How do you shop at the supermarket?

I was of a friend of mine recently and the peculiar way he shops at the supermarket. He doesn’t have a car and lives alone so he visits the supermarket twice a week with his backpack. His strategy is to only visit the aisles on the outside of the supermarket on a Wednesday and then the inner aisles on a Saturday. I asked him what happened if he ran out of toilet paper on Monday and he said that it would be unfortunate as that would be a Saturday morning trip.

His level of discipline and strategy is extraordinary to me, and quite the opposite of my “let’s see what’s calling us” approach to shopping. I like to wander up and down the aisles in a leisurely manner, pick up all the new things, see what’s on special, see what looks nice and generally shop by mood. I never have a list and never have a meal plan.

My friend who played supermarket shopping chess is skinny, fit and very well all of the time. I am not. So, it got me thinking that perhaps a more strategic approach to shopping could be in order.

According to Deloitte, shoppers are valuing fresh food and veggies more and more but we are also feeling more and more stressed when it comes to shopping (clearly they didn’t survey me!).  Since 2020, we are shopping less often but when we do, we are stocking up on items on a more regular basis.

I’ve done an experiment this week. I was going in for some Slendier Bean Pasta anyway and found that the health food aisle is now a place of glory and wonder. The number of new things in there is staggering!

So, this week I started in the health food aisle, made my way to the fresh produce… and left! I looked down and realised that I really didn’t need anything else.

Eat for health has given me some good tips this week too:

• Plan meals and snacks for the week and make sure you buy everything you will need.
• Write a list and stick to it.
• Don’t shop when you’re hungry so you are less tempted by unplanned choices.
• Concentrate on buying foods from the Five Food Groups and limit discretionary foods.
• Use your label reading skills to work out which are the best choices and look for these each time you shop.
• Click here to learn about basic foods which you can stock up on.

I’m not sure how many of those I can stick to at once, but I’m sure going to start with the health food aisle from now on!