What's on the perimeter in your grocery store?

swheeler0602 wrote: »

Some reasons for "perimeter shopping" is to help you avoid high carb foods and high processed foods (although there are still some in the perimeter).

In both my mainstream grocery and my WF the bakery stuff and the pre-made foods (i.e., lots of so called high processed and high carb foods) are on the perimeter.

I don't believe you they want you to only shop the perimeter but to start with it and get as many products as possible so you are getting less processed foods. Then grab any other essentials (peanut butter/tuna/whatever is needed for you) in the aisles. But you also have to remember that not everything in the perimeter is good for you.

Why pretend like people are dumb (not you, whoever made up this idiotic rule) and cannot figure out how to shop and what fits well into their version of a healthful diet (based on actual nutrition principles, as well as personal taste)? That's what I find annoying and insulting about this rule. Well, that and besides in bears no relationship to where things are actually located -- there are as many healthful staples (including fruits and veg) not on the perimeter as located there, at least in my store

I see it as a well to help you start to make better decisions: I need green beans (grab fresh instead of canned)

Neither are on the perimeter in my mainstream grocery, but let's say it's winter -- why on earth would "fresh" (out of season and carted in from far away) be a "better decision" than frozen veg? I am likely to buy the fake fresh anyway since I prefer cooking with them, but they are more expensive and NOT a better decision from a nutrition POV. That's why these kinds of rules bother me -- they aren't really about what's good from a nutrition perspective and they assume people are idiots.

I really don't think anyone needs help understanding how to shop -- again, the idea is bizarre and insulting.

Produce, including refrigerated dressings, herb pastes, minced garlic
Bakery (donuts, cakes, etc) including commercial bread & bagels
Deli....this is partial (the salad bar and pizzaria is in the middle aisles).
Meat (fresh, frozen & processed)
Dairy, dips, eggs, refrigerated bisquits, bagels, etc
Cards & flowers
Alcohol
Seasonal items (typically candy).

35dollars wrote: »

Hmm. I'd be able to buy cameras, phones, pharmaceutical products, seasonal toys, clothing, bread, beer and pet food.

Not a wildly nutritious selection, to be honest.

Lots of inorganic fiber though! YeeHaw

At Meijer:
Produce
Deli/rotisserie chicken case
Bakery
Packaged lunch meats
Seafood case
Meat case
Self serve meat case
Butter and other things (cookie dough, refrigerated rolls, etc.)
Milk, eggs, juice---yogurt, cheese on the opposite side of the aisle

Plus if you continue past the juice, there's the pet department, toys, electronics, etc. You'd avoid the section I work in, actually.

Kroger differs a bit, especially since it's a Marketplace:
Produce
Deli/olive bar
Bakery
Bread
Meat/seafood cases
Self service meat
Lunchmeat
Cheese
Eggs, rolls
Yogurt, butter
Milk, juice
Then you go around the corner and come up to the pharmacy.

I go through all the aisles because I want to see what's out there and what's new. I do buy most of my items from the perimeter of the store but that's just me, it's a habit. Everything I buy is already listed above.

I'm in England, I'd be able to eat at my local store:

Sandwiches
Fruit
Meat & fish
Dips and olives
Deli Counter (including cheese, hot cooked meats, cold meats)
Cakes
Bread (and bread goods, no pastries)
Cereal and porridge
Frozen foods (meats, veggies, meal, ice cream etc)

I'd miss out
Vegetables!
Prepared meals
Milk, butter and most dairy
All tinned and dried beans
Stuff I actually buy somewhere else like coffee and peanut butter (I'd struggle without these though)

If I can just add in vegetables I'd probably be ok! That would be the biggest thing missing. I'd miss a few things like milk and some of the tinned things like beans and tuna too.

I know the conventional wisdom is that they put staples around the exterior to force you to walk across the whole store and pass by a bunch of stuff you may be tempted to by on impulse, but I have to say that the perimeter selections at my local grocery store (Mid-Atlantic U.S.) appear to be governed by practicality: almost exclusively counter service areas (easier to have storage and control access at the perimeter) and refrigerated/freezer areas (a hold-over, I suspect, from the days when there was only one aisle of refrigerator/freezer items -- and the others are in the adjacent aisles, so it certainly looks like a plumbing/electrical efficiency consideration):


counterclockwise from the front:
customer-service desk
floral shop (yum!)
packaged "natural foods" section (one exception to the service counters and refrigerator-freezer rule -- I think they were looking for corner to set them off on their own)
produce (fruit and veg, includes fresh herbs and displays of nuts and dried fruits)
salad bar
olive bar
deli and prepared salads
"cheese shop" (mostly block cheese)
fish ("fresh"/thawed and frozen)
packaged lunch meats, bacon, and packaged sausage
meat and poultry
packaged refrigerated entrees and sides (e.g., pulled pork, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese)
dairy and eggs (milk and nondairy substitutes, cream, eggs, butter, ricotta, cottage cheese, sour cream, packaged sliced and shredded cheeses, yogurt)
refrigerator juices, juice-based "drinks" and punches (e.g., orange juices)
commercial bakery breads and rolls
jam, fruit preserves, etc., peanut butter, other nut butters, Nutella and similar, cookie butters (also an exception to the service counters and refrigerator-freezer rule -- I think this is a marketing decision, the way they sometimes hang bananas in the cereal aisle)
in-store bakery products (bread, rolls, bagels, muffins, doughnuts, croissants, other pastries, cookies, cakes)
pharmacy


Staples I would miss if I only shopped the perimeter:
dried and canned beans
canned tomatoes
other canned veggies (I don't do a lot of these, but it's nice to have some on hand for emergencies and making soup)
canned soup
canned stock or demi-glace
dried pasta
rice, quinoa, bulgur and other grains
flour, yeast, gluten, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking power, unsweetened cocoa
nuts (the ones in produce at the perimeter are often higher-priced, small package, or flavored)
dried herbs and spices
oats and other hot cereals
cold cereals
shelf-stable milk and milk substitutes
coffee
tea
popping corn
nutritional yeast
oil (olive, etc.)
vinegar
mustard
olives (OK, I could get these at the olive bar, but I like to have some in a jar ready for when I want some)
seltzer
frozen fruit and veggies
and, of course, chocolate

No wine or beer in the grocery store I usually shop at.

On my usual grocery store:
* produce (various) [boring]
* packaged salad - expensive salad dressings -
* mushrooms
* crudites
* CHEESE!
* Various bulk nuts, dried fruits, pretzel chips
* HOMMUS!
* BEER!
* Deli meats and cheeses
* Cake
* Cupcakes
* Bumpy Cakes
* Donuts
* Bagels, danish, and other "breakfast breads"
* Seafood
* Sausages and charcuterie
* Beef cuts/pork cuts (poultry not on the perimeter)
* Deli-snacks
* Packaged hotdogs
* Packaged Sandwich meats
* Packaged sausages
* BACON!
* Yogurt
* Milk
* Whipped Cream
* Snack yogurts
* Sour cream
* Packaged sliced and shredded cheeses
* Vegan meat substitutes
* Eggs
* Pharmaceuticals
* The checkout gauntlet

Deli
Bakery
Produce
Juices
Dairy
Eggs
Fresh meat
Seafood
Floral

Mine goes: Produce, bakery and bread, meat (fresh and processed), cheese, deli counter, soda, dairy cases. What I would miss out on that I and my family use: baking ingredients like almond flour and vanilla, seasonings, canned veggies and pickles, frozen veggies, cooking oils, ice cream, cereal/oatmeal, potato chips . . . .

On the perimeter of my local Kroger:
raw fruit/veggies
bakery
deli counter
fresh meat/seafood
juice
milk/dairy
eggs
refrigerated cookie dough
vegetarian fake-meat
beef jerky
beer
workout supplements

Staples I'd miss out on:
english muffins
International aisles
pasta
frozen vegetables
NO RICE OR BEANS ((
flour, salt, and pretty much everything else you'd need to bake or season stuff
nuts
canned pumpkin puree
tea
coffee
sparkling flavored water
ice cream

The only difference between Kroger and my other main grocery store (Meijer) is that I'd at least get to have coffee.

Mine, starting at the entrance and going counter clockwise:

canned seltzer waters (La Croix)
tortilla chips, pretzels, Doritos, Lays, all other chips and dips
Energy drink things
cheese
yogurt
non-dairy creamers
milk, butter, cream cheese
bacon
bacon
canadian bacon
the deli
hummus
meat counter
chicken
sushi
packaged salads
packaged lettuces
salad dressings
peppers
some veggies
all the juices, all of them
an entire freezer of kinds of garlic bread and stuffed pastas
bakery
ice cream
a high blood pressure monitor, which I would surely need if I ate everything on the perimeter
candy and more candy

I'd miss:

most of the fruits
frozen veggies
beer
breads
protein bars
coffee
canned goods
ethnic foods
everything else I eat

of course ... the checkouts are made narrow with all the bins and hanging racks that sell candy and gum, sundry items, magazines, select special merchandise. I don't even need to go into the interior of the aisles unless I'm shopping for something specific, pretty much, anyway.

In the store nearest my house (small rural grocery): chips, dairy, meat, beer, bread, and frozen food.
In the store I like best (further away but has fancy stuff I like): produce, dairy, meat, "health food" section, wine, deli/bakery, sushi bar, floral/balloons

Wow, this perimeter shopping would be disastrous for me!

Anticlockwise from the door would be
-overstocked sale items, currently family packs of wafers
-boxes of dates and pick n mix other dried fruit
- THE BAKLAVA COUNTER!
- Butcher
- Bakery
- Dips
- Cheese
- Yoghurt and cream
- Fizzy drinks
- Alcohol
- Cigarettes

I'd miss all the fruit and all the veg as well as the beans and lentils, the nuts, the eggs... mad!

This is in England, in a typical London, multi-ethnic, 24 hour mini-supermarket.