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Comment by bee_rider | Hacker News Reader

> Folks get invested in their local grocery stores, we do at least.

It is kinda funny (Stop & Shop or starvation I say!). I suspect it is because getting groceries is one of the rare shopping activities that is just 100% always a chore. Like if you are going clothes or electronics shopping, you are probably hoping to stumble across something surprising. Food -- I know what food I want, no need for novelty, I just want to get in and out.

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I can't relate to this statement at all. I actually enjoy grocery shopping. I look forward to it every week. It gives me an opportunity to pick out what I want to eat or make during the week. I love cooking and discovering new food, so it's a bit of a hobby. I know its incredibly inefficient and something that I could do faster ordering online, but shopping for food is weirdly nostalgic and human to me. Procuring food, even though it's still within the structure of industrialized grocery, is the last thing in my life that hasn't been completely digitized and I find it pleasantly inefficient and archaic.

I mostly shop a Trader Joes, aside from other specific things I may need at a specialty store.

Around once a week or so I'll cook something novel but it is a special occasion, but there's a good chance I'll pick it up at a farmer's market or the quirky healthfood store.

Right, but Kroger would like you to wander around the store admiring their huge retail inventory. Perhaps they can sell you a new patio set or some swag from your local pro soccer team, or some pots and pans.

They have been passive-aggressive about online ordering and have basically been forced into it by a perceived competition with Amazon (abject paranoia). They hate it.

For some reason you can never get all of the items on your order. They have "been trying to fix this" for years now. At one point, over two years ago, I was in talks with recruiters about joining the team that was "trying to fix it" at Kroger.

Their software dev ranks and tech in general is a fast revolving door. I refused to join because of all the people I knew who had joined and left almost immediately.

The last thing you want is a bigger Kroger. My initial take was that this merger would be the thing that causes them to fail.

The dirty secret behind all the online ordering stuff is just how ABSOLUTELY BAD at inventory many stores were (and still are!). Things like "we get a pallet of oranges every Monday, and every Sunday night we throw any remaining away" but across all swaths of items.

That's before you even get into tracking where in the store the items might be, because they're not always in the same location, end caps, etc.

And then on top of that add lazy pickers who are just trying to finish as many orders as they can, and the "not available" button is right there ...

we have a few krogers near where i live but i didn't even realize albertsons was a big chain until recently since i'd never actually seen one irl. but yeah everybody around here knows kroger is shit and literally any of the other many stores is better. overpriced, bad selection, the worst quality produce and meat, employees aren't very helpful. thankfully there's a ton of other selection.

I generally take that approach now (with kids) but in my younger years I loved going to the grocery to figure out what I was making. Start with something interesting on sale on the meat/seafood section, or some fruit/veg I was less familiar with and build a menu from there. Or try some new spice, or random packaged food and buy the suggested items for the accompanying recipe. I found so many interesting foods to try, especially from ethnicities other than my own background. Also speciality items and snacks, even different brands of classics.

Clearly you have a much too healthy relationship with food! For us deviants who are less well adjusted a visit to the grocery store is basically a to-do list of future bad decisions.

I know. My wife and her entire family love to cook. They also love a leisurely sprawl through a grocery or specialty food store, just to see what's new, what's gone, or maybe find inspiration (I'm usually discouraged from joining because of my "get-in, get-out" mentality).

I hope you have the great, good fortune to have someone in your life that complements you in this regard :-)

Some people only but electronics they want, and hope to stumble upon surprising new food. Different people have different hobbies.

That is why I always go by the deli section. Cheese from random foreign country inserts a bit of novelty.

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