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I love peeking in others' shopping baskets, if only for the sense of moral superiority occasionally gained. ;) Matching people with their grocery baskets is always fun. It's a lot like seeing what people get from the dining commons, and I've seen some strange combinations there. A friend of mine seems to eat by the red, white, and starch rule: a typical meal for him is two slices of cheese pizza and pasta with marinara sauce.

sometimes i feel really bad for the people who i see in line with things like organic pudding cups and lowfat frozen entrees. they almost always look unhappy/sick. i want to hand them my carrots and yogurt and pinto beans and say "go home and eat this instead. you'll feel better!"

It is fun...and we are not the only ones: I love when someone with the frozen dinners, or even the cashier, asks me "what on earth do you do with THAT?!"

In my local grocery store the most amusing times are when fall semester begins (this is a university town). Parents are there (well, usually Moms for the most part) looking anxious and stressed out dragging their strapping children behind them. The carts are overloaded-to-toppling-over with boxed and canned goods and often with huge piles of paper plates and plastic utensils.

A few weeks later you will see the students alone in the store or in pairs, consulting with each other in low important tones about brands of spaghetti sauce. That is, when they are not talking to each other in loud self-important tones so that everyone in the store realizes they are managing to buy a jar of spaghetti sauce all by their own selves. Usually the ones that talk loud like this are blond and female (hate to say it but true) and as it is still autumn and warm enough their tummies are showing between their tops and their jeans and they are very pleased about that, too.

A few weeks after that you do not see them in the grocery store so much anymore. They are ordering take-out. When you do see them in the checkout line it is with three to seven cases of beer. Apparently beer is something scholars need in excess.

What fun it all is to watch them! As good as any reality TV show I know of.

The other interesting time of the year is Christmas. For a different reason.

At Christmas all of a sudden instead of individuals doing the shopping, couples are doing the shopping. Married couples, or whatever. They have lists that they consult over with each other while one directs and the other fetches. Much serious discussion is held over "We still need this, or that, or the other thing" and their progression through the store and through the checkout line is intensely self-conscious. It is like watching a sociology movie on "How Christmas Dinner is Made from Scratch". Ah. Wonderful times of the year to people-watch in the check-out lane.

Oh too hilarious! I did this the other day at Costco! My husband kept whispering for me to quit looking at everybody, but I was in the middle of a mental survey; how much processed/convenience/snack foods versus the actual raw ingredients & how many people were buying just a few high ticket items (furniture, tv, rugs, appliances) versus how many people actually participate in the volume buying (toilet paper, diapers, detergent, ginormous cases of food stuff) that Costco is famous for.
I know other people do it, too. My mom used to buy great quantities of meat for church functions and she would see people staring at her cart all the time, so she'd invite them to church to have some food. LOL. My mom is quite a character.

@Karen Resta

It is excruciatingly obvious that you dislike college students, attractive female ones in particular, and that you hold yourself in much higher esteem than these young, inexperienced kids. May I humbly suggest shopping elswhere so that you don't have to bother dodging them in the aisles, and they don't have to deal with your insecure and condescending stares.

@ all who admit doing this:
While this is a harmless habit overall, it is in very poor taste and shows an extreme lack of manners and a very egocentric attitude. To be perfectly honest, if I caught some random person staring at the contents of my cart while in line, I would immediately feel a wave of disgust and annoyance aimed at the perpetrator, quickly followed by a few choice words.

Did it every occur to any of you to consider the financial situation of these people you feel so just in criticizing? Or that maybe not everyone has hours to squander on preparing meals from scratch. I'm not knocking people for having the time or money, don't get me wrong. But for people to silently mock (yes that is what it amounts to) those less fortunate or enlightened is just plain mean-spirited and cruel, even if the victim remains unaware.

This post topic and the gleeful responses has taken my previously high esteem for the community here on this site down about 40 notches. Hope you all feel good about yourselves.

@protest
If it's a harmless habit, then it doesn't matter if it is in poor taste. It does not show a lack of manners and it doesn't matter if it's egocentric because none of these people are actually confronting anyone about their choices.

Your egocentric attitude is the one that's showing.

ummm, does somebody need a hug?

@Library Lady

Yes, I am aware that I am somewhat egocentric, but thankfully I had parents who raised me to have some social awareness and to mind my own business when out in public. If I really wanted to be jerk I would call you on it when I catch you undressing other people's purchases with your eyes, but again with the 'it's none of my business' thing.

I'm not expecting people here to fully grasp the idiocy of what they find a pleasant grocery store pasttime, I just thought I'd let you know what everyone else thinks of you. Take it how you will.

"If I really wanted to be jerk I would call you on it when I catch you undressing other people's purchases with your eyes,"

That is perhaps the most hilarious thing I've read all day. Harmless curiosity and eyeballing your neighbor's purchases = perving on their groceries.

I'd say most folks posting on this thread are really quite tongue-in-cheek. Take them as a ridiculously snarky reply - not as an elitist social commentary.

I do tend to end up looking at my neighbor's checkout items - it's freaking fascinating to see what people are eating. Besides, I'd rather perv on my neighbor's sexy looking cucumbers than stare at yet another Britney Spears tabloid cover, or stare dead-eyed into the distance, waiting for my turn to pay up for my SPAM and cheetos.

This thread has a few too many contentious comments about a topic that I don't think was meant to be taken very seriously. We're all voyeurs in some way, and in almost all cases our voyeurism is rather harmless. I would put supermarket cart peeking in the harmless category.

It's funny because if people looked at my cart at the grocery store they wouldn't see any fruits or vegetables at all because I buy them all at my local produce stand. They must be thinking "what a bad mom."
(four kids in tow while we do the grocery shopping)

Just looked at Chisai's thread about dinner for her dude: proof of the potential benefits of checkout-aisle voyeurism.

i'm addicted to people watching. and i don't mean to look in other people's carts, but how can you not? it's not like there's anything else to do when you're waiting in line at the store. it's easy entertainment. feel good when you pass a shopping cart full of stuff you like to eat, laugh a little inside when you pass a cart full of icky stuff.

and sometimes i see something in someone else's cart, and then I remember that I should buy that, even though i forgot to put it on my list.

i'm sure people who see my cart are thinking "doesn't she know how much time she could save if she bought more prepared stuff?"

See now I look at other people's carts because I know that I have left something crucial off my shopping list, and I would like to know what it is before it's my turn at the front of the line.

I certainly don't make any judgements of people, because I know there are days where my cart is full of granola bars and pickles and other munchies, and they could be having one of those weeks as well.

I love it too when people ask me about things in my cart- because I'm always willing to talk about food. I have had many a cashier ask what I do with an artichoke, leek or bulb of fennel.

Wow. Never thought this post, which was supposed to be silly, would become so heated… somebody “doth protest too much, methinks.”

@christina nailed it with "the sense of moral superiority occasionally gained." That's why I find it an embarrassing habit. I'm generally not a judgmental or arrogant person, but that silent commentary running through my head during checkout sure can sound that way. Nevertheless, I do not think it’s bad manners to sneak a peek (as opposed to openly staring with a look of disgust on my face), especially since I am keeping my opinions to myself, which by definition, is good manners. And I’ve often been reminded of something I forgot by surveying the other carts.

The shoppers that make me roll my eyes are types like the stay-home mom with the giant diamond, fake boobs, designer clothes, and expensive car, who clearly has time for a manicure, haircut, lunch with the girls, shopping at Saks, and yoga classes, but is buying a load of sugary fat-laden processed snacks, drinks and microwave kid-crap for her munchkins (who, incidentally, are running wild through the store while she yacks away on her cell phone about her fantastic cleaning lady), while she’s also buying healthy-ish figure-friendly foods that are clearly for her own consumption.

Mostly, I just feel bad for people. Yesterday, it was an overweight immigrant woman with her pre-schooler. She was buying white bread, white hot dog buns, pre-sliced white bagels, frosted corn flakes, two kinds of "juice" that were mostly corn syrup, and fake american singles (the rubbery kind that aren't even called cheese food). Everything except the "juice" was the cheapest store brand. I wanted to cry for her and adorable daughter.

My cart was typical of me: a couple of whole chickens, 10 lbs of beef bones, ribeye steaks (on sale for $6/lb, woohoo!), whole wheat bread, raw honey, omega-3 eggs, unsalted butter, and loads of produce. There were also some canned beans, boxed stock, and Best Foods mayo, but the most incongruous items were (gasp) two cases of diet soda, a box of reduced fat Cheez-Its (which I buy because they’re crunchier than the regular ones), and two kinds of Gatorade G2, all of which I found quite amusing.

@cary, I know what you mean about the checkers. I constantly get asked what something is for, what I’m making, or how do you fix/eat something. Otherwise, it's more like yesterday's exchange:

Checker: These are rutabagas, right?
Me: No, they're turnips.
Checker: Are these carrots?
Me: No, they're parsnips.
Checker: And what about these?
Me: Those are leeks.

Oh well.

During my month or so as a cashier, I once had a man buying a box of condoms, juice boxes and cupcakes. I was quite frightened over this.

Apparently I live in a friendly town. More than once, fellow line-waiters have struck up conversations about things in carts. Things like "Oh, I like those, too!" Or, "What do you do with that odd vegetable? I always look at them, but I don't know what to do with them."

I've got to say that sometimes my cart is a little scary. Like in the summer, pretty much all the fruits and veg come from the farmer's maket, so my grocery cart might contain nothing but meat, paper products, and cleaning supplies.

Or, near the holidays, my cart might be filled with sugar, nuts, flour, butter...because I'm about to bake massive amounts of cookies and cakes I'll be giving away.

Or, sometimes I'll be picking up peculiar missing ingredients for the next few days. There will be just three or four things, but there's no way they would ever go together in one meal.

Funniest checker event was when I was shopping at a large hispanic market, and I managed to be checking out when there was a bit of a rush, and they called in extra cashiers. The young fellow who was checking out my groceries handled the register well enough, but when it came to produce, it was a little rough. It was obvious that he didn't spend a lot of time at the checkout. He'd ask me what something was, and I'd try to say it in Spanish, but my pronunciation would be all wrong so he couldn't figure out how to look it up. There was no problem with his English, by the way, but for some of the items, that was useless since I didn't know an English word for some of what I was buying. "It's some kind of squash" isn't a particularly good answer when he's trying to look up a price code. I probably wasn't his easiest customer of the day.

My late New Year's Resolution is to give up defending myself against the often-offended. It is a serious waste of time. It also brings one into a very negative space, the negative space where the person who swung the first club of words lives - and that is unfortunate for all involved and all watching for the taste spreads like a melting pool of rotten margarine (if there is such a thing).

Speaking of margarine, I'm fascinated to see that at the check-out line and like to see the different brands and wonder at the why's of the buy.

My own most bizarre purchase at the check out counter was probably when I was about ten years old. It was my mother's birthday and I wanted to get her a present with my allowance. The only thing I could think of that she liked were cigarettes (she liked Parliament which was unusual - everyone else smoked Winston - her choice seemed to make her into some sort of intellectual in my eyes), and that did not seem elegant enough so I added a package of those stick-on hard sugar cake decorations (flowers, letters, etc). I thought they were fabulous. Plus in the back of my mind I thought that if she did not like them maybe I could eat them.

By the way, protest, I'm known to be one of the few grown-ups around that college-age people try to make friends with outside their own groups . . . and also have been known to smile and give help where it is clearly desired (but never when it is not) to anyone lost or confused in a grocery store. :)

Gosh, I haven't even finished my first cup of coffee. Reading the comments was quite a roller coaster ride! I love seeing what people have in their carts. I am never bored, always writing stories in my head about the people I encounter. (I should confess that I do the same about all of the regular contributors to SE). We have a rich diversity of people and one large market. We have the descendents of the original homesteaders, lots of artists and craftspeople, some mountain men and other refugees from civilization, lots of well-to-do retirees, and even, to the chagrin of some, a member of the current administration. Our lines are too short to allow for all this potential. I've learned things - what to do with kohlrabi! And deer will eat your horseradish from the herb garden. And I've answered all sorts of questions - what will you do with all those funny looking things (quinces), or do you really like brussels sprouts that much. Maybe if we had more commercial entertainment available, it wouldn't be as much fun.

So sorry I wasn't home to post to this trainwreck. I read it as I was about to go grocery shopping, of all things. I said, "self"; as soon as you get back from judging other people's groceries, you must respond to this. Unfortunately, as I reached homebase and deposited said grocery items appropriately, SO appeared and suggested departure for the evening.

@LoCo - Did you not recognize the socio-economic ramifications of such a hotbed of a subject? It was just a peek, not a "pick"? lol...lol...lol...

@LoCo - Well, my intent was to scrutinize a lane partner's goods, however they always have so many lanes open at WF, even at 5PM, there's no waiting! I have noticed, however, bystanders looking in my basket. That is really kind of creepy. It's not like I'm buying chicken feet, durian and a tofurkey. My goods tend to be on the healthy and/or gourmet side for the most part. I guess I can somewhat understand - it makes a girl feel a little defensive!

I just thought this thread sounded more like light-hearted fluff than a non-politically correct nightmare. LoCo, you sure know how to create a buzz, girl!

I guess I don't look much at carts, but I'll gaze at the belt as things are being unloaded in front of me. Usually because there's not much else to look at, once I'm at that point.

The things that amuse me are in incongruous combinations that end up next to each other on the belt. Not that they'd actually be used together, but sometimes I find myself musing what I'd do if I had those two or three things and I had to make a meal with them. Sort of a what-if Iron Chef without all the slicing, dicing, and tasting.

And it is kind of funny when there are organic frozen dinners, bags of baby spinach, and Twinkies traveling down the belt together.