Shopping grumps

[ladyofastolat]

Is it just me, or does food shopping get ever more complicated? I tried to buy tinned sweetcorn a while ago. Presumably we hadn't bought it for a long time, or maybe Pellinor happened to do the shopping the last time sweetcorn was on the list, or maybe the World of Sweetcorn, formerly simple, has recently acquired new complexities. I expected a choice between Brand Name, Another Brand Name and Own Brand. Instead, I found what seemed to my poor overloaded brain to be at least 127 subtly different sweetcorn choices. Which one is normal, old-fashioned sweetcorn? I wailed. Which one is the ordinary, classic, common-or-garden, original, newbie sweetcorn? No help was forthcoming.

It's even worse with toothpaste, where each brand name comes in about 105 different versions, all claiming to do something that sounds like a Good Thing, but none claiming to do all of them. Overwhelmed, I just buy whatever happens to be on special offer. And this week, I ended up bonding with an elderly lady over our shared Olive Oil Angst. Side by side, we surveyed the 20 foot wide display of all manner of olive oils, as we tried to work out which one was normal olive oil for cooking. I used to laugh about old ladies who stood around in shops loudly complaining about the price of carrots nowadays, or the shocking new-fangledness of the quiche. Now I seem to have become one.

What supermarkets need is some sort of walkthrough for confused newbies. ("New to tinned sweetcorn? Here's where to start!") Or maybe a clearly coloured shelf sticker that denotes the normal, regular, non-confusing version of a thing.

And while I'm busy grumping about shopping:

Why do so many clothes shops make it impossible to find clothes? Go into somewhere like Debenhams to look for trousers, and you have to look in 105 different places. At least it makes sense in Debenhams, because of the way the shop works: lots of different brands under the same roof. But M&S does the same thing now, with all their different ranges. I just want to browse trousers! I don't care if they're Per Una trousers, or Indigo Collection trousers, or M&S Classics trousers, or any of the other ranges they now sell. Why are they going out of their way to make things difficult? Well, yeah, I expect they're deliberately forcing customers to walk every inch of the shop in the hope that they get tempted by other items en route, but it's still very annoying.

As is the habit train stations have of only selling crisps in extra-large bags. After an early start and a long journey, I might feel in need of a small snack, but I don't want a large one. If they sold normal sized bags of crisps, they would probably get some money out of me. By only selling large ones, they ensure that I walk straight out again, feeling grumpy, negative thoughts in their general direction, and my money remaining unspent.

Comments

[torkell]

The sandwich shop round the corner from where I work started that a long time ago. I quite like Doritos, but not when they only come in too-large-for-one sizes.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I imagine their profit margins must be greater on large packets, or something? But I wonder if they take into account the custom they lose by removing the option of buying smaller packets. It's like one of our local foodie pubs that serves vast portions. We stopped going to it years ago, since the portions were too big to eat but I was brought up to feel guilty about leaving food, and I've spoken to loads of other people who avoid it for the same reason. Yet still they do it.

[adaese.livejournal.com]

We have discovered that our local Indian is quite happy for us to order a starter-sized portion of something followed by another starter-sized portion of something. This makes their meals manageable.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

That's good. Pellinor and I once spent a good few miles of a long walk solving the obesity crisis, at least as it relates to eating out. Making doggy bags the norm was the key proposal, but I was also strongly in favour of all restaurants being encouraged to offer smaller options. I felt it could even be in their financial interest. They could rebadge their normal-sized meal as the "large" option, and put the price up a little, while also offering a significantly smaller version for just a pound or two less.