AlabamaGroceryJan2017Final

MOMMY BLOGGER

i ’ d rat h e r dr o p t han sho p

LARA BALDWIN BLOGGER

ALABAMA Grocer introduces a new column with a unique perspective – a mommy blogger. Lara Baldwin is a Millennial mother of two who, with the help of her online community, will provide insights into one of your most important customer demographics.

When I ask my mom squad for help with these challenges, the solution is usually a mix of avoidance (one friend gets up at 5 a.m. to go grocery shopping alone before her husband leaves for work) and bribery (another says she has no qualms with ripping open a bag of popcorn and paying for it at checkout). Personally, I am determined to find some solutions that are not quite so desperate. Just as soon as I scrub this shower. ■

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I have a confession: I want to go to the grocery store right now about as much as I want to scrub my shower. That is to say, at this particular period in my life, pulling off an enjoyable shopping trip with my four- year-old and infant in tow takes roughly the coordination of a low-level CIA operation. It wasn’t always this way. As a childless 20-something, grocery shopping was once a near-sacred ritual: poring over cookbooks to compile a handwritten list, divided into categories and organized in order of department. Just a few years and a couple kids later, buying food has shifted from fun to frantic. Here are a few reasons why.

The giant shopping carts. Those double-wide, racecar/fire truck/ pink Cadillac themed monstrosities

require superhuman strength to maneuver through the aisles. They may have more seating than my college dorm room but are about as productive as one for actual shopping.

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The snacks. No matter how much I feed and water them before we go to the store, my kids are suddenly

starving and begging me to buy and open (not necessarily in that order) the boxes and bags of goodies they can see from their throne.

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The child-sized mini carts. Survey any group of parents (I did!) about these little pieces of hell and you

The parking lot. Safely getting from store to car with grocery bags and children all in one piece resembles a

will hear overwhelmingly that we all wish they would disappear. No good can come of these carts. No reasonable grocery haul can fit in one. No self-respecting toddler steers one without testing the laws of physics by running it into a display case.

game of Frogger. Not to mention the moral predicament that inevitably follows regarding the return of the cart (do I leave the kids alone in the car to run it back, or leave it stranded in the parking lot like a jerk?).

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