Wednesday, March 26, 2008

What's in Your Cart?



Okay, Internet, fess up - who else does this?

When I'm at the grocery store, I love, love, love to look in other people's grocery carts. Based on what a person is buying, I then try to figure stuff out about their lives. And really, it's easy.

Gallon of milk, juice boxes, individually wrapped bags of chips, lunch meat, white bread, giant pack of hamburger, fun fruits, and two different kinds of soda? Mom with kids.

Lean Cuisines, yogurt, diet Coke, Ben & Jerry's, and wine? Single woman.

Beer, chips, bologna, and bread? Single guy.

Cat food, wine, cookie dough? Someone about to have the world's most depressing Saturday night.

Diapers, wipes, Cheerios, and a giant container of coffee? Someone with a baby.

Bag of salad, spaghetti sauce, pasta sauce, garlic bread, and cereal? Someone who can't cook.

Then, I think about what my own groceries say about me. Like, there are times when my cart contains eggs, butter, flour, sugar, and powdered sugar, and it could not be more obvious that I am making cookies.

Often in my cart, you'll find a gallon of milk, fresh fruit and vegetables, including a huge bunch of bananas, powdered Gatorade, pasta, fruit snacks, string cheese, Kraft singles, almonds, cookies, and trail mix. That pretty well sums up my family.

What's in your cart?

7 comments:

Razz said...

here's one for you: I had to go to Target one day because I was working on cleaning up some mold from our soffets (sp?). That, and I needed to buy diapers for our little one. Here was what was in my cart:

bucket, rubber gloves, bleach, and diapers.

Meg said...

Hilarious! I think you summed me up with single woman, except substitute Lean Cuisine with any pre-made meals from Trader Joe's, and remove the Diet Coke. And you summed up my boyfriend with single guy, except the nerd doesn't even buy bread (it goes bad too fast?!) so he makes sandwiches with crackers.

One time I saw a woman with all junk food - chips, cookies, brownies, and the most gourmet dog food I'd ever seen. I loved how she fed her dog(s) better than she did herself!

chloe said...

What is so weird is that I totally look at people and how they are dressed, but rarely in their carts, even though I always think about what the checker thinks about what's in my cart. Funny.

Time to start something new at the grocery store.

I buy lots of frozen diet meals, produce and 100 calorie packs up the wazoo. I go out to eat for the bad stuff. Don't want to have it in the house.

newsjunkie said...

No Lean Cuisine or Diet Coke for this single girl. :)

I usually have bagged salads (a head of lettuce goes bad before I can eat it all), oatmeal bars/breakfast cookies, granola bars, some form of Gatorade, tofu for my hamster, spaghetti and elbow macaroni along with the fixin's for what I call red gravy and what non-Italians call spaghetti sauce (which will include diced tomatoes, pureed tomatoes, tomato paste, maybe a small onion/garlic, and if I'm feeling adventurous, artichoke hearts), a huge honkin' jar of peanut butter for my doggie, probably some form of steak, chicken, or pork, American cheese, and bread.

Plus whatever staples I'm running low on at the moment.

Nancy said...

What does it say about me if the Hub goes? :D

Cute post!

Kent said...

I think I have a very schizophrenic cart. I have my Diet Coke with Splenda, carbonated water, heavy cream, cheese, fresh veggies, chicken wings, sausage, lettuce, nuts, and salad dressings. Then you combine that with the kids' bread, gallons of juice, cereal (sugary), pancake, syrup, fruits, frozen dinners, frozen pizza, etc. In the end, I have no idea what people think of my cart by the time I am done.

Nibbles said...

It is even more fun to watch what people put in their carts at farmer's markets, where we do almost all our shopping (we only go to the grocery store for stock and all-purpose flour, except on the rare weekend when we can't get to the market). For instance, last week our cart contained pheasant sausage, quail eggs, a whole guinea hen, and three pounds of beets, among other stuff. We like to be adventurous!

I love your cart-contents classification system--spot on!