My favorite weekly task is grocery shopping. When Covid hit and everyone was encouraged to stay home, it was the activity I missed most (sorry friends, but happy hour pales in comparison). I was so happy to return to leisurely shopping again once vaccines were available and the waves of cases subsided. Despite the recent sticker shock on most items, I still enjoy my weekly shop: seeing new seasonal produce, discovering great Aldi finds that I can't resist, and poring over the cheese case. Like most people, I usually buy groceries on the weekend, which is not the ideal time to do it according to Food and Wine, which recently investigated what time and day was best for grocery shopping.

You might think it would be best to go just after a delivery to ensure the freshest produce and full shelves, but supermarkets often get staggered deliveries, so there may not be one single day that is best for all items. While some stores get perishable items daily for the freshest stock, often there is one main delivery per week. (If you don't know when the truck comes in, just ask a store employee.) Food and Wine recommends going first thing in the morning after the delivery day, because the store has had time to stock the shelves.

This practice doesn't work at one of my local supermarkets because the store waits until the next morning to stock the non-perishable items. I went just after opening once, thinking the trip would be a breeze because no one else would be shopping at that time. I was right about that, but I had to snake the shopping cart around stacks of boxes as workers frantically stocked the shelves. The store was a mess and it was difficult to access many items on my list. That was my first and last time for early morning shopping (I'm not a morning person anyway).

If frugality is your thing, another aspect to consider is when the store does its markdowns. I found that one nearby store marks things down on Friday afternoon, probably to take advantage of the Saturday morning crowd to clean out the short-dated merchandise. Cruising the aisles right after work on Friday usually nets a handful of half-priced items, making my shopping budget go farther.

Many stores start their weekly specials on Wednesdays, so if you want to make sure you get all the deals before they run out of items, that is a good day to shop. One store near me now has special 3-day sales that start on Thursday in addition to the normal weekly ad that begins on Wednesday. I am not sure if this is to encourage people to shop on Thursday and Friday instead of the weekend or if there is another reason. Maybe it's to encourage people to come on multiple days, but who has time for that?

Despite the advice for getting the freshest produce and fully stocked shelves, for most of us who work a Monday-Friday full-time job, the only practical time to buy groceries is on the weekend. As such, we will have to put up with a busy store, know that items may be out of stock, and hope that some good stuff is still in the Aldi finds aisle. I guess this is another reason to look forward to retirement!