A year ago,  most everyone was gorging on stimulus money.  Checkout lanes had long lines of  shoppers with overflowing carts.  Often, a couple would have two carts full of groceries.  All of which made it tedious to wait your turn.  It wasn’t at all unusual to see tabs running over $150 to $200.  My defense was to try and find little pockets of time when there were fewer shoppers. Maybe, one o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon, right before the weekly grocery ads started appearing on Wednesday. But something miraculous has happened this past month.  It looks like shoppers are pulling  in their belts, because they’re buying less. Consequently,  checkout lines are moving faster.

I’m probably one of the few people who welcomes this change. At our age, we don’t have huge appetites, so it doesn’t affect our grocery bill too much when prices skyrocket. And it’s nice to get in line behind someone with ten items in their cart rather than 50.

It is amazing when you get home and check your receipt, though. Last week I bought 30 items, and upon close inspection, I saw several products that cost 50 cents to a dollar more than they did a few months ago.  The stores have these little tricks like placing the price underneath a package when it actually applies to the product below.   My favorite brand of coffee used to be $4.99 .  I didn’t realize until I got home that I had paid $7.99 for that same brand.  Probably, the house label on the shelf below would have cost $3.00 less..

I don’t know how  low-income shoppers with a couple of kids are making it.  Since they’re buying less at the supermarket, they could be experiencing food insecurity.   Maybe they’re eating more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Or having cereal for  dinner.

All I know is that leaner times at the grocery store result in shorter wait time for me. Shoppers are pulling in their belts, and checkout lines are moving faster