(TikTok screenshot)

Hah, that's why I just cropdust their aisle upon turning around.

I'll just go down the next aisle and wait for the old person to be so grossed out that they move on.

why I shop at night or as close to closing time as possible, and also why I have no issue getting close with people as and assertive for space or passage. you wanna go in public and act like nobody else exists? I'll act like you don't exist

Lots of old people can’t smell and are perpetually crop dusting.

Source: spend a lot of time with old people

You just slowly but firmly push your cart into that whole situation while saying “sorry! Scuse me! Sorry!”

Wednesday is Senior Discount Day at my local grocery store and it’s unbridled chaos. I do my best to avoid Wednesdays.

When I’m in the grocery store, I constantly have to remind myself that other people do indeed exist. My brain becomes 80% nonsense, 15% is focused on the thing on the shelf, and 5% spatial awareness.

If you ever intend to pants me, the grocery store is a great place to try it.

It depends on the person and of course their age.

Older people shopping are probably in their 70s or less. You just don't see many beyond that age shopping on their own very often.

Source: Am in my 50s.

Some of them tell you they can't smell but just dgaf

Some one please explain what is this dude doing?

I’m glad I’m not the only one who gets overstimulated at the grocery store.

Costco drives me insane. I like Costco but not being in Costco.

Disregarding the fact that maybe other people need to traverse the aisle

I mean, big box stores have high rooves with no sound insulation and are blasting music and ads*, the shelves are covered in brightly colored packaging trying to compete for your attention (plus more ads), they usually have terrible bright commercial lighting, there's a lot of people with large carts (and poor awareness of their surroundings) trying to get through the same spaces, and you have to find all the things you need with that going on around you.

I don't believe I've been in a Costco (or can't remember it), but the giant Walmart / Target / Kroger stores are already bad enough.

*Don't get me started on the fridges, which at one store I've been to were loud enough that I couldn't hear someone next to me.

Why is it that they're always exactly where you need to be too? Or, you try to hit an empty store aisle at 2:00 on a Tuesday and suddenly there's 6 people all around you on opposite sides, trapping you in the middle.

I'm the polar opposite. People are obstacles, the objectives are on the grocery list, and I must get them as quickly as possible.

I get progressively more stressed if I can't find things, and the longer it takes to find them.

Yeah...

Lacking any semblance of spacial awareness.

Never seen that in Germany

The store I usually go to has been unusually bad about stocking things lately, and it's infuriating. I'm already having to drive 20min to the store (I hate driving), then I gotta navigate the mess, try to find things, overcome sticker shock at the price (seriously, $3/lb for fresh broccoli?!), only to find out that the cheap version is out of stock and I gotta revamp my whole plan on the fly because they've only got the fucking pasta that costs twice as much in stock.

I am about ready to start tipping shelves over.

He parked his trolley on the opposite side of what he needed, thinking that he could look at the products from across the aisle while he chose, and people could go in front of him. Then he wanted a closer look at one of the products, so he leaned forward to pick it up, and stayed leaning forward and blocking the aisle once he had it because he forgot to be aware of his surroundings.

My thing is why don’t people commit to one lane like driving rules? Why do they think it makes sense to have 2 people going the same direction right next to each other in the aisle?

I've seen it many times, and also these classics:

• Elderly couples entering the store with a shopping cart, then stopping immediately behind the entrance - "Oh, won't you look at all this stuff in here? Now what do we need again?", completely oblivious to the queue forming behind them.
• Old people standing in the middle of aisle intersections with their shopping carts like statues, just... pondering.
• Old people very slowly paying with coins at the checkout, like one cent at a time.

The same people who rush onto the subway as soon as the doors open.

Can't push them, but you can sure as hell push their cart out of the way

i have seen it in germany

lucky you. there are definitely people who have no spacial awareness either where I am in germany

I live next to the border to the Netherlands and the supermarkets are usually super crowded. If someone behaved like that it would probably escalate quickly.

Where I live the supermarkets are often super crowded and things like that don't really happen or maybe only for a few seconds before someone gets angry and resolves it.

However, I have seen the paying with coins at checkout thing. I prefer that over people who try to discuss discounts and prices at the checkout though.

This and why do you need to go to the store during rush hour? As pensioner why would you not go in the morning - you wake up a 6 anyways.
Best part is that they complain how full everything is and no one is respecting the elderly, all while the rest of us are just trying to grab a few things after work and get home quickly.

Yup, gotta stop just a notch shy of "I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!" in these situations.

I put off going to such places as long as I can. Sometimes I'll think, "I could go to Costco after work," but once work is over I'm like, "Bruh, no, I do not have the energy to put up with that crowded place."

I've been seeking out small, more specific stores lately. I already don't want to go to Walmart or Target for a number of reasons. Despite knowing they'll have what I need and it's not far away, I'll go farther just to visit the smaller hardware store, or smaller grocery store, or smaller housing goods store, etc. Even without the ethical issues, dealing with the sheer size of those places is too much.

I really hope our generation of collective anxiety could bring about at least one benefit - the downfall of massive stores like Walmart and Target.* Granted, it won't happen for a while (if at all, especially in rural places), but I highly doubt we're as rare as we feel we are. Big box stores had their moment, for a generation that wanted that. But times change, people's preferences change, and just as those stores once drove out local competition, someday the tides can turn again.

*Costco can stay, though. They treat their employees well.

I move people's carts that block my way all the time

Cartjack them, run off and they can't catch you. Technically it's legal because the cart and all its contents belong to the store. You just gotta dump the grandchild at the first corner or everyone's phones will vibrate

Exactly, all ages do this. So many clueless people in the world who don't realize other humans are also in the store.
This attitude also has no geocode.

It's not just old people I find. Just anyone else in the shop.

I get stressed out when I'm out shopping because I get claustrophobic - I feel like anywhere I am in the shop, there's always someone up in my grill.

Call me mad but I've tested this by going to stand out the way, (no trolley or owt) for instance by a pillar or where there's no products, or people wanting to pass... Low and behold someone will come up and stand next to me.

I appreciate they could be shop detectives but they certainly don't look like it...

Also, I live in Spain and two people can easily take up the whole pavement ambling along, this is probably a factor with the aforementioned comment.

They're probably thinking "¿Por qué está esa guiri de pie allí?" or something and come to have a nosey

My costco hack is to stay out of the two main aisles.

Enter, go right. Approach any right side aisles from the right.

Hit meat and produce section

Go wide for the exit aisle.

Park.... Next door. Idk. Their parking lots are the worst part.

It also doesn't help that they always play some random pop music you’d rather not hear loud enough to be annoying but still quiet enough for people to be confused on why the music is bothering you, and how the lights are always way too bright.

Here in Berlin it's more the lone hipster standing in the middle of the lane gazing at all the "enhanced" healthy, hand-plucked, organic wyrøbylberry-llama-chocolade bars (lactose free), deciding which one to take and not giving a fuck abut blocking the whole lane because he's really, really taking care of his health. This will go on for about twenty minutes until his girlfriend joins the discussion and has not ended yet. They are still -aggeession-freely- discussing their food choices in the lane at cashier #2 at EDEKA, Rigaer Strasse, corner Voigtstrasse in Friedrichshain. The BV will put the matter on the TOP next month at their general assembly.

Stores are also pushing the boundaries of how far they can reduce aisle widths. Every one of the corporate retailers in my area who have remodeled their stores since the COVID era, have reduced aisle widths. Having had to travel quite a bit the past year and change, my impression is that this seems to be an industry-wide thing.

Also since the COVID era, all or nearly all of the restocking happens during the day time now. In the before times, the bulk of shelf restocking happened during low-volume hours and/or over night. Now, the people stocking shelves are competing for aisle space along with customers.

And don't forget that pretty much all the stores have order pickers (for online pick-up orders) roaming around with large trolleys. In theory this helps reduce foot traffic to the stores, of course, but for a variety of reasons, the way they currently operate seems to negate any of those potential benefits making them a wash at best.

THEN you add the shoppers (particularly older shoppers) whose primary outlets for socialization are church and impromptu meetings in the grocery store aisles, and it is a recipe for frustration for shoppers. People around here are generally nice and courteous, until group dynamics kick in and they get distracted by the news that Betty Parsons was just diagnosed with a heart valve condition and Wanda McCabe's grand daughter just graduated from college.

The best is when you work up the nerve to say "excuse me" and they glare at you like you're in the wrong.

I meticulously read labels on everything. I kind of have to since I can't just eat anything off the shelf - it's complicated.

But one thing I do is to be aware of how much room the cart/trolley/whatever is taking up. I much prefer to use a hand-basket or smaller cart if available. I'll also park the damn thing outside the aisle if there's room nearby, or next to my person parallel to the flow of traffic. Why gack up the whole lane?

At the same time, I also appreciate that a typical supermarket is an assault on the senses where even the neuro-normative struggle. It's not hard to find people that are clearly stuggling, doubling-back-and-forth through the whole market to complete their shopping list (just peek in the basket then consider where you are in the store). The frequency of this happening is kind of staggering.

You're not alone. My preference is shopping at places like that "off hours" if possible. Sunday morning (while a lot of people are in church) is a must-do for me.

I miss 24hr and late-night grocery stores. 10PM shopping used to be incredible.

Yeah I read labels a lot too. The main thing is just making sure your buggy is as out of the way as possible so people can get by and retaining enough situational awareness to move if someone needs at something on the four feet or so of shelving you are still blocking.

In my experience old people doing this will get out of the way if (they hear) you say something.
Young people do this in groups and often take it as a challenge when you speak up.

Yeah, I’ve partly given up with that. All too often I just move their cart and continue on my way. If they’re offended, I’m gone before they even think of a response

I know it’s rude and some day some one will become angry but I can hope they feel a sense of shame that teaches a lesson

While true, especially having to maneuver around stockers ….. people manage to block Costco aisles that are like 15’ wide. I can’t even conceive how one person and one cart can do this but they manage

Similar strategy works for parking, at least with mine. The parking layout is bad and there is consistently a line of cars trying to handle it … as they all go straight or left to get to the front half of the lot. I turn right and get out of the traffic for a quick parking spot.

Yeah it’s a huge lot and I’m parked pretty far away, but the mess in the front half means I do save time by going for the first available spot rather than a “good” spot

I especially don’t get why some people are rude enough to turn their carts sideways like this. That’s never acceptable and seems like it would be less concern them as well.

It does make it easier to block a wider aisle but that implies it’s intentional

My costco has a gas station and the entire parking area is a god damn zoo.

It's utter chaos. You can choose left which includes the front or right which includes gas station and auto bays for tire stuff.

Left is the right call, but if you get halfway down any aisle of parking without finding a spot, you are forced to cross the front of the store in your vehicle. This is never advisable.

Going right is chaos. You might get lucky, but if you don't, you're at least spared passing the entrance. You are however stuck with the gas line, the auto bays, and the access to the deliveries/etc.

Only people who've never been inside a shop think it's an age thing.

Unless you're a child, for whom everyone is old to you. *Notes that it's from Tiktok.* Oh, never mind.

The magic spell you're looking for is "excuse me" or "pardon me" or maybe an "excuse me please" if you're feeling verbose. Most people will move, the ones that just stare blankly you can look them in the eye and say "thanks" to help them finish rebooting.

I have to go shopping on Saturdays often enough that this is a elephant sized pet peeve for me. The aisle widths are like three people wide, and there's seven trying to get through, two of them pushing carts. I have to shop like I'm dodging bullets in the fucking Matrix, swinging around the shopping basket to fit through gaps as they form.

And what's even the result of all of that stocking during daytime? Shelves are empty half of the time anyway, I have to wait actual weeks for something to come back in stock sometimes, the shelf is empty every time I'm there and it's at different times on different days. I don't believe I'm always there just after a magical rush where all of it gets sold out.

Covid just straight up ruined everything about shopping in person and it never went back. They realized people will still shop there even if they offer dogshit service and that's how it stayed. We need to demand better.