Poll: What day do you go grocery shopping?

[FLSUnFIRE]

Usually Tuesday after my guitar lesson, I also combine any other chores that requiring driving if I can as I really do not enjoy driving around town or getting my car dirty and wear and tear for unfun stuff. I'll go other times if I need something but still with the philosophy of combining trips. I have enough groceries at the house and skipped this week entirely since it's a guitar lesson bye-week and I was not motivated to do so.

 

[Alan]

Whenever, but not Saturday or Sunday. Too many working stiffs crowding the aisles.

My BIL always complained about the retirees crowding the aisles when he was working.

We go multiple times during the week on foot, avoid weekends and always walk down to the street market on Thursday mornings when we are home. We drive to the store for heavy items about once a month. (We have our milk delivered)

 

[Bamaman]

My wife's into salads one time per day, and the produce is quick to age.

So we hit Aldi's about every 3rd day for the cheapest produce available in our market. And we hit Kroger on Wednesdays for their sale items. We go to Publix for their 2 for 1 sale items and that's about it.

 

[audreyh1]

Usually once a week or less often. The day is determined by other errands or our other activities. Usually try to hit the least busy times which means mid-morning on Sunday or a week day.

 

[Markola]

We are fortunate to have a Super Target one mile away, which includes a quality, bargain grocery store. I use the Target app to pick groceries from home, pay for them with the associated Target Red Card (5% off everything), and drive over a couple of hours later for staff to load everything in the car, usually on Tuesdays. Easy peasy.

 

[Walt34]

My wife's into salads one time per day, and the produce is quick to age.

Someone else on the forum told me this and it works to help extend the refrigerated shelf life of salads; put a paper towel in the container with it. That helps absorb moisture and it keeps longer by several days up to a week. Works for me anyway.

Back on topic, I favor Tuesdays and Thursdays as those follow restocking days where I usually go, but I don't adhere to a schedule. I'll try to avoid weekends, but if I do go on a weekend it's before 9:00 AM before things start to get crowded.

 

[Teacher Terry]

When I live alone I go once a month to Winco which has the best prices and quality much better than Walmart. In between for milk, etc I will stop at the save mart by my house. I hate grocery shopping so spend as little time as possible doing it.

 

[Jerry1]

I go whenever I need to. I try to stay away from weekends. I don’t worry too much about what weekday I go but I do pay attention to what time I go. I don’t go during after work hours (after 4pm) and usually try to go before noon. We have a banana every day so that’s what usually takes me to the store. I buy 6 to 8 bananas at a time. Any more and they get too ripe. So that gets me to the store about twice a week.

 

[RobbieB]

I'm retired, go whenever I want. Sometimes google up a new recipe and go just for that.

 

[aaronc879]

Varies greatly. I mostly only shop sales. When things I want on are sale I may go 4-6 times that week and get the same sale items each time to really stock up. Some weeks I skip groceries completely. New ads come out on Wednesday so that is the day I go most often. I also go based on weather. I try to always avoid going out in the rain if I can and never get groceries if there is fresh snow on the ground.

 

[rk911]

I go early saturday morning. i started doing that when we were snowbirding in AZ in the spring of 2020. in the early days of the virus most of the groceries in Mesa had "senior" hours, usually for an hour or two on saturday mornings. my wife didn't like to drive while we were in AZ and there was no reason for both of us to go so I went alone. i wasn't comcerned about mingling with the shoppers after the senior hours but with all the shortages i figured i'd have a better shot at the stock on hand.

when we returned home in mid-May of 2020 I continued to do the shopping and found the early saturday morning crowd at our store of choice was relatively sparse. besides, I get an early crack at the fresh donuts! every now and then I have to hit a second store for an item or two or for something special.

 

[Aerides]

I go whenever, multiple days.

But I do remember a time in my life, for many years, when the answer was Payday.

 

[martyp]

We did have a particular day but I forget what it was. However, I realize now that we had one shopping day because we ate 90% of our meals at home and lived in the suburbs. Shopping on a single day was convenient. Now, I live in a big city, Bangkok, and eat out 50% of the time because restaurants are so accessible, cheap and delicious. So our shopping now is every couple of days at a nearby fresh market.

 

[NW-Bound]

Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. These are the days that the local stores restock or have new sales.

 

[FlaGator]

When I need to, or it's convenient to rebuild inventory of stuff that is used a lot (olive oil, rice, salad dressing, etc.). Not going to lock myself into a schedule for keeping adequate fresh food in the house or to miss sales of the high volume consumables.

 

[Gumby]

I go whenever, multiple days.

But I do remember a time in my life, for many years, when the answer was Payday.

That's why avoid the grocery on the first three days of the month, regardless of which day of the week. Because if you get SNAP, those are the days that the benefits get loaded on your EBT card. Aldi's is always swamped on those days.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

Someone else on the forum told me this and it works to help extend the refrigerated shelf life of salads; put a paper towel in the container with it. That helps absorb moisture and it keeps longer by several days up to a week. Works for me anyway.

.

I usually buy the 16oz spring mix from SAM's Club and use paper towel and think it helps. I also avoid buying if the date is close or there seems to be excess moisture in the packages. Still, the purple "greens" like to turn to goo way too soon so I'll try to get most of them in my first salad... just me so I eat 4-5 huge salads/wk depending on the density of the batch. The Walmart spring mix is a different vendor and lasts much longer (but is ~25% more expensive than the SAM's club that has been pretty consistent at $3.88/lb).

 

[DayDreaming]

Any weekday but I avoid weekends

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Funny, it is never crowded here on Saturday Morning when I go, between 9 and 11am. In fact it is better than during the week in a lot of cases.

 

[street]

Someone else on the forum told me this and it works to help extend the refrigerated shelf life of salads; put a paper towel in the container with it. That helps absorb moisture and it keeps longer by several days up to a week. Works for me anyway.

Back on topic, I favor Tuesdays and Thursdays as those follow restocking days where I usually go, but I don't adhere to a schedule. I'll try to avoid weekends, but if I do go on a weekend it's before 9:00 AM before things start to get crowded.

The paper towel trick is a game changer for us also.

 

[ElizabethT]

Generally Wednesday or Thursday, depending on what physical activities are happening, and where. We do long hikes, bikes, and/or kayaking most days, which take up a good number of hours and energy, and will break up our shopping into chunks as it works around these.

I do menu planning for the week on Wednesday mornings, that's pretty consistent, then I keep the shopping list with me so we can swing into our various places over the next two days as per above. We buy certain staples at Aldi's, coffee/cheese/bananas at Trader Joe's, and whatever loss leaders are being advertised that have appeal at two close by supermarkets.

We eat so well, and haven't increased our grocery budget in ten years by following this practice, and so it continues.

 

[sengsational]

It seems to me that in decades past, going daily made more sense. Back then, there was significant fluctuation in availability. And fluctuation in pricing. If they "always" have everything and it's the same price, you're not gaining anything by going more often. I imagine (and I must imagine, because I've had grocery duty just a handful of years in my whole life) grocery shopping where there were surprises and little victories to be had might make more frequent trips more common.

 

[tmm99]

A few times a week. No particular days. I have four grocery stores within a mile from my house, so it's not a big deal.

 

[gamboolman]

One of the nice Retirement benefits is we go mid morn to early afternoon.

Avoid Weekends.

ms gamboolgal has her List.

I provide Zombie Overwatch and tote the stuff.

 

[Dalmore]

A more relevant question would be what "time" do you go shopping. We go whatever day of the week we need, but we try to do it while most people are at work. We only do Costco during the week and before 3pm.

When I was working from home just before retiring, I tried to get DW onboard with shopping for dinner each day, but that didn't work out as Covid struck soon after, limiting access and supplies. We have a habit of buy for the week, and then changing our meal plans. I don't like all the beef and chicken we throw out because we forget it is in the fridge. It has gotten better, but we still waste too much food IMO.