bottles and cans again - the “bag” recycling bins just disappeared one day… (And a little weirder still, apparently no one bothered telling the store employees about it because they didn’t know what to tell people who asked about it other than “sorry, I don’t know, if the bins aren’t ‘out there’, I guess they stopped taking them?”…
I’ve been either reusing them (for shopping) if they’re heavy enough and/or for household trash and garbage for years (decades even), so it just saves me having to buy them anyway, but it is a little weird that they suddenly stopped accepting them for recycling…
I want to apologize to the HO community, and all of you individually, for the peevish and churlish attitude I’ve been bringing to the website in my writings. Please forgive me.
I woke up this morning almost overwhelmed by the thought of how blessed I and my family have been all of my life. I do not have the right to snarl, here, or anywhere else. I promise you all I’ll try to be better, going forward from here.
Most stores here have started allowing people to bring their own bags,but won’t pack them for you. And they don’t charge anymore for the plastic. Except Shop Rite. They do not provide bags. So I don’t provide me.
Some of us prefer a savory breakfast… esp after 10:00 a.m.
I’m sure most of you know that the biggest importer of our recyclables has stopped accepting them, or most of them anyway, so this is causing a backlog of problems currently.
If any of you are crafty, you can cut the plastic bag into strips, and crochet them together to make extremely sturdy reusable bags. A friend does this, so I give her mine. I’ll try to find one and take a pic of it, but I may have given it away. They’re pretty cool, but that type of project would make me crazy.
I’ve been buying the Grocery Outlet $.10 bags that are a really thick mil. They fold small enough to fit in a back pocket and last forever.
