Supermarket Confusion

We have been very busy lately building a container house on our property.
We are doing it with just the two of us and, to be honest, it is heavy work. Sometimes I feel like it is a little too much for me because of the weight of the materials and the awkward shapes you have to carry from one location to the building plot, then somehow get everything into place without damaging it.

My husband is doing far more than his share because he can see how much I struggle with some of the materials. But me being me ... which basically means stubborn beyond reason ... I still wanted to be part of building the container house myself.
Because in the end, it will become a very ... and I mean VERY ... lovely workshop for me.
It has been a dream of mine for a very long time. At the moment my workshop is literally 2x2 meters, which is 4 square meters .... In other words… it is TINY!!

In fact, they lost a customer because if I have to get used to a completely new layout anyway, I might as well get used to another supermarket that does not feel like training for an Olympic walking event.
I simply do not have the time for it. Grocery shopping is not on my “fun things to do” list.
It is firmly on my: “I-have-to-do-it-because-I-have-no-other-option” list.
Overall, it means that a chore I already disliked has now become an even bigger chore that takes far more time and energy.
I do not know if other people experience shop layout changes as a minor inconvenience, but for me they completely disrupt my flow and routine.

And it made me wonder…
Why does everyone always feel the need to “improve” things that were already working perfectly fine?
Personally, I find that many so-called improvements or newer versions are actually worse. They often involve extra features, extra complications, or extra parts that break down more easily. Sometimes simpler really was better.

Take cars, for example. Years ago, if something was wrong with your car, you usually noticed it because the car itself behaved differently.
Maybe it made a strange sound, maybe the steering felt odd, or maybe something simply stopped working.
A mechanic could often fix the problem fairly quickly because the systems were mechanical and straightforward.

This whole project was only possible because we received a little money from a very good friend.
We spent ages discussing what we should do with it. We wanted to use it for something that we would still appreciate five years from now, something long-term and meaningful.We talked and talked and almost talked the whole thing to death before finally deciding on a container house.
It would add value to the property, it would benefit us for years to come and, because our house is not very big, it would free up valuable space inside.
The plan is to turn my tiny workspace into a walk-in closet because we currently have NO closet space whatsoever.
Everything we own is crammed onto a few shelves and stuffed into some old free-standing cupboards.

But… that is NOT what I wanted to talk about.
I could happily ramble on for hours about my future workshop, but that is not the topic of this blog. This is about 'Improvements!

Because we are working so hard and there is always so much to do, grocery shopping has dropped very low on my “fun things to do” list.
I simply want to get it over and done with as quickly as possible. And here it comes … We always go to the same supermarket.
You probably do the same because it is convenient. You know where everything is. You can practically shop on autopilot.
Anyway, as usual, I made my shopping list and planned to do a quick in-and-out mission to get the groceries done as fast as possible.

Well… BUGGER ME!!! .... They completely changed the entire layout of the shop?!?!?!

Not just a little adjustment here and there ... they reorganised EVERYTHING.
Even items that used to sit next to each other were suddenly scattered across the entire store like someone had shaken the building upside down.
I stood there completely baffled.
It took me forever to find everything on my shopping list and let me tell you … I was NOT a happy camper.

And THAT was not even the worst part. The original layout of the shop had three rows with wall sections along the sides. You could easily zigzag through the aisles, quickly grab what you needed, and head toward the register.
WELL… not anymore, you don't!!

Now they have created three continuous rows, which means you literally have to walk back and forth through
the entire length of the supermarket, passing endless shelves of things you neither need nor want.
OH. MY.
And if you forget something?
You have to march all the way back again through what feels like a bloody obstacle course designed by someone
who apparently hates humanity.
I HATE IT!

Now, I do understand the philosophy behind it. They want you to pass as many products as possible because the more you see, the more likely you are to buy random things you never intended to purchase in the first place.
Very clever ... But that does not mean I have to like it.

And do not even get me started on televisions.
You used to switch them on with one button and watch a programme. That was it.
Now you need three remotes, two updates, Wi-Fi, six streaming subscriptions, a software agreement longer than a mortgage contract and somehow the TV still asks you if you are really sure you want to exit Netflix.

I am not saying everything old was better.
A lot of modern improvements are genuinely fantastic. But sometimes it feels like we are adding layer upon layer of complexity to things that were already doing their job perfectly well.

Now modern cars are packed with sensors designed to tell you when something might become a problem. In theory that sounds brilliant. In reality, half the time the sensors themselves are the problem.You end up replacing expensive electronic parts that are supposed to monitor the actual part that was perfectly fine to begin with. Sometimes your dashboard lights up like a Christmas tree because one tiny sensor had a nervous breakdown.Apparently modern technology can tell me my tyre pressure is low, but it cannot tell me why the sensor itself stopped functioning after six months.

Tell me ... How exactly is that progress?

Or take mobile phones.
Before mobile phones existed, people called your house phone. If you did not answer, they simply assumed you were busy, outside, or unavailable and they tried again later.
Nobody panicked ... Nobody assumed you had fallen off a cliff because you did not respond within four minutes.
Nowadays, if you do not immediately answer a message, people start escalating the situation like an international emergency.
First comes: “Hi.” ... Then: “Are you there?” ... Then: “???”
And if you still do not reply, apparently it is time to contact the FBI, local police, emergency services and possibly organise a search party with helicopters. We have become permanently reachable, yet somehow communication has become more stressful instead of more relaxed.

And maybe that is why the supermarket annoyed me so much. It was not really about shelves and aisles.
It was that feeling that everything nowadays has to become more complicated, more optimised, more efficient, more connected, more updated and more “improved,” even when nobody actually asked for it.

Sometimes I think people are slowly being trained to constantly adapt to systems instead of systems adapting to people. But what can you do?
The world keeps marching forward whether you like it or not.
So I suppose I will do what most people do. I will sigh dramatically,
roll my eyes at the supermarket layout, complain about it for another week or two and then probably learn where the pasta aisle ended up.

But I will also keep trying, in my own little ways, to live slightly outside all the unnecessary madness.
To keep things simple where I can. To not fill my life with things I do not need. To avoid being dragged into every new “improvement” simply because somebody decided it was progress.

And if that means becoming the slightly grumpy person muttering at supermarket shelves while clutching a shopping list …
Well… So Be It ...
But I probably will be learning where the pasta aisle moved to, like everyone else who never asked for this upgrade, whether I feel like it or not

Rosita