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And as if that's not enough, every six months they'll rearrange the aisles in order to baffle you anew.

Usually I find flour in the baking aisle, but whether marshmallows are there or with the candy depends on the store.

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Dec 1, 2023Liked by S Peter Davis

The French hardware store Castorama used to drive me mad with these mind games. Smoke detectors and fire extinguishers were in completely different parts of the shop, which is about the size of a football pitch. The French language has different words for ladder (échelle) and stepladder (escabeau) so in the French mind they are not connected. You will find only one of these things in the shop. The other is kept outside with the building materials.

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😂 this is great! i was just in the grocery store, big mistake, golden raisins were on the list, i checked the snack aisle, the nuts, the baking stuff, the cereal aisle, foreign foods... turns out they’re next to the fruit, because raisins are grapes but they were out of the golden ones so on to the next item...

all i know about russian dressing is it’s cold so pack a lot of layers.

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My brother in Christ and the Australian supermarket duopoly, they indeed both have an app for that. My wife insists on writing her shopping list on a strip of paper, where it's arranged in the order each item is thought of.

Her husband, a nerd, finds this so inefficient. I too have experienced that "where the hell is it, no of course I'm not going to ask someone" feeling. My wife asserts this is a behaviour induced by the having of testicles.

But, nerdly, the Colesworths apps let you scan barcodes on your empties or keyword search the items you want. Add them to a list. Select the outlet you will be attending and it will sort the list by aisle.

I still tend to snake up and down through all the aisles, which is why I have so many USB adapters and weird hardware items, but I can find everything. Which is good, because I hate grocery shopping and the shorter I can make the experience, the happier I'll be.

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This is revelatory to me, thank you. The last time I looked into apps they just appeared to be online shopping and recipe ideas.

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