Of the many responsibilities that come with being a college student, one of them--especially as you get older and move off campus--is grocery shopping for yourself. Sure, you’ve probably gone grocery shopping with your parent's hundreds of times as a kid, but buying food for yourself and navigating the grocery store alone is a whole new ball game. Here are some struggles of grocery shopping in college.
1. Shopping on a budget.
If you’re in college, then you are 110% shopping on a budget. Truthfully, I can’t really tell the difference between name brands and bargain brands things such as bread and coffee but there are certain things that don’t offer a bargain brand deal, like fresh produce, making healthy eating even more of a struggle than it already is.
2. Shopping when you’re hungry.
Maybe it’s just me, but at school, I am always hungry. Maybe that’s because most of my meals consist of snacks. Actually, that’s definitely why. Anyway, grocery shopping when you’re hungry is always a bad idea, because you wind up buying things you don’t actually need
3. Choosing between a cart and a basket.
Again, maybe this is just me but I always feel somewhat unjustified using a cart over a basket. Something about pushing a cart around a grocery store just feels so ~adult~ like you’re in command of a little tiny vehicle or something. Plus, grocery store aisles are so narrow and navigating a bulky cart can quickly become a stressor.
4. Shopping with your roommates/friends.
Everyone needs to get different things at different places in the store, and it seems like everyone scrambles the second you guys walk through the automatic doors. Then it’s pure insanity to try and round everyone up while simultaneously getting your own groceries.
5. Using self-checkout.
GOD FORBID your move your item from the scanner too quickly, and then it immediately asks you a million questions about whether you would like to bag the item or not. And of course, there’s always a huge line for self-checkout, because everyone is too intimidated to actually interact with cashiers.
6. Using a chip card.
Are we all in agreement that chip cards do nothing but stress everyone out? And when you’re at the grocery store with a line of people behind you waiting to purchase their groceries, the pressure only increases as you insert your card and then nervously extract it too early, having to start the whole process over again.
7. Bagging your own items.
Something else you’ve probably assisted your parents with hundreds of times is bagging the stuff you buy at the grocery store. Your mom most likely has a system (patent-pending) of exactly how she bags each item. But now you’ve got to bag stuff on your own (unless of course your cashier is kind enough to assist you) and everything is jumbled in different bags because, again, you’re stressed about the line of people behind you.
Grocery shopping. One of the many things that falls under the category of #adulting. It might be slightly stressful in the beginning, but eventually, you’ll get the hang of it and be the master of the shopping center nearest you.
