I realize that it was less than two weeks ago that I mentioned my enjoyment of grocery shopping. Well, I've decided to exercise that feminine prerogative and change my mind on that score. 
My favorite local supermarket, the one with the best prices that stocks nearly every item my family needs, is in the middle of changing the store layout. They're leaving Produce, Dairy, Meat and Frozen in their current location. Everything else seems to be up for grabs. There are tarps everywhere, carts full of merchandise in the middle of being moved, and even an area where they're digging into the dirt beneath the store. I'll admit that this last was pretty interesting, and if I didn't have a couple of gallons of milk and two cartons of ice cream in the cart, I might have stopped to watch--even without a little kid in tow.
The "pardon our dust" signs promise that these temporary inconveniences will ultimately result in an improved shopping experience.
I disagree.
I'm a confirmed visual learner, and I've been shopping in this same supermarket since they built it about six years ago. Even though I only do grocery shopping once a week, I know exactly which aisle to find just about anything in the store. I can organize my shopping list by aisle without a map of the store, so I can efficiently zoom through the aisles. And people will stop me in the store and ask where certain items can be found; I'll just answer them immediately: Pasta's in Aisle 12, coffee in Aisle 6.
Yesterday I had to walk up and down every single aisle, looking on both sides, to find the items on my list. I haven't seen this many shoppers looking completely lost and confused since the week before Thanksgiving last year, when all the "amateur shoppers" go to the store to find items they use once a year. I noticed that the cashiers were not asking their usual, "Did you find everything you needed today?" I'll bet they were afraid of the answer.
It may be time to start doing my grocery shopping online. At least grocery-store websites organize the merchandise by category, so the "store map" never changes.
If you haven't given in to the online-grocery-shopping idea yet, you'll want to check out our grocery and printable coupon page. The savings will more than make up for the annoyance you put up with when your favorite store rearranges everything.
