how are you going into supermarkets?

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Are you good at going into a often very bright and noisy supermarket? i often meltdown somtimes moderate somtimes extremely suvere .

Not good at all. I have a mini-panic attack every time I walk up to the doors of a grocery store. I usually try to go to bulk stores like Costco on the least-busy time of the week like a Tuesday night right before closing. I always take someone that knows my issues and that I trust with me in case I lose it and need someone to stay with my cart while i go hide in the car for 20 minutes.

Going to Costco means that i can buy huge amounts of non-perishable good like rice, beans, canned things, frozen fish, detergents, etc. and won't have to go back for 4-6 months. For fresh fruits and vegetables, I try to go to the smallest shops I can.

In my town we have a grocery co-op that is super small and a little more expensive since they specialize in locally grown organic foods but I don't tend to freak out as much there as bigger stores.

Fyi, I am super-aspie but don't look like it to NTs so they always overestimate my ability to deal with stimulating environments. It sucks. A lot.

I do alright in them, only thing that bugs me is when an employee or department is being paged over the loudspeaker, and whomever is talking holds the microphone WAY too close to their mouth.

Yes, me too on this. That is another reason that I like Costco and the small grocery co-op: they don't typically use the loudspeaker for much of anything unless a small child is looking for thier parent.

Ah, supermarkets--the bain of most of us I think.

I actually did a little shoppping this morning. What I do is go into work a few minutes early and pick up perishables at a small, expensive supermarket. Since I go early in the morning, there is almost nobody in the place.

For nonperishables, I take a couple of Valium and brace myself for Walmart. I usually go in the morning as well. I've found the third Tuesday of the month is the best day--when it's not as crowded. Since I hate big, crowded stores (it's nothing against Walmart personally), I buy huge quantities three or four times a year. It also doesn't hurt to have some extra food on hand in case something happens.

As far as everything else goes, I buy online whenever possible.

I'm okay with them. The noises get annoying very fast, though... and I feel exhausted afterwards.

I am OK if it's not so busy, but when I enter a busy supermarket, I start panicing inside, although I keep up a calm expression on the outside.

The day before Christmas eve was a nightmare in Tesco - nobody here on WP would want to have been in there, because it even caused my NT friend to have a panic attack!
Every check-out had a massive queue that went all the way up every aisle, and every single aisle was jam-packed with people and you literally could not move, and I didn't know who was in the queues and who wasn't. I couldn't bend down to get anything from the bottom shelves because there wasn't any room to bend because I would then be knocking into somebody else's legs or trolley. And there was a baby screaming and crying behind us in the queue (when we finally did get in a queue), which distressed me, and I couldn't help myself turning round to glare at it.

Luckily I have got self-control, otherwise I would have just screamed out of frustration and barged past people. I just hope I don't lose my self-control one day.

I don't. Period. I know a series of very small stores in my local area, all within walking distance that have everything I need. I get exercise, they get business and I don't have to worry about breaking down in a public place.

I try to go at times when they are not crowded. It's the crowdedness that gets to me the most. I get very irritated when people are in the way and they don't look up or move without my having to get their attention. I'm not talking about people who just happen to be in the spot where I want to get something, I can wait for that. I mean the ones who leave their cart at an angle smack in the middle of the aisle while they wander down to the other end of the aisle. I have no patience for that sort of thing.

I also can't stand it when employees keep asking if they can help me. I have to keep my mind on what I'm shopping for, and having someone talk to me is a huge distraction. It makes me forget what I'm doing. And a lot of times when they ask if they can help me, they are in actually standing in my way and it's on the tip of my tongue to say "yes you can help by getting out of my damn way" and I've never said that but maybe one day I will.

I usually go into the grocery store to get just a few things, in multiple quantities and if any of those items are out of stock I get really disgusted. It makes me feel like the whole purpose for going in there is lost. Then if I have to check out with a cashier, they better not say anything about what I'm buying or how much I'm buying. It is none of their business.

One final note on this one: I actually just came from the store: Tractor Supply. Feral hogs are tearing up my pasture, and I had to buy a trap. The fellow who sold it to me starred on American Hoggers. He said A&E contacted him several days ago asking if he'd be interested in doing a second season.

It's not always bad shopping, especially since I didn't have to wait.

Generally awful, but sometimes I can be fine. I suffer from Anxiety Disorder with Panic Attacks.

I find the sheer size of some supermarkets overwhelming and intimidating. The bright lights, the either too busy aisles or the completely empty ones. The sound and the high shleves.

It can be really scary if I'm going through a bad time and sometimes I just can't enter them.

I often visit* supermarkets with friends, looking at CD's and DVD's mainly - I find it really overwhelming at times and can have panic attacks and just have to leave. Sometimes even while in a queue (thankfully my friends know the situation and can deal with paying for my goods and I will meet them outside.)

*I've visited supermarkets very few times in the last year as it's just too much.

I am terrible with supermarkets much more comfortable with smaller stores.

I can rather easily collect groceries, but standing in line for a long time makes me uncomfortable and often stresses me. I am generally very uncomfortable in large super markets (the kind of buildings that include tons of different stores and usually have hundreds of people roaming the halls) - although this feeling is not as severe if I am with friends or family. If I am alone, I always end up sweating and accelerating my walking pace almost linearly throughout the duration... On occasions, I can grow really agitated with the other customers or clerks.

Also,

I feel the same way. I -know- they work there to process my purchase and answer my questions. They do not need to make this clear constantly. It can really annoy me.


TL;DR: Generally pretty bad.

Last edited by lcee on 29 Dec 2011, 3:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I normally like to use a pair of headphones and music or a podcast to get into my own little world to manage but normally I like to just go in and get what I need and get out. It is nicer now because I have a android phone and 3G so I can stream music over winamp or iheat radio.

The smaller stores are worse to me because the space is tighter and they are more crowded.

I do good in them. We always get the same food so we are in there and then in thirty minutes. I used to get anxious in them only because I didn't know what to get and I had no plan in my head what food to get. But once my husband helped me figured that out, I get what i normally get and get out. No need to worry about wasting time in there or being there for three hours. Just as long we keep our routine the same, I won't get anxious.