Grocery-Cart Shaming Is a Thing that Exists Now, Because People Are Bored and Mean

ByElizabeth Licata

I have an abiding fear of being judged based on the contents of my shopping cart at the grocery store. I told myself that was totally irrational. It was just my way of being paranoid and neurotic. Nobody would ever really look in my grocery cart and judge my purchases! That’d be ridiculous, right?

Well, it looks like my paranoia was real after all. People are looking into other people’s shopping carts and judging them. Writer and blogger Constance Hall posted a photo of her cute kid at the grocery store this week, and the photo was immediately and inexplicably overrun by people judging her groceries.

Hall wasn’t even buying weird groceries! If she had 800 bottles of Smirnoff Ice in the cart it would be one thing–because Smirnoff Ice is awful–but people were attacking her for loading up on “processed crap,” “junk food,” and .. butter and eggs.

https://www.facebook.com/mrsconstancehall/photos/a.1020217474689744.1073741828.1019711431407015/1662786523766166/?type=3

I don’t know what they’re talking about. I can’t even tell what’s in there. If I peer really closely into this woman’s shopping cart–which makes me feel like an utter nutjob, but I have to do it for the purpose of this article–I see Rice Krispies, yogurt, eggs, beef noodles … maybe some juice? I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be getting mad about. It looks like she’s buying in bulk and stocking up on staples and pantry goods.

This tells a person literally nothing about how a person eats. She could have an organic garden at her house. Maybe she’s in a CSA farm share. Maybe she doesn’t eat vegetables at all. For all we know, she lures neighborhood kids into her gingerbread house and eats them. A person can’t tell anything at all from that shopping cart. And it’s none of anyone’s business anyway.

There were vegetables in the bottom. Happy now, sanctimommies?

Hall shouldn’t have had to prove her cart was acceptable, but she pointed out that all the fruit and vegetables were on the bottom of the cart.

“The bananas and celery and carrots and potatoes and onions and garlic and mandarins and apples aren’t visible in this picture- wasn’t thinking about trolley angles, I also buy a lot of fruit from the markets and Denims mum is bringing us fresh fruit from her trees today. Should I post the receipt?” she asked.

It’s especially aggravating because a big part of Hall’s media presence is arguing against judgment and mom-shaming. Why were the grocery cart police even following her Facebook page in the first place?

“For fuck sakes. Getting mum judged on your anti mum judging page. Then everyone attacks the judgey mum even though your an advocate for women sticking together,” she said. “And if I was to drink the stiff bottle of scotch that this thread made me want to drink I’d be judged for that.”

Most of the negative comments have since been deleted, and now Hall’s post is fortunately devoted to people people looking to rubberneck on the sanctimommies and talking about how cute her daughter is and how they have no time for grocery cart monitors.

Maybe people really are judging our grocery carts, but that’s their problem, not ours. And next time I go to the store with my kid, I’m going to just buy 800 cases of Smirnoff Ice, just to screw with people.

What do you think of grocery cart shaming? Let us know in the comments.

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(Image: Facebook / Constance Hall)

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