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Episode 89 - ADHD and Supermarkets
41 Plays1 month ago
Paul and Martin (ex-co mayers of ADHDville). talk about supermarkets. What's to explain really? nothing, because we all go to supermarkets... ok, not everyone but enough of an episode to make a podcast about it!.
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ADHD/Focus music from Martin (AKA Thinking Fish)
Theme music was written by Freddie Philips and played by Martin West. All other music by Martin West.
Please remember: This is an entertainment podcast about ADHD and does not substitute for individualized advice from qualified health professionals.
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Transcript
Introduction and Relatable Everyday Topics
00:00:00
Speaker
We go back in the room. Back in the room. Back in the room. Today... We are, Mr. Thompson. Yes. I like this subject.
00:00:11
Speaker
I like it. I like it a lot. Yes. Because it feels very... It feels very... It's a very... Domestically habitual.
00:00:22
Speaker
Domestically habitual. Everyone can relate. I think, yeah, you know, i like this. I think we should do more of these kinds of subjects where it's like... Yeah.
00:00:35
Speaker
We're sort of grounded in everyday life. Absolutely,
ADHDville: A World of Distractions
00:00:39
Speaker
yeah. We're talking about supermarkets. Yay! So, without further adieu, let's go to the place where the distractions are landmarks and the detours are the main roads. Welcome to ADHDville.
00:00:52
Speaker
ADHDville!
00:00:56
Speaker
You're just too good to be true I'll keep my eyes off of you You'd be like heaven to touch Oh baby, love you so much.
00:01:12
Speaker
Even with your ADHD. Even with your ADHD. And my random songs. Okay.
Meet Paul and Martin: ADHD Introductions
00:01:19
Speaker
Hello, I'm Paul Thompson. I was diagnosed with the combined ADHD and the D crawling towards so couple of months ago, a couple of years ago. Yeah.
00:01:29
Speaker
Wow. And I'm Martin West and I was diagnosed with the combined ADHD poo-poo platter in 2013. And we start off as we have been of late in the king's agitated head um in the town of ADHDville, sitting at the back. Which is a pub.
00:01:46
Speaker
It's a pub. The agitated head. It's kind of like a pub. It's a pub. Agitated head. Right. Yes. I should write this out, actually, rather than just do it off the top of my head. so a pub.
00:02:00
Speaker
Because if if in England, if you say, oh, it's the king's agitated head, if you're in England, it's like, oh, yeah, it's a comical play on words.
The Quirky World of Pub Names
00:02:09
Speaker
right But for everyone else outside the UK, they're like, what what the hell are you talking about?
00:02:15
Speaker
But yeah, it's a pub. From wherever you are in the world, whether you're in Greece, whether you're in Timbuktu, Australia, um check as we are and we know that you're out there because we see it on the analytics walk What is the common name for a pub in your area?
00:02:37
Speaker
What kind of pub names do you have? Are they like, um because I'm sure they can't be like the English bar names, like you know yeah the king's head and and the bell and and the queen's head.
00:02:53
Speaker
So, yeah. In Italy. Let's know in the comments. In Italy, there's not a pattern, for example. Not really. Well, you get the Bella Vista. There's lot of hotels called the Bella Vista, a nice view.
00:03:07
Speaker
But you also get the Bella Vista. You get them in in the UK as well, the Hotel Bella Vista in Bournemouth. and a Bella Vista means good view. But I don't think there's anything, to nothing with bars in Italy. There's nothing like in the UK. It's like...
00:03:23
Speaker
king's head queen's head white heart you know absolutely all right well let's jump in the where where are we going where are we going i think um
Imaginary Adventures: Supermarket in a Tractor
00:03:39
Speaker
um martin i've forgotten actually are we going to well we're going to We're going to just go and hang outside the these supermarket.
00:03:50
Speaker
Might as well. Oh, OK. OK. OK. Let's just do it. OK. Might as well go there. All right. um I don't know where the trolleys are. Yeah. Yeah. So let's jump in the tractor and make our way.
00:04:06
Speaker
um
00:04:19
Speaker
Man, that doesn't sound particularly supermarkety. But it's all I can find. I think we're the only people that turn up at the supermarket in a tractor, but I like the idea lot.
00:04:35
Speaker
Right. You know what? I love that idea. When I've been in more rural parts of the States... I have gone to a supermarket and there have been tractors in it and you kind of get, Oh, really?
00:04:51
Speaker
I know we're out in the countryside now. Are there like in ah in the States, are the tractors bigger as well? Like the cars are bigger. Is everything just like, you know, swollen?
00:05:05
Speaker
Swollen.
00:05:09
Speaker
They are big. I'm not actually sure whether they are particularly big. They may well well be, but, but yeah, i was I was actually thinking this the the yeah the other day. It's when I see an an American truck on the road, I'm still surprised by it.
00:05:29
Speaker
So right. Okay.
American vs. European Trucks
00:05:31
Speaker
So across Europe, the, the, the front of a, of a truck is this kind of like quite square block, right? It's square block.
00:05:40
Speaker
And then you have to the thing behind it. Whereas Americans have kind of like, it has a nose, it has a nose, has a sort of ah There's a thing out the front and the big chrome pipe going up the side. Yeah.
00:05:56
Speaker
It's all quite theatrical. It is. They're theatrical in the swollenness. And I am here for it is, yeah, yeah.
00:06:08
Speaker
um So supermarkets. You know what? i I will say, and maybe you can you can talk to this as well, because I grew up with the British, the British supermarket and the British products.
00:06:24
Speaker
On the shelves of the British supermarket. Yes. when I came to the States, it was all different. And it freaked me the fuck out.
00:06:35
Speaker
I would get... yeah That was the only time I got real overwhelmed was being in an American supermarket because... I didn't know. Nothing made sense.
00:06:46
Speaker
I didn't know what products or brands were good. There were no go-to things. No. And I so i suppose it's it's literally another language, isn't it, in the States? Yeah. It's a visual language, a totally different visual language for stuff. Well, it's a different products and a different layout and a different mindset as to where things go.
00:07:08
Speaker
Oh, there' there you go. The layout. That's that's funny. enough That's the first thing on my list as well. The layout of stuff. Right. Nothing. It really throws me when for some reason there was a supermarket near here.
00:07:21
Speaker
um so Those who don't know, I live in Italy. So it's a bit a little bit different. But there's a new supermarket opened here. And I went in there. I think it was this the first week.
00:07:32
Speaker
And they hadn't quite got their layout quite right. So just there was no sense to anything. You know, biscuits were next to like personal care. Right.
00:07:43
Speaker
And it just totally threw me. Yeah. Yeah. And I was i was discombobulated. Right. So, I mean, like when I went into into the American supermarket for the first time, that was that was might the most overwhelmed, had to walk out, couldn't buy anything. Oh, really?
00:08:05
Speaker
Experience. Really overwhelmed then? Yeah. Like I could not deal
First Impressions of American Supermarkets
00:08:11
Speaker
with it. I could not deal with going in for a not for quite a while.
00:08:17
Speaker
until Wow. Until actually over the years, I kind of got used to where everything is and the products and the layout and the mindset. and like ah And now it's kind of, it's fine.
00:08:29
Speaker
Yeah. I don't, you know, yeah it's ah it's a mixed bag. But that was like, that was like, that was trauma. Yeah. Talking of trauma, i I went back to the the last time I was back in um England was about 18 months ago. Okay.
00:08:50
Speaker
And I went into a supermarket for the first time. i looked And it was a local, what made it even more significant, it was ah a local supermarket that I used to frequent a lot when I lived in the UK.
00:09:03
Speaker
It was in Wrightgate. Okay. Okay. Okay. So I used to, I was used to the kind of where the car pipe was, how you arrived by car, Morrison's, how it linked to the high street.
00:09:17
Speaker
Everything was familiar until I went inside and where, so what the point I want to get to is that 20 years ago, when I left the UK, if you went into a supermarket from a design point of view, 20% of the packaging was really, really well done.
Evolution of Supermarket Packaging
00:09:40
Speaker
Okay. And it was inviting and it was saying, Oh, choose me, choose me. Oh, oh, oh, oh. So this time I went in, everything was screaming at me.
00:09:51
Speaker
Everything is really well designed, really well packaged. It's just astounding. It's like, you you know, when like, if you go back to the eighties, if you went into a supermarket in the UK and there was like 5% of it was like really nice packaging.
00:10:10
Speaker
The rest of it was like almost like practical, you know, packaging. It wasn't trying to sell itself. You know, you just wanted baked beans. it They just buy baked beans. Yeah.
00:10:22
Speaker
Now they have to like promote themselves on the shelf and but everything's promoting itself. There's me going in there, you know, bit, a bit kind of overwhelmed, like everyone's screaming at me to be bored.
00:10:39
Speaker
Yeah, that that's it. It's like, I mean, that that it's the there are there are so many things about going to the supermarket that that we
Psychology of Supermarket Design
00:10:48
Speaker
have problems with. like Lighting, I think, is like one of the big ones because it's always quite brightly lit, right? So it's quite... who And then we've got all the other sort of... um you know Well, the smell, is they they play strategies with smell, don't they? They actually purposely make things inviting by, you know, spreading around the smell of the baking department.
00:11:19
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah. So get you get smells, you get lights, you get and sudden sounds like clean up allow four clean an R4, clean up an R4.
00:11:31
Speaker
well Oh, yes. I quite like that, actually. It's quite deep reassuring. away Coming out over there. The music, which... He's a mixed bag.
00:11:43
Speaker
Yeah. It's interesting. What's the music like your way, if you have any at all? In Italy, they generally have. So if you've got a chain of supermarkets, let's say, for example, it was a ah a chain like Walmart or in the UK it was Sainsbury's, they'd have Sainsbury's radio or Walmart radio.
00:12:04
Speaker
Oh, wow. and you So you've got like a fake DJ. fake DJ? Yeah. Because it's pre-recorded. Where in the sense that it's it's not live, it's all pre-recorded. giranio sounds like It sounds like you listen to a radio, but it's not. It's all pre-recorded.
00:12:23
Speaker
This one goes out to Paul Thompson in Aisle 5. Yes. Yes.
00:12:30
Speaker
Can you stop stealing, please? And putting things, sneaking things under your trousers. ah No one, everyone's seeing you. Don't worry. Just put it all back and we'll say nothing.
00:12:44
Speaker
Right. i um Hand on heart, I can say that I've never stolen anything out of a
Paul's Waitrose Days
00:12:51
Speaker
supermarket. Although I ah did work at one.
00:12:55
Speaker
yeah I have to say, i've i did work at Waitrose. for a number of years in the evenings. Which one? Which Waitrose? There was a Waitrose in Banstead.
00:13:07
Speaker
Oh, I know it. Which was close to where I lived. And when we were at Art Creeks. I was a member of the tennis club that was around the corner from there. Oh, okay. You played tennis.
00:13:22
Speaker
I played tennis. You were working. All right. Yeah, its exactly. So when we were at art college on a Thursday and a Saturday, i would go to Waitrose and I would sit at the... So first I did putting stuff out. So I worked in in the grocery department where you would basically just keep stocking the shelves.
00:13:45
Speaker
And then the other half of it while I was working at the cash register. um Okay. When I was doing all the, you know,
00:13:55
Speaker
taing Cashing up, yeah yeah, you know, with the the ah machine, which I quite enjoyed. I remember in the nineteen eighty s when we found out that there was a supermarket near us that had the moving conveyor belt at the cash till.
00:14:13
Speaker
Ooh, fancy. Yeah, it was the first one, Sainsbury's in Red Hill, and we made a special journey. LAUGHTER
00:14:25
Speaker
I'm not kidding you. And I was so freaking excited. had a moving conveyor. What? Are you kidding me? You put the food on this, like, thing and it moves along towards the cash till.
00:14:40
Speaker
Yeah. Wow. i like but that We made a special journey. it was way we We lived about 10 miles away. we We had other options that were closer. No, we'd go to Sainsbury's in Redhawks because they've got the moving conveyor belt at the cash till.
00:14:56
Speaker
It's a winner. It's a winner. love that. Oh, boy. So let me think. Other things that that I think are problematical. Yeah, I mean, like as as you said, all the kind of – I think one one of the things is it you um it used to be when I was a wee laddie that it was almost like you went to the butchers to get your meat, then you went to the vegetable guy to get your vegetables. So you go to like...
00:15:28
Speaker
a bunch of other places already, already, you know, reliably, you know, logical. Okay. In the high street.
The Overwhelming Product Variety Today
00:15:35
Speaker
And then you went to us and then this, then, then we went to supermarkets and then it was all in one place.
00:15:45
Speaker
and the ah so some men So lament so so it was it was good in as far as everything was all in one place, but yeah you had to think a lot more.
00:15:57
Speaker
So rather than going to the butcher's and you're thinking along the way, well, what do I want? Or maybe I'll get some pork chops and for Thursday and maybe this, that, the other.
00:16:07
Speaker
No, because you're like you you go from section to section and section to section. So... yeah you have to kind of like, oh, do I want this? Do I want that? Do I want this? Yeah. yeah there well And there's like 50, I don't know about you, but if you go down to the cereal aisle in an American, yeah it is it is like two miles long.
00:16:30
Speaker
Right. Of choices of breakfast cereals. Well, funnily, coincidentally, that not yesterday, the day before yesterday, Sunday, ah went to get to pick up some um almond milk in the milk aisle.
00:16:46
Speaker
There must be like a hundred different types of milk that you can buy. And it's insane. Right. It's absolutely ridiculous. Right.
00:16:58
Speaker
ah Yeah. Yeah. And that that just reminds me, not knowing where everything is. i mean, once you get used to one supermarket, then okay, you know where everything is. You know where the almond milk is.
00:17:12
Speaker
So for example, the almond milk would not be where the milk is. here yeah sometime oh really not it would oh no here it would different chilled section so that you didn't get confused between ah regular milk and but that is confusing isn't it so it's so it's in a different section right there yes um I had a similar situation. i wanted to buy um sardines in oil, you know, like the jars of sardines that you can buy in oil.
00:17:49
Speaker
and And so, and with the lids on the top um and I couldn't find them in in where all the, I i found all the other, you know, tuna fillets, you know, all the other kind of,
00:18:02
Speaker
fish in the jars in olive oil or or or brine or whatever and got home and says i couldn't said couldn't find oh no you wanted the fresh ones the fresh ones it'd be in the fresh department but even though they're in jars ye And even though they're under, you know, you know swimming, is they yeah swimming in and and oil.
00:18:27
Speaker
it's Yeah, it's confusing. And especially if they move things around, as they will sometimes do, they'll move sections around. There is an interesting, ah um there's an Asian, there's a big Asian supermarket near me, which is kind of cool.
00:18:45
Speaker
But... They section their store by area. So you'll have Japan. Right. so So you'll have like a Japanese aisle and you'll have like a Korean aisle. You'll have like a child China aisle.
00:19:04
Speaker
Right. So you have to kind of like, no, oh, okay, I want kelp. I want kelp for my my thing. Oh, well, that's more of a Japanese thing. I'm going have to go to the Japanese aisle to find kelp.
00:19:19
Speaker
okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. it's You have to take your passport. That's what you're saying. Well, no, you just have to you just have to be aware of what you where stuff comes from. Which actually leads lead me and leads us on to the thing I've got here. I've got a bit of a raid mentality with any shop, whether it's a supermarket and I need to buy a cabbage or whether i need to buy trousers, which, by the way, is my worst night ah nightmare buying trousers. I hate trying on trousers.
00:19:54
Speaker
and I do it every like once every five years I have to but I have a raid mentality I go in I get the stuff I try them on I buy them and I get out as soon as I can you know Mr. Coxon in R3 can you please put your trousers back on we do have changing rooms yes
00:20:21
Speaker
Well, that's the thing. there's Some sub supermarkets do have a trouser section. Oh, yeah yeah, I mean, like, if you go to, like, Walmart's or Costco.
00:20:33
Speaker
i me Or in the UK, Tesco's, they have, you know. Yeah. yeah People swear by them. lot of people say that, you know, they they're they're really good really good clothes, actually. They have good good basics. Yeah.
00:20:49
Speaker
good basic t-shirts good all your basics right ah if i could never bring myself to i could never get my head around the idea of going into a supermarket and buying clothes so i didn't oh well i think the most i ever did was buy socks that's the limit that i would stretch myself to oh jesus yeah good lord um oh it's like keep them separated
00:21:18
Speaker
Let's be honest, they're just not fashionable enough. Yeah, is probably. Because for I don't blame ah don't care. Well, for pants and socks, I don't care.
00:21:30
Speaker
um Oh, you know what? um For four four pants, I do care. Oh, really? Oh, God, yes. Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:21:41
Speaker
Yeah, I like Calvin calvin Klein underwear. it's all coming out now. It's the best. Wow. Get the best fur for the West.
00:21:53
Speaker
That's I say. There's a funny thing here in Italy, okay, I had a conversation like three days ago with someone. It was a neighbor of mine. Luckily, you know, there he's also a friend.
Tangent: Italian Underwear Humor
00:22:03
Speaker
He came out on his balcony. He was was just in his underpants.
00:22:07
Speaker
All right. And he saying, oh, hi, Paul. His name is Giovanni. Oh, hi, Giovanni. He was in his underpants. And I said, by the way, just out of curiosity, why have you got uomini written on your pants?
00:22:23
Speaker
Uomini in italian Italian means men. Okay. do you Are you that unsure about your sexuality that you have to have it written on your pants? Men. Actually, most pants in Italy, they have the waistband.
00:22:38
Speaker
You know, we like Calvin Klein written on it or Giorgio Armani or whatever you have on your pants. In Italy, Calvin Klein. it In Italy, very often, there's written men in Italian, or women in Italian.
00:22:52
Speaker
I don't know. Why? It's very odd. Anyway, a bit of a tangent there on pants. right. Well, one thing that um because there's so many products and it's I feel like it's quite overwhelming and you can and and I'm sure you've done this, you've gone in to the supermarket.
00:23:10
Speaker
You've been thinking, right, I need cheese, need bread, ah need little fishes in in oil. And then you come out, right, with without the fishes in oil, without the cheese and the eggs. But you've managed to buy crisps and cup cupcakes and and a roll of tinfoil.
00:23:31
Speaker
Are you good at following your list? ah Yes, I have become good at a list. I'm not good
00:23:41
Speaker
There's one thing actually, well, we'll come to it at the end, but one of the top tips is that that you when you do a list, you should do it in order of um how you travel.
00:23:52
Speaker
that drives me insane. I'll get to the other end of the supermarket i have to go all the way back again because, I don't know, anchovies were at the beginning of the, at the end of the list, but it's at the start of the supermarket.
Organizing Shopping for Efficiency
00:24:05
Speaker
Right. Right. Yeah. I thought, oh, God, I've got to go back again. I've done two methods for all of that, both of which work and both of which are good for various scenarios.
00:24:20
Speaker
One is ah use an app called called called a Trello, and basically it allows you to to create lists, right? And then you can move items up and down the list. So would go, right. Okay.
00:24:36
Speaker
So you would write out your shopping list on it, and then yeah you but you would mentally walk around the aisles, and then you'd move your list so that it corresponded with what you'd hit first. So you'd hit the vegetables first, move all those up, then then then the fruit, let's move all those up.
00:24:54
Speaker
Yeah. Right, and then you would create a list that way. And what the interesting thing about Trello was, was that you could link it. So i had so my wife had it on her phone, And I had on mine and we shared the same list.
00:25:08
Speaker
um And basically, as you as you went around, you could click it and it would say it's done. It's fun. So it meant that I could go off and she could go off and we could both shop from the same list and we'd tick it off as we went.
00:25:22
Speaker
And you could see what the other person had got. That's really good. You could nip through in in real quick time. Because that's even if you've only got the non-app version, you've only got a written list.
00:25:33
Speaker
i I would never remember to take a pen with me I could cross things off. Right. That's the problem for me. Right. And then the other one. not the order, actually.
00:25:45
Speaker
It's the fact that I can't cross things off. So in mentally, was like, okay, i I can forget half of the list and concentrate on the other half. No. All I can see is a list. There's nothing's crossed off it at that point. And the and the other way is by just my regular list.
00:26:05
Speaker
shopping ah my notes app on my phone. Here we look. I'm just showing it to the camera there. Okay. Wow, impressive. So I have one list, right, that's got all these items on it, and it's usually all the same things, and I've broken up my list into, like, stores.
00:26:26
Speaker
So here's the here's one store, here's here's a different store. It's got all these things on it, and then... And then um it has has loads of of of of the things i normally buy, the milk and the ice cream stuff and the cheese and the whatever.
00:26:45
Speaker
Right. And it does the same thing in that I can create a little tick off list.
High-Tech Shopping Lists
00:26:54
Speaker
So as i as I get it, I can just tick off.
00:26:57
Speaker
ah but But the important thing on this one is, or what i do is, as I've got my phone yeah in my pocket all the time, if I'm in cooking in the kitchen or something and I see that we're running out of flour, I have developed a thing where I pull my phone out, get me list, and then I find flour on my thing and then just kind of like just put it in on my list.
00:27:24
Speaker
So that actually... I build the list rather than build the list before I go to the supermarket. I'm actually building it all will the time. Okay. So I could literally just go shopping that now.
00:27:38
Speaker
So then the why comes in. Is it is that because you want to you're trying to like shed the shame of coming back home and forgetting stuff?
00:27:48
Speaker
Well, that's shame. It's just annoying. yeah just didn't It's just annoying when you go to supermarket and you come out with all the wrong stuff. So yeah this way, it it means that, well, A,
00:28:05
Speaker
It's so easy to to be kind like in your kitchen. You go, oh, yeah, I need to get some herbs, right? And then you forget. so So when you go to the these supermarket, you've forgotten.
00:28:22
Speaker
So actually just put on the list while I'm standing there going, oh, I need herbs. Let me just pull out my phone. Herbs, done. Blimey, you're organized. Well, I am old, Paul.
00:28:34
Speaker
I am old. Okay, you have to be. I've, well, no, it's just like a lifetime of, of slowly developing habits and going, yeah, of going, I'm fed up of going to the supermarket like five times a week when I could just go once.
00:28:53
Speaker
Well, the thing is, right, that leads me on to the next and and to another thing.
Meal Planning Challenges
00:28:58
Speaker
I'm really bad at planning for anything that's beyond two days, food-wise, I mean.
00:29:04
Speaker
I can plan for tomorrow. can, well, I can plan for today, this evening. I can plan for tomorrow. Day after tomorrow already getting, oh, it's difficult.
00:29:15
Speaker
but But you can forget four days' time or or of or doing ah a food shop for a week. Forget it. I've no idea. Yeah.
00:29:26
Speaker
The most painful thing I do all week is I sit down.
00:29:32
Speaker
and we write out what we're going to eat that that week. And again, on my phone, on my little shared list, I have, I'll show it to the camera.
00:29:43
Speaker
I have, this is what I'm eating this week. Wow. I've got lunch, dinner, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Right. It's all it's all pre-planned. We we we we sat down and went, what are we eating?
00:29:58
Speaker
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And it's all. And then out of that comes the shopping list. So, OK, if this is what we're eating, this is what we need to shop for it. Yeah.
00:30:09
Speaker
And that's I I'm kind of lucky because my girlfriend doesn't trust me to do the shopping.
00:30:18
Speaker
Well, I mean, is she, um apart from maybe forgetting something, but it's more like she doesn't trust me to buy the right things, especially if it's something to do with wine or cheese.
00:30:31
Speaker
Okay. And I come home, it's like, Paul, why did you buy this wine? This is a terrible wine. I like the label. Yes. It has nice a nice pick picture on the front.
00:30:42
Speaker
That's the thing. The design. The design spoke to me. They're getting really good at designing, aren't they? It's like going to a bookshop. If it's a book that's got a really good cover on it, it's like, ooh, I'm going to read that. Ooh, I like that. like the way that's been designed.
00:31:02
Speaker
I'm really shallow in that way, really shallow. Yeah. i've got The next thing I've got is actually people behavior ined in supermarkets.
Supermarket Shopper Frustrations
00:31:12
Speaker
All right.
00:31:13
Speaker
Other people. I've got a couple of pet hates. Well, I'm not good at ah walking behind people, but even worse, walking behind people that have got a trolley and you can't get past them and they're like dilly-dallying and they're being really indecisive and blocking the aisle.
00:31:32
Speaker
and yet Right, and yeah and you have to be like... Calm down, calm down. Be patient. Yes. That's annoying. ah That bugs me a lot.
00:31:44
Speaker
That is annoying. And it's it's not that they can do it, you know, it's like, b but they're so unaware of their... and the impact they have on the fucking you know the rest of the people shopping there they just don't care just like just like pull to one side you know and let people go past if you're not sure if you want this pasta or that pasta don't worry about just like go to one side people can pass you yeah yeah ah Mr. Paul Thompson in aisle three, can you please slow down?
00:32:18
Speaker
not everyone shops as fast as you do. for i Well, I do have a rage mentality. I'm like Dill the dog. in there like, get out, get out, buy it, get out, pay for it.
00:32:31
Speaker
Maybe not even pay for it.
00:32:35
Speaker
And then at the cash till, people behaviour at the cash till, they're laying out their stuff in front of you, okay? And they're using the, you know, didn kind of you're waiting to your turn and you put all your stuff on the conveyor belt, the moving conveyor belt.
00:32:54
Speaker
And they'll spread it out in a ridiculous way, right? Not thinking about, they're spreading it all out. I see. So there's too much space in between the...
00:33:05
Speaker
Right. There's much I'm thinking about me behind them. I've got like a heavy basket that I want to offload. Right. No, you're just going to spread your stuff. And they just don't care. Just, right.
00:33:16
Speaker
Just, you know, just because they've they' got a new fancy conveyor belt, they feel like they can hog the whole thing with their sausages and melons. They don't like condenser things. They're just like, oh, put one thing behind the other.
00:33:33
Speaker
In a long ant line. Yeah, and it's like if they've got like asparagus, they'll unwrap their asparagus and put one asparagus after the other just to annoy me.
00:33:43
Speaker
Right. You know what I find about about following people around is, you know, like annoying people is that... you you you you find that you seem to shop with the set, like whoever you go in with at the start, you'll keep seeing the same people like all through the store.
00:34:04
Speaker
I mean, oh you know oh, it's like him again. Oh, it's his's it's it's her again. yeah And and ah if they do happen to be a particularly slow bloody shopper, you just keep getting caught.
00:34:16
Speaker
I had to an ex-partner who was really indecisive, which is another terrible thing for me in that in those kind of environments.
00:34:29
Speaker
She could spend 10 minutes deciding what pasta to buy. Right. And I would be beside myself with with dying with just seething anger, dying, rage. That's fucking bad...
00:34:46
Speaker
I literally, i'm not ki I'm not just saying this for comic value. i would be like, oh, my God, how long can it take did did to choose a freaking pasta?
00:35:01
Speaker
And she's like taking her sweet time, you know, like maybe this one and maybe that one. It's pasta. We always buy the same pasta, you know.
00:35:16
Speaker
in Italy, but the pasta aisle is is like the your cereal aisle. It's immense, you know. Right. Oh, God.
00:35:26
Speaker
Yeah, but in so indecision is really, really bugs me. It upsets my raid mentality in a big way. Yeah.
00:35:37
Speaker
I mean, and then ah and then ah occasionally these people, they kind of like they talk to you. like yeah they Yeah. Especially if you're just waiting in line in the queue for the cash register, they start chatting. Yeah.
00:35:54
Speaker
Yes. When I do that, my son used to really bug him. I think I do it to relieve the boredom. I'll make a random joke to some random person in the queue.
00:36:10
Speaker
Right. Oh, right. Oh, God. I would hate. Yeah. I would hate. I would hate you. Yes. I'm like my son's like part because we pop pop. Why? Why do you have to do that? Why?
00:36:25
Speaker
Why do you do that?
00:36:29
Speaker
But I do it to relieve the boredom. You know, my raid mentality went out the window. That plan didn't work. I've been in in there for three hours.
00:36:39
Speaker
So I just like, oh, God, I try and, you know, ruffle some feathers. Start a fight. Start a fight. Exactly.
00:36:53
Speaker
Exactly. try on some trousers in the vegetable department. Exactly. Paul Thompson in aisle seven. Can you stop punching the other customers? Exactly.
00:37:04
Speaker
Bing bong. Exactly. And then what's what's the other thing? Impulsivity. Impulsivity. Oh, yeah, just buying random shit. Coming out with eight things that you didn't intend. Today had express orders just to buy wine today, and I came out with packets of crisps ah because I was hungry.
00:37:27
Speaker
Fatal. Oh, that's a thing. That's a thing. If you go in to shopping when you're hungry... yeah It will cost you another $100 easily.
00:37:39
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Well, especially, you know, if you've got, you know, if if there's you know in the ADHD community, there's the crisp thing, isn't there? There's a pattern of, you know, crunchy stuff.
00:37:51
Speaker
It's really hard for me to walk past a crisp.
00:37:56
Speaker
And leave it alone. And leave it alone. i have to, like, stare it out for a while. And then I'd end up just like bagging, you know.
00:38:07
Speaker
blimey. flat oh ah can I'll end up getting two or three different types. I just, I'm just um like there is there is nothing I need down that aisle.
00:38:21
Speaker
So I very rarely go down crisp aisle. Okay. Okay. You know what mean? Because I look at it and go, i need nothing down there.
00:38:33
Speaker
I just move on to the... I'm the same with the biscuit aisle. Yeah, biscuit aisle. I leave it alone. um i need nothing down down there. The biscuit aisle in Italy is mac majosive hat massive.
00:38:49
Speaker
Right. They're massive on biscuits in Italy. All right. Nice. They're big on the biscuits. In the UK, less so here. there ah okay You get cookies, obviously, but but yeah not they don't have a biscuit aisle, really.
00:39:10
Speaker
Okay. Oh, so yeah. Buying loads of stuff that the that that you don't need. or in the Interactions. ah Struggling to manage your shopping list whilst trying to and navigate the store. Oh, yeah. It's no good.
00:39:28
Speaker
It's no good. I think I've got, from my list, I think I'm there. other than I've got some coping strategies. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah.
Strategies for Stress-Free Shopping
00:39:38
Speaker
Top of the list for coping strategies, yeah find a 24-7 supermarket and go at midnight with noise-cancelling headphones on.
00:39:48
Speaker
Noise-cancelling headphones, yes. Even shades. I think i think some some people have even gone shopping wearing sunglasses just to reduce the ah visual assault. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:40:07
Speaker
and um ah And organizing your list, as we were talking about, noise cancelling, apps. And, yeah, but I think the big one is like supermarkets. I really like supermarkets at weird hours of the night.
00:40:24
Speaker
Right. Kind of like way more relaxing. Right. Yeah. like And you just feel like, oh I'm not going to less likely to coincide with some neurotypical with, you know, with really bad trolley control.
00:40:40
Speaker
he yeah if if if only they would have certain hours that only you know old people and or ADHD yeah autistics diverse could go in where a lower diverse hour it's bit calmer there's not a lot people in there maybe in that at that time it just they could have a cocktail bar open as well here in the corner right yeah i'd be that'd be good Right. But you know what? It's it's weird because I've almost gone back to how we used to shop. Like I don't go to a supermarket.
00:41:19
Speaker
I don't go to one place to get everything anymore. I've i've almost gone back to like my my weekly shop will be in about three or four different places. Right.
00:41:33
Speaker
So I'll get vegetables from the farm that's sits that's around the corner and then I'll get some some stuff up. yeah and and And even because um the price of food has got so expensive, like when my wife's doing the shopping, she'll look on the website and go,
00:41:55
Speaker
okay, right, I can get, it's more expensive to shop for these five items over here, so I'll buy them over here. so you So you end up like going to about three different supermarkets to kind of get ah decently priced stuff.
00:42:17
Speaker
Right. What about eggs? The cost of eggs come down in the States now? No, I think they're still egg-spensive.
00:42:28
Speaker
Oh, nice. Oh, the other other thing I was going to ask, do you have weird things? is there Is there anything weird that comes to mind with American supermarkets that you wouldn't find in an English supermarket?
00:42:42
Speaker
I'll give you example. they They started in Italy, some supermarkets, Lidl, which is a German chain, really good if it's like for cheap groceries. yeah there's There's a bread slicing section.
00:42:57
Speaker
So you can buy a fresh loaf from their bakery, and there's like a special counter where you can actually so slice your loaf. Okay. To me, that complicates things. It adds a whole new dynamic to the experience that blows my mind a bit.
00:43:12
Speaker
Right. so there's So there's one supermarket I go to where there is a pizza restaurant inside. Okay. And there is a bar inside.
00:43:27
Speaker
Right. Okay. So you can sit in the restaurant and the bar. Okay. Because in the UK they had cash back. Do you have cash back in the States? Yeah. At the till. In Italy don't do it.
00:43:38
Speaker
No one does that. Right. Right.
00:43:42
Speaker
Yeah. It's a great idea, I think, cashback. But no, they don't do it in Italy for some reason. yeah think Yeah, I think it just really just tend tends to be the kinds of products that they have.
Tech Innovations in Shopping
00:43:54
Speaker
but and the yeah and the And the focus on like cereals, for example. Okay. like And if they started, um is it Walmart in the States that started, um you could actually um make, um you could actually spend money using the um ah palm your palm print?
00:44:14
Speaker
Instead of a credit card. Yeah. Possibly. i ah I've heard it's been tried out in the States. It's been rolled out. That you don't need a credit card anymore. They just know your palm print.
00:44:28
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, i i can I can go to, yeah. i One of the places I go is like, it's Costco. And you have to buy membership to go and shop there.
00:44:44
Speaker
So it costs you an annual fee to go and shop at that super. It's a bit like cash and carry in in the UK.
00:44:55
Speaker
I guess. I mean, I've heard of cash and carry, but yeah. So you pay and you get a card and then you can go in and and your card swiped when you go in. yeah And then you can buy lots of stuff, huge amounts of stuff, cheaper.
00:45:13
Speaker
Right. Oh, okay. Yeah, it like cash and carry in the UK. It's more like gross. It's like you don't go there to buy one bottle of Coca-Cola. You buy a crate of Coca-Cola.
00:45:25
Speaker
Okay. It's bit like that. bit like that. bit like that. Okay. Excellent confirmation. A bit like that. Okay. Anything else, Martin?
00:45:37
Speaker
I don't think so. I'm just like... thick sounds like
00:45:41
Speaker
You know, I think, as as you say, like some of the some of the tips are, as you say, like, like yeah, headphones, try and go in different different times, you know, write write a fucking list if you can.
00:45:58
Speaker
I've got one thing actually. Have you ever tried, and because like i used to go if there was like a, in London, if there's a really, really big bookshop, but I always used to go to the same floor or the same section of the bookshop.
00:46:11
Speaker
And then sometimes think, oh, I'm go to try ah ah i' going to try a completely different section of the bookshop. and see what I can find. And you find like genres of, you know, types of books that you'd never thought of buying before and find some real peaches, you know, like you've done that in a supermarket. You think I'm going to go to the, the, um, pickled, um, vegetable section and see what they've got.
00:46:39
Speaker
If you've ever done that. and Well, i'm I'm usually in the pickled they vegetable section. ah you well You're a pickled man. Are you a pickled man? It would be more like finding yourself in the crisp aisle, in the chip aisle, like, oh, I'm hardly here ever. and i you i You're a pickled man. she worked Pickled limes, for instance, for example.
00:47:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. In fact, I'm not a pickled person. i was pickling I was pickling a radish only this morning.
00:47:15
Speaker
went out into the garden. I picked a radish and I made a quick pickle and stuck it a jar. I love radishes.
00:47:27
Speaker
ah ah much um a kind of underestimated part of a salad, I found a radish. I do like a radish. They're very nice. All righty. They're very nice. All right.
Preview: Summer Vacations and ADHD
00:47:40
Speaker
Cool. Bananas. Cool. Bananas. bucks pound. whatever fruit you you like, whatever you choose. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right. So I think, um well, ah because of the weird way that we've actually recorded this, i.e. we recorded last week's episode yesterday.
00:48:01
Speaker
So we haven't. Yes. So we haven't had a chance to get anything in the post post bag. So we can just skip the post bag. Skip that. Yeah. Right.
00:48:12
Speaker
We could just tell tell what ah tell our listeners about our next episode, maybe. Which is, I think going be a blinder. Go on. It's going to be about ADHD and summer vacations.
00:48:24
Speaker
Oh, so interesting. Right. Because I don't know about you, Martin, but the whole summer vacation thing, it just makes me uneasy. You know, it's so neurotypical.
00:48:38
Speaker
Right. It can be a neurotypical nightmare. It's coming up, isn't it? Summer are holidays, summer are vacations. It's coming up for all of us. As we're recording, it's you know mid-June already.
00:48:52
Speaker
I know. um It's on people's minds. It could be interesting, I think. So, yeah, um ah jump in the comments section and you can tell us tell us what your thoughts are, what your struggles are, or what what you think is awesome about how the old summer vacation.
00:49:13
Speaker
even if it's like simple things like for me the the whole concept of sand between your toes i hate that sandy beaches and it's sand between your toes oh god or be or in your ears no sandy in your all of those yeah any comments you got you know that uh it would be we'd love to mention any any comments you've got any feedback Right.
00:49:38
Speaker
Are you in, Paul, I meant to think about like, are you in a tourist destination? Do you like, mean, obviously, I mean, I'm New York, right? So we get like millions of people come from all over the world.
00:49:57
Speaker
On their summer of vacation, a they come they come to my fair city. Well, we are. Well, it's not ah it's not a massive tourist trap, but we do get tourism because ah it's got we're in um it's a medieval village.
00:50:13
Speaker
So do get tourism. Yesterday a day was full of Czech bikers from the Czech Republic for some reason. But anyway, we're kind of like halfway between Florence and Venice. You get a lot of people that may be traveling by car from from Florence to Venice or to Bologna or from Milan. so we're right in the middle of it, really.
00:50:35
Speaker
I get it. We're right by the Italian lakes as well, which is full of tourists. We're like half an hour from the Italian lakes. Oh, I see. So, yeah, so there is a thing. So I think Alexandra is in Corfu, I think.
00:50:51
Speaker
So that's another kind of like classic tourist destination. So it's like, so there's like... One thing about going on vacation, then there's others like when the when all the vacationers come to you.
00:51:06
Speaker
Yes. and Oh, and then there's the subject of British tourists is a source of, for me, embarrassment. I mean, American tourists as well. we we know about one Really?
00:51:21
Speaker
I think Americans, we'll bring this up anyway, but apparently the British tourists of the worst in the world, sit literally. but you know They've researched it and i think categorized it.
00:51:32
Speaker
I think Americans would say, hold my beer. Okay, all right. Yeah. ah Just the English, oh God. Anyway, we'll we'll we'll we'll bring it up but next week.
00:51:45
Speaker
Yep. All right. All righty. So here's me looking for my little outro script.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:51:52
Speaker
um That just leaves me to say, and press the right button.
00:51:57
Speaker
Say it. To say, ADHDville is delivered fresh every Tuesday to all providers of fine podcasts. Please subscribe to the pod and rate us most, most,
00:52:11
Speaker
Beautiful. Beautiful. Stunning. Thank you. Handsome. Handsome. And feel free to correspond at well in the comments. But wait, there's more if you wish to see our beautiful, beautiful faces.
00:52:24
Speaker
And sally forth to the YouTubes and the TikToks. And you can also pick up a quill and email us at adhdville at gmail.com. But in the meantime, on, be fucking kind to yourself.
00:52:36
Speaker
And I beseech you fellow ADHDers, fare thee well and with gladness of heart. Do that.
00:52:47
Speaker
Do that. Do that. Where's the button that says? Gladness of heart. There, says the mayor. That's that. Lovely.