Reduce routine shopping time by

• Make a list of items you shop all the time

• Shop at a fixed schedule e.g. every tuesday, every 4 weeks, every first tuesday of the week.

• Shop the items in a fixed order (possibly matched on you list). Note: Most stores change the order almost never and the order is part of the customer retention program, so you should be aware that this will bind you to the store.

• Choose a weekday and time where the supermarket is mostly empty (e.g. in the morning instead of on saturday or in the evening when it may be crowded)

• Do the shopping together with other persons to batch larger amounts and/or use transporation together (a car)

• Buy a larger fridge (possibly a large top loading one in the basement (the top loaders are much more engery efficient) to reduce the number of times you have to go shopping.

• Freeze some food not customarily frozen: bread/buns, butter, cut cold meat (it may affect the taste)

• Use a a grocery delivery service. But note that it may not save as much time as you think:

  • oportunity time costs for need to be there when the delivery arrives
  • limited availability of frozen goods
  • storing away the purchase also takes some time esp. on large purchases (you do not usually feel this time on small purchases as it gets merged into everyday tasks)

• You can still buy fresh fruits and vegetables etc. more often e.g. bi-weekly. You can use that time to do fun shopping with a mostly empty basket and unhurried.

Some more context for this can be found in the following scattered comments:

• use a a grocery delivery service

• repeatedly shopping for the same recipies

• use a weekly meal planner

Personal example:

We used to shop every five weeks with a pre-filled checklist for 6 persons. In total about 4-5 shopping carts full (I heard the german carts are relatively small compared to the US ones). It takes 3-4 hours total. Note that this includes >1h to store everything away (e.g. unpacking vegetables, fruits, unpacking boxes, reordering fridge). What remained were short weekly single-shop trips to buy milk, fruits, bread and a few other items.

I'd guess that compared to shopping every two days as my mother used to which took at at least 1h each time (whatever the amount purchased) this probably saves about an 1.5 hours each week.

And it is cool.