Count me in as well. Shopping with DH is like shopping with a toddler. His trick is to choose the giant version of what we need. Doesn't matter that it will go stale long before we get to use the 16 pounds of whatever.

DH wants to go up and down the aisles. I go where I need to go. He wants to push. So I just go off and fulfill the list and meet up with him in the aisles to drop items in the cart, then off I go again. Only, he might replace something I picked out with what he thinks is a cheaper version. Ugh. So much wasted time and energy. It took us almost an hour today.

D_gw, mine will sometimes want to get the smaller one! because it's cheaper. But I just have to replenish it sooner.

I have another reason for hating to shop with my DH. Before he retired, he'd stop at the small grocery store on the way home from the office and pick up whatever we needed for dinner. And I would do the shopping for staples and whatever else we needed on my own. We tend to shop several times a week.

But since he has retired, now we often shop together. He's got arthritis in the spine, so now he wants to drive the cart, for support. Flne, but I miss the cart. Even when we have a list, he wants to rush thru it all. Know how you are looking for something, but not sure where it is? You start down an aisle, only going far enough to know the item is not there, then come back. Well, he follows me every step. Drives me crazy. I have started telling him "stay" like I tell the dog. And then he starts complaining that he's tired of being on his feet. So I'm distracted enough to miss half of what I needed. Sometimes I just tell him to go sit down by the Starbucks and wait for me, and he does, but then he pouts and wants me to hurry up. Sigh. Reminds me of shopping with a toddler.

We have not adjusted to this retirement thing. I sometimes feel like running away from home for a few hours, but it's hard to get away without him.

My dad would take my mom shopping, then wait for her in the car. He would keep track of how long she'd been and how many people entered and exited while she was shopping. "That person went in after you and came out before you."

My DFIL would take MIL to the store, then linger over a coffee, donut, and newspaper waiting for her. Then the Loblaws became a NoFrills. Ugh. No frills, no coffee, not even a bench.

My father who was annoyed that he finally had to retire at 79 started going to the supermarket with my mother and it was awful. I had to tell him to knock it off. Then he started going instead of her and kept buying canned vegetables which we never ate in our house ever, and he would not eat after he tasted them. And lots of snacks. It was probably a year before it got all sorted out.

"That person went in after you and came out before you."

The mental image of that conversation taking place had me laughing ;0)

I don't especially like to shop with DH either, and rarely do grocery shop with him. Except Costco. For selfish reasons, I invite him to Costco. The closest is an hour away and I have a list that often contains bulky or heavy things - it is Costco after all. He will fetch and carry, load the car, load the cooler in the back of the car, then do it all again in reverse when we are home.

I pulled a mega bag of potting soil off a stack into my cart when alone one day, and almost left it in the cart in the parking lot. I couldn't lift it into the back of my car.

bpathome - Please share the name of your local chain that moves things only occasionally. That sounds like heaven. I moved a year ago and am still trying to decode where my now local/same grocery chain hides things.

Sushipup, I hear you about the retirement thing. Thankfully, my husband's hobbies keep him from following me on my little jaunts. My husband has zero patience for shopping so I'd have to medicate him before I could get him to walk along with me in a supermarket. When we go shopping together, we have our own carts, I give him the no brainer list of easily found items because finding things is a challenge for him, even in our refrigerator. We meet up in the magazine aisle when I'm finished. If I'm taking too long, he'll check out and call to tell me he's in the car. If he's got something to read, it buys me more time. I only like him to come when I'm doing a big order, and need paper towels and such that will take up too much room in my cart.

I am laughing out loud reading all of your comments . . . and Me, too! Thank goodness the only store we shop at together most of the time is Costco twice a month. He always wants to push the cart, but has no concept of where to stop so that he's not blocking the aisle. And, being a family practice doc, he has to read the ingredients of everything we consider. We do eat very healthfully, but it drives me crazy how much time he spends doing that! On the other hand, he likes to come with me if I'm shopping for clothes or shoes. He has great taste, so I do trust his opinions. And, he's very generous. For example, we stopped in at a shoe store in Tucson last month to look for one pair of flats for me. I came away with 3, because he found two more that he liked. Unlike me, though, he's not into shopping for bargains.

LOL!! I went grocery shopping with exH once - that's was enough. Although he never did any cooking, he sure did have a lot of opinions on what we should buy.....stuff I would never use and he wouldn't like if he tried it. We did go shopping together at Costco and that was actually fine as there was enough other stuff beyond food items to keep him occupied. And he would graze all the sample tables and actually came up with a few tasty items from those I would have passed right by!!

OTOH, he was great to take nursery shopping. Although not a gardener in any real sense of the word, he appreciated my enthusiasm and liked plants. So there was never a issue on limiting what I could buy and he just as often footed the bill.

Just an aside, since our divorce and his remarriage, he has now taken up both cooking and gardening, as new wife is completely unskilled in both activities :-) So now he calls me for recipes for his favorite dishes I made and advice on gardening. I guess something positive rubbed off on him...........

Take the credit card . Leave hubs at home!

"Stay" - sushipup, love it. I'm still laughing at that. My mom has Alzheimers and if I take her out that's what I say to her as well. I feel bad but she listens. :)

IF and I mean IF my DH comes shopping he stands at the tabloid section and reads all the latest Hollywood gossip and then on the way home I get "Did you know that so-and-so is dating so-and-so but apparently so-and-so1 is gay" Oh really?

When my DH retired I laid out some rules - You can't come shopping with me, you can't come running with me and my running buddies, you can't come for coffee with my coffee buddies. I am not your hobby. He took it to heart and reconnected with neighbour friends and volunteer work.

S Rodriguez, we each have our own card!

We do like going to Costco together if I'm not getting something in particular. It's kinda fun. But we watch the free samples. When it first opened we tried all the samples and got a bit queasy. Now we limit to two or three tables, and only one sample at each.

Delilah, it's Sunset.

DH very rarely goes to the grocery store with me. Sometimes we end up at Costco together and we buy a few groceries but that's about it. Why does one take the nuisance spouse along to the grocery store? Do they insist on going along?

When dh retired last year he wanted to tag along all the time. At times it aggravated me, then I started to enjoy the company. He's not overbearing, lets me move at my pace, doesn't question my choices. He does pick up things not on my list, but that's ok. He's also willing to run to the store whenever I need something and don't feel like going myself.

Do they insist on going along?

Yes, they insist. Like the sad puppy eyes with deep sighs and "oh, well, I guess I can just go sit in the corner..."

Wow - I cannot imagine DH ever wanting to go to the grocery store with me.

We we go to the market together all the time, often stopping for lunch on the way. Maybe it's because I travel so much during the week and it's time we get to spend together.

Neither one of us buys much junk food and we do have our own stuff (like coffee and tomato preferences) that we just buy for ourselves. I push the cart in and he pushes it out. We linger at the cheese and cured meat counters like it's sexy time.

My husband loved grocery shopping and cooking. I loved shopping together--I picked up the necessities and he bought all the "special" things he needed when he was planning a meal. He is deceased and for a long time I couldn't grocery shop without ending up in tears. Silly I know.

satine, my friend's husband did all the shopping and cooking. She said it took about four years after he passed before she quit having meltdowns in the grocery store. Not silly at all.

Satine and cooper, thank you. Time for a change in mindset here!

When my husband was alive we almost never went grocery shopping together because who likes grocery shopping and why make more than one person have to do it? I'd go or he'd go, but never did we say, let's have fun and go buy groceries together.

We frequently - almost always - grocery shop together since we've been retired. I've had a series of illnesses and periods of time when I could not drive, or cook. Don't know what I'd do without him. Have taught him a lot and he's an enthusiastic cook now - a blessing to me.

DH is retired so sometimes I send him to the store for specific things. Believe me I have to be very specific or I get weird things. I even make him take a photo with his cell phone sometimes so he gets it right.

When we shop for a lot of groceries together he's the darter and I stay with the cart. I'm on aisle 3 and he runs off to get his coffee creamer, comes back then runs to get his bread, comes back then runs to get his cereal, rinse repeat about 5 times until he's done. Then he says aren't you finished yet? Ummmm, no i'm only half done so why don't you go get x? We finally make it to the end after a couple more 'aren't you done yets'. I don't know what this is going to be like when I retire next month!

We used to. Then DH realized that sometimes at those times he could be at the gym. He wanted me to shop earlier. I have absolutely no reason to rush through this task or to go early.

So, unless I have an unusually large shop for a holiday, or if he wants bottled water, I go alone. I have to say that the bill is always lower when I shop by myself.

I don't really mind going grocery shopping.

My sister and her DH always shopped together. Now that he is retired though, he goes alone. He is great with the budget and always utilizes sale ciculars and coupons.

When they did shop together, they took two carts and divided the list, so they could finish faster.

I do most of the grocery shopping even though I don't paricularly like it and DH and I seldom do it together, but when we do it's exactly like Outsideplaying's. DH darts around getting what he wants and when he's done it's "are you almost done" "how much longer?" I then find myself rushing and it drives me crazy.

We usually do Costco together but as mentioned, there's enough there to keep him distracted. We usually separate, then I have to call him to find him.

"That person went in after you and came out before you." I know my dad said that to my mother on multiple occasions.....memories!

TBH, I dislike grocery shopping with anybody, not just hubby, & he's actually gotten better, leaving me & wandering off by himself until it's time to pay & then pulling out his wallet. I tend to get distracted by shopping companions & forget stuff, even tho I try to make meticulous lists. Haha - I sometimes even order my lists to reflect the order of the store aisles!

& then there's my dear, sweet younger sister, who absolutely loses all sense of time & purpose the moment she steps into any store & then I become the impatient one trying to keep her on task...

Carolb - I always write my grocery lists to follow the floor plan of the grocery store(s). Have done so for years. Then, of course, they go and change the store around and I have to relearn where everything is. Drives me batty.

I have no significant other to grocery shop with. Thank God. The men in the store with their wives drives me nuts. Also the men who follow their wives around clothes shopping.

DH and I can't go clothes shopping! I can go with him, because he just waltzes into a store, grabs a pair of pants or whatever inhis size, pays and waltzes out again. I have to try everything on. And I don't care for clothes shopping anyway.

Yesterday we went shopping together. It's kind of ok as long as I don't turn my head or don't see anything on sale to distract from the PLAN. Well, I have been wanting to try some knorr sauces but few stores have them. I was looking for them yesterday and when I found them in this huge store I was a bit pleased. The minute he saw me read the backs for the carb count, he said, "I'm leaving. I'll be in the car!" Ok, fine. And I happily explored the big unfamiliar store but not too many aisles.

hejust wanted to check on his new sports car to make sure it didn't toddle away. Ok fine I get it. Separation anxiety or tantrum. He believes there is a prize for the kid who gets out fastest. There is a scorekeeper somewhere.

He does most of the grocery shopping now. He can't stand to go with me. And how many carrots can you send him off to buy.

My husband and I go grocery shopping together most of the time. We both like to cook and eat, and we enjoy planning menus and choosing ingredients together. We consider it a joint "fun" activity, but clearly we are in the minority here! Our weekends usually consist of a trip to Whole Foods for the general grocery shopping, then Costco and a few specialty food stores.

My husband is the more "enthusiastic" shopper in that he will often want to buy perishables that we will have no time to use before they perish, so I can be a wet blanket for him sometimes, I'm sure. But it's generally an enjoyable and low-conflict activity.

My husband is in the early stages of ALZ and he loves to go to the grocery store. He always wants to accompany me so I have learned to try to incorporate my shopping trips with another trip when he is not with me. I intentionally don't buy a few things that I know I need so I can send him on pick up trips. He always ends up calling me while he is at the store for some reason or another. Usually he comes back with the wrong thing and every time he will say "this is all they had." Retirement has not been as I imagined it would be.

acdc - I'm so sorry. My mom has Alzheimers and I go to a number of meetings etc with the Alzheimers society. I always feel for those with spouses that have been diagnosed with Alzheimers and hope that neither my DH nor I ever walk that road.

acdc - my heart goes out to you. Your situation helps provide a different perspective for those of us who have not experienced such a thing.

I haven't done a full-on grocery shopping expedition on my own in many years, and I tend to shy away from the grocery store at all costs. That's DH's territory, and I must admit he's very good at making the weekly list and taking care of it all. He would probably say about me what many of you have expressed about your husbands -- I'm sure I am an annoyance to him on the rare occasion when I accompany him to the store to do the shopping. He knows exactly where things are (which, as others have pointed out isn't easy since the two stores that we frequent are forever reshuffling items), and he becomes single-minded and very focused once he's pushing that cart. Since it's something of a novelty to me now, I tend to amble along and take things off the shelves that we don't really need, so our bill almost always ends up being higher when I'm along.

I am sorry, acdc.

We rarely go together because of something DH did to me years and years ago. (I don't remember if I told this story before on here or not. Oh well.)

It was near Christmas. The store was packed with shoppers. We had lots and lots of groceries to buy, and our cart was filled to overflowing. I started piling the stuff on the counter and the young woman checker was tediously punching them in. This was in the old days before barcodes.

Anyway, she got about halfway through when DH turns to me and says LOUDLY, "Did you bring enough food stamps to pay for all this???" (Let me say here that we were NOT, and have never been, on food stamps.) The young woman looked up, astonished, and said equally loudly, "If you are paying with food stamps, you're supposed to tell me ahead of time so we can separate the items!!"

Everyone nearby turned to stare, DH nearly fell on the floor laughing, and I - with red face - tried to explain to her that he was just kidding.

And that's why we rarely go together.

Most of this thread related very well to me, now I just make a list and he goes alone. I can't take it hahahahhah.

My husband hates it when I accompany him to the grocery store. I do all the annoying things, no idea why.

DH does all the grocery shopping and 95% of the cooking (he is retired.) I do not like being in a supermarket with him. My solution is to shop for the specialty items, without him. It works for us!

My dh has tried to pick up grocery shopping as a way to relieve some of my household burden. However it comes with a lot of rules. I have to be very specific on many items including brand and size, quantity on things like apples, to be honest, as the cook, I would prefer to select my own ingredients. But, I do need relief of tasks. So I let him shop some weeks, other weeks I shop myself and 'fill in the holes'. Some weeks we go together but we are not together, I send him off to get the clearly defined items and he knows I have the right to say he brought the wrong thing back.

My DH will stop for beer or wine. Everything else is up to me, and I'm fine with that. He buys the motor oil and ant bait, I buy the food.

Localeater, the specifics of shopping are an issue! It's like when my parents do their shopping. If they give me their list over the phone, all they have to say is "milk, oj, malted milk balls" and I know they mean "half gallon of 2%, Simply Orange Lots of Pulp, and the store's malted milk balls in a clear deli container". When they give the order to the store, they have to be very specific or they end up with Whoppers. Fortunately, I prefer Whoppers so that part is okay lol.

Even if I'm very specific with DH, he gets the brand he thinks is better/cheaper. He usually goes for "made in the USA" but I go for "comes from within 10 miles" if possible.

On the other hand, he will go off-list to buy pie fixin's and then make pie!