As someone with ADHD, going to the grocery store is an exhausting chore. We have to remember what we put on the list because we happened to forget the list at home. The noise around the grocery store is distracting, getting distracted by food that you shouldn’t buy, but you realize that you “need” and buying too much that you simply forgot that you bought taco ingredients last week, and now the cheese and meat are bad.
Food is already expensive without all of that, but even when we go to the grocery store with a list of five items, we come home with five more bags than anticipated, and not having much room to put the extra stuff we bought. I personally go to the store myself, I get distracted by other aisles other than the food ones, I love the crafting and the fidget toy section, and food-wise, I love the snack aisles.
I get really distracted by the craft aisles, though, because I am a very crafty person, but when you are going to food shopping, you have to focus on that because you end up buying too much, forgetting things, and that eventually leads to waste.
What’s worse than overbuying is having a plan for something for dinner, having the list in your head, going to the store, coming home, and realizing you forgot one of the main ingredients that stops you from making the dish, and then you get upset because you can’t eat what you planned.
Overbuying, though, can lead to food waste, and with the economy being so bad and groceries going up in price, you can barely afford food, and the restrictions on what you can buy make it even worse. Food is supposed to be enjoyed, and you can’t enjoy it if you can’t afford it.
If they had a neurodivergent friendly grocery store, where you can not get distracted by other things, that would be a big help. They do have services where someone else shops for you, but that leads to forgetting stuff because you are not physically at the store. I hope one day, shopping will be easier for ADHDers and other neurodivergents!
