Shop at Off-Peak Hours for Time Savings

February 8, 2010 at 12:48 am Chad Upton Leave a comment

I’ve said it before, I love bananas. But there is one kind of bananas I do not like, busy grocery stores!

I went to my local supermarket yesterday to pickup a few things. Being Super Bowl Sunday, it was pretty much the worst day to go grocery shopping. Normally, I would just go another day but I needed some things for later in the day (like most other people there I’m sure).

All the cart bumping and line shoving could have been avoided if I just went early in the morning or late the night before. That’s what I usually do — try to go shopping around 8pm-9pm, that includes any stores that are open late (ex. Target). Many stores are now until 10pm and some are open 24 hours. I try to take advantage of these hours since I usually get the store to myself. It actually makes shopping peaceful and efficient.

You’re never bumping carts with anyone or waiting for them to pick the perfect type of soup so they can move their cart and you can get past. If you need help from a store employee, they’re usually available and easy to spot since there’s nobody else in the store.

Perhaps the two best parts of shopping off-peak: there are rarely lineups at the checkout, which is a big time saver itself. You also get a prime parking spot, really close to the door, which is particularly nice in the winter.

If you’ve never been an off-peak shopper, you are probably starting to see the benefits. But, there are some of disadvantages too. For example, the pharmacy, salad bar and meat counter are often closed after 7pm.

If you’re lucky, the night shift employees have the radio turned up so you can sing along and toss products into your cart from three point distance. If you’re unlucky, the night shift employees have brought their own music.

There are also times when you can’t avoid a busy grocery store and that why it’s awesome when the guy with a full cart of groceries lets you go ahead because you’re only buying one thing.

Broken Secrets

Written By: Chad Upton | follow me on twitter

Photo by: timmenzies (Creative Commons)