6 Unspoken Grocery Store Rules Everyone Should Follow

Let's face it, the grocery store can either be a quick, efficient trip that feels like a breeze or a jam-packed frenzy of "excuse me's" while you navigate the crowds. Even if you've made your grocery list super efficient, getting around the supermarket at peak times can be a chore — especially if you were hoping to take your time and compare items and prices. While we can't clear the aisles for you or change how much grocery prices have increased over the last few years, we can share our list of unspoken grocery store rules everyone should follow to keep things running smoothly.

While these guidelines lean more toward etiquette, rather than rules about how to improve your grocery shopping, following them can make your trips to the supermarket more enjoyable. Whether you're shopping at your local neighborhood market or a massive Walmart Supercenter, following these rules will help keep the flow of traffic moving, even on the busiest of grocery shopping days. 

One of the most important supermarket rules of etiquette to follow is being mindful of where your cart is. Getting stuck behind an empty cart with no one around to move it is annoying, as it forces other shoppers to do some awkward maneuvering to avoid them. 

To avoid this, try to stay with your cart as much as possible. Even if you just want to peek at something across the aisle, take your cart with you, and if possible, try to park it parallel to the shelves so it's blocking as little of the aisle as possible. 

If you leave your cart blocking traffic, this is irritating for other shoppers to navigate, and forces them to spend extra time moving around your blockage. So, try not to leave your cart, and if you do, do it in a way that's more convenient to others.

I'm sure we've all had moments where we're walking down the aisle and see an item that's so out of place it's almost comical. Like when a case of beer ends up in the toilet paper section. 

Though these moments can be funny, they are also inconvenient for grocery store staff. They can also lead to all kinds of waste, such as if frozen items aren't returned to the freezer section, forcing them to be thrown out.

So, if you're deciding against a food item, especially anything cold or frozen, don't just leave it wherever you happen to be when you change your mind. Either return the item to where you found it, or give the item to an employee so they can put it away properly. 

Arriving at the grocery store, I'm often surprised by the number of carts that are left stranded in the middle of the parking lot. Sometimes they can be navigated around, sometimes they cannot, limiting the number of available parking spaces. Stranded carts can even be accidentally smashed into unsuspecting cars. 

So it's best if we all do our part and keep the parking spots clear of carts, and return them to where they need to go. This is best for shoppers as well as employees, as they won't have to spend time walking through the lot for randomly spaced items. 

I love that Aldi has utilized the quarter system for its shopping carts, a system that requires you to deposit a quarter to retrieve a cart, which is only returned once you put the cart back where you found it. This incentivizes people to return carts and prevents them from being located in awkward spots of the parking lot. But since not all stores have that, try to return carts after using them.

Many grocery stores have an express lane that customers can use if they have a certain number of items or fewer. A 15 or 20 item limit is fairly common for express lanes. Now, if you pop into the express lane when you're a couple of items over the limit, chances are, no one's going to yell at you. But I would groan if I were in line for the express self-checkout section and the person in front of me had a full cart. 

The same goes for quick-trip parking spots that some grocery stores have now. These are often located closer to the entrance, and are often associated with shorter store visits, like those that last 15 minutes or less. I find these spots incredibly convenient, since you don't have to cross a massive parking lot on a busy day just to grab one item. 

But just how avoiding the self checkout section is best if you have a full cart, it's best to avoid quick-trip parking spots if you're going to be spending a longer amount of time at the store. Follow the rules to help things work best for everyone.

When you're in the checkout line or walking the aisles, it always helps to leave the people around you some room. In the aisles, a quick "excuse me" will go a long way if you do have to reach past someone taking their time when you already know what you want. And in the checkout line, give the person in front of you about an extra foot of space rather than breathing down their neck while you wait.

Even if you're not claustrophobic, it's easy to feel cramped in the checkout line, by the walls of overpriced candy, stacked groceries moving down the belt, and the cart in line behind you. My personal advice for moving through the checkout line is to be mindful of how close your cart is, and if you wouldn't want to stand as close to your neighbor as your cart is located, give more space. 

It may seem simple enough, but this is one tip that cannot be understated. Pressing up behind the person in front of you is not going to make the line move any faster. However, it's probably just going to stress them out. So imagine your cart is an extension of yourself, and stay a polite distance away from others.

If we run into a friend unexpectedly at the store, you'll probably want to say a quick "hello." But if there's not a cafe or another open space in the store where you can chat without blocking items or the flow of traffic, keep it to a quick greeting and stay moving. 

Otherwise, the quick "hey" often turns into a five-minute chat. And when you park two carts and two people in the aisles, it blocks items and slows traffic. People then have to decide whether to circle back for their item later in the grocery shopping trip, or ask you to move. 

Plus, if you're distracted by the hustle and bustle around you, you don't even get to really enjoy the conversation. Just say "hello" and reconnect later, to be polite to other shoppers.