How Much Time Do You Spend Grocery Shopping?
Someone mentioned last night that the average time spent at the grocery store was seventeen minutes. Now, I haven't come across any statistics to back this up, but it was a surprise to me. How much time do you spend each time you go into a grocery store?
When I call to my husband that I'm off to the grocery store, he knows not to expect me back for an hour or two. I am easily distracted by new produce that's just come in or meat that's on special. I generally peruse the yogurts although I typically end up with the same Greek yogurt I always buy.
I'm also looking at signage and labels. Where did the grapes come from? Who raised the beef? How much sugar does this box of cereal contain? How about sodium? When I took the time to check the salt content of my daughter's single-serving chocolate milk carton, I found out that it contained 25 percent of her daily requirement!
There are lots of choices to make when I buy eggs. Local? Cage-free? Free-range? Vegetarian-fed? Omega-3-enriched? Organic? Those questions were on the table last night at a panel discussion I attended: The Consumer's Conflict: The Cost of Eating the Way Nature Intended.
A rancher, a writer and a restauranteur were all on hand to talk about the complex questions of eating ethically, humanely, sustainably and economically. Also on this panel was a Whole Foods spokesperson who discussed the grocery chain's 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating. (Step 1, for example, means "no crates, no cages, no crowding", while Step 4 stipulates a "pasture-centered" life where pigs can wallow, cows can roam and chickens can forage.) In an effort to provide greater transparency to their shoppers, Whole Foods piloted and has now adopted this tier system created by the Global Animal Partnership, a non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of farm animals raised for meat.
Do you read grocery labels and would this information about the welfare standards of the animals that supply your pork, beef and chicken be useful to you? How much time do you spend shopping for groceries?
--Tracy Schneider
Vodka Drink Recipes on March 17, 2011 at 05:04 AM
Often I go to the store to buy some basic stuff, and then I stay there for a couple of hours and come home full of carts. Crazy shoping!
Kristine on March 17, 2011 at 06:30 AM
I have similar shopping habits as this article's author. I'm an opportunistic shopper/cook, i.e. my shopping is based just as much on what's on special offer and what produce/meat looks tempting that day, as what's on my shopping list. I scrutinize prices and labels and constantly try to weigh economy against nutrition and sustainability. Must admit that other ethical aspects do not weigh as heavy; I feel that I don't have enough knowledge about them. Hence, a label indicating animal welfare would be very much appreciated!
I generelly spend about an hour and a half grocery shopping. However, I do my shopping only once a week :-)
TxGriffLover on March 17, 2011 at 06:53 AM
The nearest grocery store is 30 minutes away, so I only shop once a week with a long list. I am always there at least an hour, usually more.
Karla on March 17, 2011 at 10:26 AM
I always go with a list and I always read labels especially country of origin so I'm usully there at least half an hour or more. That being said, I don't like to grocery shop so I think of it a bit like a commando raid: get in, get what I need, and get out as fast as I can!
John S Allison on March 17, 2011 at 03:55 PM
If I go I get what's on the list and leave, 20-30 minutes, tops. When the wife-unit goes she only checks the list at the checkout to make sure she didn't forget anything after slogging through every aisle, in detail. I now refuse to accompany her on her 3+ hour death marches.
ACR on March 18, 2011 at 09:12 AM
I think we males considerably bring down this average. I descend into near panic when the wife calls during my drive home instructing me to pick up a single item or maybe two for tonight's dinner. I hate the grocery store. I go straight to the sour cream and pick up the most appealing tub with little concern about source or quality. I want out of that store in five minutes or less -- bringing down the average visit time for everyone.
Wacky Hermit on March 18, 2011 at 09:25 AM
I spend about 3 hours every 2 weeks grocery shopping, that's an average of 12 minutes a day. Occasionally we'll go "commando shopping": go in, grab the one thing you need, buy it and get out, which takes about 10 minutes unless the item is close to the front of the store. Usually it's at the back (they know their marketing well-- make 'em run past 100 impulse items to get their gallon of milk).
Celebrim on March 18, 2011 at 09:34 AM
This is a case where the average is not a very instructive number. I would suspect that shopping trips have a bimodal distribution with heavy clusters around 45 minutes and another heavy cluster around 10 minutes. The first cluster represents 'weekly groceries' and the second represents 'supplemental shopping'. It maybe the case that if you average them you come up with a number like '17 minutes', but that almost no one actually spends 17 minutes in a grocery store. Medians and modes are more useful numbers here.
Tynan Sylvester on March 18, 2011 at 09:40 AM
About 4 minutes plus however long the register takes.
Having zero interest in the provenance of my food (only its quality and price) makes the process faster. I also don't care about numerical dietary details aside from calories.
Simply ensuring that I get some meat, some fruit, some veggies, and some other stuff is more than enough to ensure that I have the nutrients I need. It's pretty hard to get meaningfully deficient in anything on a modern diet. I do take vit-D supplements at least.
Who wants to spent hours shopping? I have so many more worthwhile things to do.
Hell, if you want to be healthy, better to rapid-shop in 20 minutes and then work out for an hour and a half than to scrutinize every label for irrelevant nutritional details.
Also, I live about 300 feet from the store so I go often.
Alex on March 18, 2011 at 09:42 AM
Around 15 minutes. I generally have a list, and I know which brands I like, so I can move fast once I get to the store. I almost never read nutrition information in the store, and generally don't even check prices (my wife finally convinced me that I need to check expiration dates, but that's about it). If I'm buying wine it will take longer, or if I go to the butcher. I go to the store 3 times a week on average, and to the butcher twice.
As for animal welfare standards, I'd use that information.
sillyaud on March 18, 2011 at 09:47 AM
Altho I used to shop like the author, I shop for nutrition and range free, hormone free, healthy choices now without label reading or cost per ounce or special priced items. My cost per week reflects my choices. I also shop at 2-4 different stores to get the food I am looking for, rarely go to "regular" grocery any more, all specialty and health food now. The down side is I am still out for 2 hours or more to shop, but I am not IN the store for as long.
waterfowl on March 18, 2011 at 09:53 AM
I'm in the peculiar position of not having a car and being 25 minutes walk or so from the nearest grocery store, so actually I don't spend much time on a given shopping trip; I'm limited to what I can carry on foot (over a largeish hill), and I go in with a list.
PamK on March 18, 2011 at 09:53 AM
I check for specials and items that "look good" that week, and usually shop once a week. I always have a list when I go, but will substitute if what is the primary ingredient does not look as good as something else or if it is more expensive than I want to pay. I like to cook and have been doing it five nights out of seven for decades. I know what flavor combinations my family enjoys, and what might go well together. Lots of dinners involve new recipes reviewed on internet websites based on my family's preferences and what others have said about them. This means I get to the grocery 1 or 2 times a week, for a total time of about 90 minutes a week.
Beth Donovan on March 18, 2011 at 10:02 AM
Heck, a lot of people spend hours just at our local farmers' market, much less the typical grocery shopping!
I get frustrated that our local market has eggs from caged hens, hens with their beaks clipped, etc., as well as eggs from my hens, who are free to range anywhere on our farm (they always come back to the barn at night) - and there is no requirement for full disclosure on the treatment of the chickens - so if I ask $4 a dozen, the guy who cuts the beaks of his caged hens, will ask $3 a dozen, and everyone will go and buy from him.
Andrea on March 18, 2011 at 10:06 AM
I always go with a list & have already thought through the statistics/provenance/quality. I keep plenty of fresh fruit & veggies on hand, and make most meals from scratch. We eat lots of cereal & drink lots of milk. I'll stock up on some items if they're on sale. Still, for our family of four adult males and one female, we spend 2 to 3 hours a week shopping for food & necessities.
The only time we spend 17 minutes or less in a grocery store is if my husband gets a craving for ice cream, something I don't dare keep on hand lest we get as fat as hogs :)
Timothy on March 18, 2011 at 10:16 AM
We shop at military commissaries. Usually take 1-1.5 hours plus 1 hour travel time roundtrip, but we also buy 2-3 weeks of groceries at a time
ranch girl on March 18, 2011 at 10:49 AM
HOURS in the grocery store? Are you nuts? I love going to the grocery store but no way am I spending that much time. Do you really spend hours in the store or are you counting the time it takes to get there? I can't imagine what would take that long, even for the most obsessive label-reader. I've seen lots and lots of people at the store, but none that are taking that much time. Maybe some of you are counting all the time at CostCo? Where you are shopping for more than groceries and you're stopping at all the sample stations? Hours. Really?
John A on March 18, 2011 at 11:21 AM
"I go to the store 3 times a week on average, and to the butcher twice."
This, I think, is the "17-minute" shopper - using a mom-and-pop or old "general" store. There is one in my neighborhood, and while I shop there once a year if I run out of bread or milk a lot of people shop there almost daily, just like great-grandma used to do.
For the near 50 years I owned a car, I shopped mostly at a "supermarket" - you know, with a butcher shop of it own, a bakery of its own, and so on. Once a week, hour-and-a-half inside the store plus time getting there-back, parking... Seventeen minutes? It would take ten just to cross these stores on the diagonal from entrance to meat counter and back.
No longer being able to walk such distances, I now shop at an online subsidiary of one of these supermarkets that actually delivers to my door. I do that about once every two weeks, and it still takes about an hour even though there is no walking.
Mind, I do have two problems: the service does not sell everything (air conditioners?) available in-store as some companies drop-ship to the individual stores rather than the warehouses of the markets, and since milk even when refrigerated usually goes bad in less than a week I buy more expensive "shelf-stable" UHT milk (Parmalat, Borden's) - not powdered, which other than possibly one I only heard about a week ago (Nestle's "Nido" brand) since they are just calcium, or powdered blackboard chalk.
spool32 on March 18, 2011 at 12:07 PM
Your incredulity comes from not thinking clearly about your time in the grocery store.
Firstly, what about all those quick trips to get milk? They drag your average time way down.
Secondly, do you really stop to consider whether you should buy cage-free or Omega-3 enhanced eggs every time you buy eggs? Or have you made that decision 50 times already, and now you just go get the usual eggs you get? Do you really read the label again on the same box of cereal every time you buy it? Now that you've seen the salt content on some chocolate milk, will you ever waste your time reading that label again? Or even picking it up?
Most trips to the grocery store involve getting the things you already know you're going to get, and leaving. Even though I'm shopping for 5 people I can, and do, spend less than 10 minutes in the local place very frequently. Sometimes I spend an hour, but usually it's less. Is my average time 17min? Probably higher than that, but we're talking averages...
... which leads me to the third mistake: we're talking averages. For every foodie who sits on a panel noodling about how to make sure a pig gets to be happy for a while before you hack it to pieces and consume its flesh, pondering the salt content of her chocolate milk, there are a hundred dudes who run into the store for chips, dogs, and beer, and spend more time in the checkout line than they do in the aisles.
Milo on March 18, 2011 at 12:50 PM
Hell, I spend more than 17 minutes in the check-out line!
Michael on March 18, 2011 at 02:12 PM
Grocery shopping is a twice-monthly adventure. It usually takes me between 50 and 70 minutes to check off everything on the list for a family of 6.
Herb Sorensen on March 18, 2011 at 05:16 PM
I just checked a store I have been working in, and sure enough, it is 17 minutes. (And I have measured dozens of stores, many thousands of trips in each.) The confusion here comes from an inability to recognize that more people buy only one item than any other number. 2 is second most common, then 3 and so forth. Half of all trips to supermarkets represent purchases of 5 or fewer items. Of course, the other half may purchase dozens of items, rarely as many as 100.
Not to worry if you don't believe this. I may be the only person in the world who REALLY believes it. But then, it is the facts up against subjective opinions. As someone said, you have a right to your own opinions, but not to your own facts. ;-)
Yukon Bill on March 18, 2011 at 06:15 PM
I believe this 17 min. statistic. I live in Whitehorse, Yukon, and do a major shop at Superstore every couple of weeks (about 90 minutes). But in between, I do about 5 small shops for milk, stuff I have forgotten, etc. Those are quick in and outs. So yes, 17 min average is about right.
jgreene on March 18, 2011 at 08:10 PM
I am semi-retired and work part time three days a week. My wife and I go out on Fridays usually to do grocery shopping and spend the day together.
There are just the two of us and my wife is an excellent cook, shopper and knows prices. We stop and buy at ACME, Wegmans, a Korean Green Grocer (great prices on fruits and veggies), ShopRite, PathMark and Stop and Shop.
Each of these Supermarkets offers something that we buy regularly and at the BEST PRICE. There is no waste in driving time because we are fortunate to have these and many others within close proximity to our suburban area in NJ.
We also go to the Mall and while my wife "window shops", I go to the bookstores. We have a bite to eat and coffee and usually spend a full day (8 hours). It's a fun day for us both.
I enjoy being with my wife of 38 years. When we were younger my wife had her own car and did the shopping herself.
17 minutes? We don't buy prepared foods. Does anyone cook anymore?
deek on March 19, 2011 at 07:04 AM
Good grief, can't I just eat my waffle?