Bob wrote:

> >> You should have tried shopping with my late brother in law. A
> >> mere list was not good enough for him. He had maps of the layout
> >> of the grocery stores in his town. The list was written in the
> >> order of location.
> >
> > That would drive me absolutely bananas!
>
> I don't have *maps* of the grocery stores in my town, but I remember the
> layouts well enough, and I put my grocery list in order of the route I
> intend to take through the store. (The route isn't always the same; it's
> optimized to the shortest route possible.) What's wrong with that? It saves
> time -- I'd estimate that when I went shopping just before Thanksgiving, I
> saved at least an hour by not having to traverse the crowded aisles more
> than necessary.

I do most of the cooking at home, so I like to do the shopping too. It's not
that I really like shopping, but I know what I have on hand and what I am short
on. I don't think that I have ever shopped with a list, except sometimes a note
of things that I really need to get, most often cleaning supplies.

There is one particular chain that I prefer, but like all the others, every
store has a unique layout. I just start at one end and go up and down the
aisles, getting my canned and boxed goods first and then hitting the meat, fish
and dairy sections, leaving the frozen section till last, only to keep cold and
frozen things cold and frozen. It works for me.