Ever since I had a kid, grocery shopping has been a huge throbbing pimple on the butt of my week. Have you ever wondered why the grocery store seems to have so many screaming children in it? Yeah, it’s because they hate shopping, and thus beleaguered moms and dads hate it too.
But as Consumer Reports writes this month in “Supermarket of the Future?,” Food Lion’s revamped, upscale chain of grocery stores, Bloom, may ease my pain a little. A spokeswoman claims the company researched shoppers’ grocery-store desires for two years. I think maybe the researchers actually paid attention, because they came up with a number of things that piqued my interest, including in-store kiosks that offer wine pairings and recipes, and bar-code guns that allow you to tot up and pack purchases as you’re shopping, rather than waiting in line for a cashier and bagger at the end of your trip.
But the details that really got me hot and bothered were the least gee-whiz of the bunch: Bloom saves parking spots near the entrance for families with small kids, and organizes groceries so that you don’t have to crisscross the whole place just to pick up a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk. Yeah, yeah, I know, grocery stores are designed to make you do just that: trot all over the store to get your staples just in case you lay eyes on some cockamamie treat sold at a much higher margin than your carton of eggs. I never used to mind zipping all over the store, but when you’re dragging a protesting child by the hand, any wasted motion is unwarranted. Bloom keeps the milk near the checkout. That’s all I need to be happy.
Not everyone is pleased by the Bloom makeover: One blogger said the stores retain their “harsh industrial fluorescent lighting” and a staff consisting of “minimum wage high school kids”; another compared it unfavorably to Wegmans, a grocery chain with something of a cult following. But let them have their Wegmans. Saved parking spots. Now that is a phrase to really warm this mom’s heart. Too bad there’s no Blooms on the West Coast.
Frankly, I could do without more reserved parking spaces. In between handicapped (which are genuinely warranted), pregnant/mom with kids parking and the cart corrals, I end up having to park 6 spaces back just to run in and get one or two things. It’s irritating.
I’ve stopped shopping at the mega marts and mostly shop exclusively at Trader Joe’s because it is so easy to get a spot at, imagine this as a woman with no kids, THE FRONT, pop in, get my stuff and get out!!
How do the “saved parking spots” work? I doubt there’s going to be a “parking spot patrol” checking to see if you have little kids in your car before you park, so presumably it will be on the honor system. If so, I doubt it will have any effect. After all, if the prospect of a whopping fine doesn’t deter some people from parking in handicapped spots, I don’t see those same self-entitled people refraining from hogging all the “reserved for kids” spots. Besides, those spots are also for people who are going to be less than 20 minutes. How many people who don’t have kids with them take more than 20 minutes to shop?
I’m sorry, carriegoch, that you mind parking 6 whole spaces back. Personally when I’m able-bodied and not dragging a protesting little screamer with me I like to park far away so I’ll get a little exercise. And I certainly don’t begrudge reserved spaces to people with disabilities or small children. I guess that’s just the difference between you and me.
I personally have no problem with more reserved spots. But, it seems from the small sample size that there is an epidemic of misbehaving kids.
Was it really that different in my day?
Granted, my mother did have a secret weapon: “No Empty Threats”.
If she said that she would do something, she did it. Some call this Thruthiness. Or Straight-talkin’. Or some just call it Discipline.
Well, whatever, off to Bloom.
Pointybird, I noted that handicapped spaces are warranted. What is not warranted is the mother/pregnant children spaces. I have a 2.5 year old niece who I babysit frequently, so I know what it is like to have to run inside with kids, but I am so sick of the “I’ve got kids, whoa is me” crap. If it is so tedious to lug your kids around that you have to be accomodated, don’t have them.
And, please don’t try the “we all need exercise” debate. I am 5′5, weigh 120 and I exercise three times a week. I’m not some fat ass who never gets off the couch and I don’t need exercise built into my short grocery trip.
Besides, here in Indiana, they already have these type of parking spaces at Marsh Supermarkets and more often than not, they aren’t even used.
I agree with DougRisk. Everyone wants some medal because they have kids. We need movies in the carts so the kids can be distracted, we need special parking spaces. If your kids can’t behave long enough to walk into the store without hassle, maybe it’s time to go back to the parenting drawing board. It’s funny how our parents managed without all of these things.
You just have no idea. That’s OK. I didn’t know before I had a kid what it’s like. So I can listen to people like you, and not think that you’re just a selfish, self-centered, ranting jerk. Instead, I understand that you just don’t get it! Maybe someday you will.
And as for your ideas about parenting, you and DougRisk…again, you just don’t get it. Sorry. But it’s the truth.
It’s not about “behaving.” It is about safety. No matter how stern and firm you are with children, when you are loaded down with bags or pushing a cart or even just walking, it’s not as easy to keep ahold of them as you think. It only takes one second for a child to be hit by a car (cars backing up have difficulty seeing them). So if you equate my wanting to keep my kid safe with wanting a medal…um…OK. We’ll have to agree to disagree.
And babysitting your niece does not equal parenting. LOL. That cracks me up when people think this. I sometimes watch my friend’s cat when she’s out of town, so by your logic, I can tell zookeepers how to do their job, right?
Um, don’t think I’m a jerk because my opinion differs with yours.
Why am I “self centered and selfish” because I choose not to have kids because I know how much responsiblity they can be? Instead, people have kids and then they say, give me some more spots because I can’t possibly control my kid and a cart and groceries? It’s just SO MUCH WORK. Kids are just SO MUCH WORK. I get it!! I’m not disagreeing that having kids is difficult, I’m just saying that it is YOUR CHOICE. It would be selfish of me to have a kid and then expect everyone else to be inconvenienced because of my choice.
Why is your kid a “protesting little screamer”? I don’t recall acting like that much as a kid because I knew there would be serious consequences for behavior like that. Who’s responsibility is it to ensure that kids don’t act like that? Maybe the store should do that, too. Or maybe they should just come to your house, pick you up and provide the babysitter, too?
I didn’t insinuate that I knew what it was like to raise a kid. I said that I knew what it was like to have to take a kid into a store. I would say that me taking my neice into the grocery is the same experience as her mom taking her into the store. I haven’t had too many experiences where I haven’t been able to control her and her safety was endangered without having closer spots.
Finally, how have we gotten this far in the world without additional mommy spaces? I think your totally exaggerating the safety issue. By your logic, that means that there are tons of kids getting hit in the parking lot without these spaces? Nope, think most moms somehow manage to keep control of their kids without being 6 additional spots closer.
You are trying to make it about more than a convenience factor when it isn’t. It’s a pain in the butt to get the kid out of their car seat, hold their hand and slowly walk up to the door, watch them…you know, be a MOM. So you think you are entitled to more, but my time is just as valuable as yours even though I am a selfish jerk who chose not to have kids.
Yep. You just don’t get it. And you have no sympathy, empathy or caring for other people. It’s OK. You don’t have to. This is the Land of the Free. Maybe someday you will get it, until then you will continue to make a fool of yourself on blogs, making ridiculous statements about things you know nothing about, and puffing yourself up into a big self-important, self-centered gasbag full of ignorant and loud opinions. You know what? On second thought, do the world a favor: don’t breed. Those genes need to stop with you.
It’s okay, Pointy, I’m sure you secretly regret having kids and you hate the fact that anyone chooses not have them has the freedom to do what they will. And, I don’t want your choice of having kids to infringe on my life. All you are left to do is whine about how they can’t be controlled and how you need special provisions for the HARD WORK :)
Luckily we do live in the land of the free where others can express their opinion whether Pointybird agrees or not. I guess I am lucky that I only have to hear your kid in the supermarket and you get to deal with them all the time. I would want an extra parking space, too.
Wow, your bitterness leaks out through your words in such a sad way. You poor thing.
Stop your pissing contest, please. Although I agree with pointybird, I have to say that.
Here’s what I think. Everybody works these days, and their kids go to day care I used to pick up my son after work and go to the grocery store because it was right there. Late afternoon, parents are tired and the little ones are more tired, having played hard all day. They always seem to me to be more likely to be crabby. A lot of the parents are, too, but being adults they can keep it under control. Usually, anyway.
I don’t need those parking spaces any more, and they didn’t exist when my son was little. Never felt like I needed something extra for being a mama, but i’m not going to pick him up AFTER grocery shopping because I got too little time with him as it was. And if he got a little whiny, well tough shit for the carriegoches in the store.
I’m done, EWSflash. Agreed, pissing contests are stupid and embarrassing for all concerned. I always regret engaging in them, as it lowers everyone’s dignity. It just always chaps my hide when nonparents have judgmental ideas about parenting…also I can’t stand it when they claim they were so well behaved as a child because, 1) every kid is a brat sometimes, no matter how wonderful your parents were and 2) you can’t really think you remember how you were at age 2 and 3, peak bratty years for kids, come on.
Finally, not everyone puts their kid in daycare. I am a full-time mom who works when my kid naps. Where’s my medal?