On Saturday, 24 December 2016 04:28:37 UTC-6, Ophelia wrote:
> "The Greatest!" wrote in message
> ...
>
> wrote:
>
> > On Friday, December 23, 2016 at 4:35:06 PM UTC-6, The New Other Guy wrote:
> > >
> > > Needed a few things for Christmas dinner, so hit Von's
> > > at about 1pm. OMG!!
> > >
> > > EVERY checkstand was manned, and EACH OF THEM had a line
> > > ALL the way to the back of the store, and it's a BIG store!
> > >
> > > At least 20 carts in each line. But mostly people were
> > > dealing with it well, much better than on the roads.
> > >
> > > Biggest problem was that by 1pm, MANY items were already
> > > empty shelves.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > Makes you wonder if all those folks had been in a coma and
> > just awoke to realize this week-end is Christmas.
> >
> > :-$
>
>
> ;-)
>
> Best
> Greg
>
> =================
>
> LOL I had finished my shopping by Thursday I won't be going out again
> until Tuesday at the earliest)
>
> I hate crowds!


Interestingly, I hit two stores - a Whole Foods and a Trader Joe's - last night around "rush hour", e.g. 5:30 to 6:30, both were practically empty. Just finished at another place this Christmas Eve Saturday morning, not busy at all. It's a new place (to me), so I had plenty of time to browse, lots of interesting Balkan/East European goods, and I ordered several things at the butcher counter for New Year's holiday weekend. Hit a nice new "Dollar Store" adjacent, everything is a dollar, so I got a big load of stuff for like $15.00, useful items that elsewhere I would have paid probably $40.00 for...

Like you, I hate crowds, so I try to hit the shops very early or whatever....one thing that I LOVE is Amazon Prime and Prime Now, I order most of my bulky/staple goods from there. That way, my grocery shopping time can be spent on shopping for the "fun" stuff like fresh meat, produce, etc....

My work mates at my new job love to cook, they are from Mexico, Africa, India, etc;, so they know all of the "out - of - the - way" ethnic places, butchers and such in town, that are "authentic" and also fantastically cheap....so on weekends I will be making some forays to these places.

I loathe shopping in general, but I do have fun food shopping...


--
Best
Greg