Family Affair.

In the final leg of the "spoil Kristen" tour of November 2009, my dad took me grocery shopping today.  I'm a pretty savvy grocery shopper, as I find clipping coupons to be great fun and like to shop for deals, but I'm also a relatively selective shopper.  I say "selective", and not "picky" because I would, in theory, probably eat just about anything, but I try to keep my home food supply on the healthy side.  For instance, I try to stay away from anything with high fructose corn syrup, which means my choice of crackers immediately goes from 1,239,046 options to about 14.  It's like a domestic scavenger hunt that makes grocery shopping fun for me.  Also, my dad noticed that our grocery store plays way better music than his.  Jewel - 1, Kroger - 0.

I normally stay as far away as possible from the grocery stores on the weekends, as I know they are a hot bed of activity.  Not only will you find hungover 20- and 30- (and maybe up?) somethings, but you'll also be forced to jockey your cart around happy couples holding hands and mothers (and fathers) keeping an eye on their kids.  Today's grocery store experience left me thinking the following:

1.  Since when does going to the grocery store have to be like going to a fucking amusement park?  Why are kids not satisfied with sitting in the cart like this, but now have to drive the cart (this is not exactly what I saw, but close)?  It's no wonder that these children have to be constantly entertained, we are leaving them no opportunity to develop their imagination.
2.  When you were growing up, was grocery shopping a family outing?  I saw several families shopping together.  While I understand it's nice to spend time as a family, having four or more people trying to do something that one person can easily handle on their own makes the entire process take longer than necessary, not to mention clogs the aisles with people.  If I ever get married and/or have children, I think I'd kind of look at grocery shopping as a private affair.  I understand that single parents do not have the luxury of leaving their kid at home with a spouse, but if you can, why wouldn't you?  If I were a single parent living in Chicago, I'm pretty sure I'd use Peapod, so I could avoid the process all together.
3.  Why are there so many varieties of bread?  And why are half-loaves not readily available?  7-11 has them, why can't Jewel?
4.  Have you seen these?  HOW DOES IT HAPPEN?