Soooooooooo

[conuly]

do any of you ever find yourself at the checkout line (or worse - at home!) with a product that was adjacent to the one you were trying to grab? Because it happens to me with surprising frequency, even when I think I'm being careful. I don't know if this is a me thing, a normal thing, maybe an autism thing? What sort of thing is this?

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Comments

[moxie_man]

Way, way too often.

[readerjane]

Oh yes.

ETA: I call this The Universe Changing Behind My Back. It is most distressing.

[cactuswatcher]

It doesn't happen often, but then again, I usually don't notice that I have almost but not quite the right thing, till I'm home. Since I usually self-checkout, you'd think I'd notice.

[siliconshaman]

Yeah... it doesn't help that a lot of brands with multiple products, use packaging that's very similar across their range, so if you're buying from Brand A you might end up with minestrone rather than lentil & bacon soup.

[flamingsword]

I do it sometimes, but I’m not sure if it’s an autism thing. I think it might just be a human brain thing? Grocery stores are an information and sensory rich environment, and not all brains are good at handling those without shutting down the buffer overflow of data.

[flamingsword]

Apparently there is a scientific explanation: Your brain did not classify the thing you picked up as a high-dimensional dataset, and made the wrong judgment call. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/a-power-law-keeps-the-brain-s-perceptions-balanced? Lots of mathematical and scientific language.

[mtbc]

I don't think I've ever picked up an adjacent product accidentally.

[asakiyume]

Sadly, I find this when I get home. DISAPPOINTMENT.

[mount_oregano]

Disappointment or CHALLENGE? I now own a can of marinated chicken gizzards. I will make something delicious out of that so help me God!

[asakiyume]

I like your spirit!

I seem to bring home disappointing diet versions of things I was hoping to have in their full, fatty, sugary glory.

[mme_n_b]

I bought a bottle of fancy sunflower oil at Whole Foods recently. I did not need anything within yards of aisle from sunflower oil. I didn't realize I bought it until I unpacked at home.

[bibliofile]

And somewhere, someone muttered that they swore they bought the sunflower oil, where was it??!!

Brought to you by my indignant childhood self, who got permission to buy popsicless but put them in the wrong cart.

(As a grownup, yes. I have a big bottle of lemon juice from when I meant to buy lemonade. Argh.)

[mme_n_b]

Oh no, poor someone!

[movingfinger]

At home is where I more often* discover this, rather than in the store. At the checkout I am hurrying things out of the cart and onto the belt, or the cashier just empties the handbasket to speed things up.

It doesn't happen with cold case items. I've never bought the wrong milk or frozen thing. I think needing to open the glass door and select makes me track more closely.

*often meaning, among times it happens, I think I might do it twice a year-ish?

[silmaril]

Sometimes, and I think the only reason it's not more often is that I agonize way too long over choices.

[colls]

Argh!!! Yes. I do it more often now than I used to. I need reading glasses to read labels and never really got the hang of wearing the glasses with a mask - so... I can't see shit when I'm at the store.
The label is SO SIMILAR for things like 4% and 2% dairy products, for example. I've often gotten home and realized I have the wrong one. It's actually become a bit of a joke. :/

[lilysea]

do any of you ever find yourself at the checkout line (or worse - at home!) with a product that was adjacent to the one you were trying to grab? Because it happens to me with surprising frequency, even when I think I'm being careful. I don't know if this is a me thing, a normal thing, maybe an autism thing? What sort of thing is this?

Never, ever.

BUT I have a host of allergies and intolerances that make me very, very careful to pick up the exact correct product.

I will VERY carefully check the bottle that it is the FRAGRANCE FREE Ecostore laundry liquid and not the similar-packaging Ecostore eucalyptus-scented laundry liquid.

[maju]

Yes, it has been known to happen.

[alessandriana]

No, not that I can ever recall.

[chez_jae]

I've done that before, but not often.

[buttonsbeadslace]

I do this (when I'm distracted and trying to multitask) around the house, and with office supplies at work, but I don't think I've ever gotten as far as the cash register with something I didn't intend to pick up. I absolutely do grab the stapler when what I want is a pen, though.

Wait, no. There was one time I bought salt and vinegar chips instead of salt and pepper. But in that case, I had actually read the label, thought "Yes, that sounds similar to the string of words I was looking for" & didn't realize it was actually different in a significant way.

[adafrog]

That stinks. My shopping problem is getting shocked every time I try to get something from a metal shelf.

[bitterlawngnome]

Just did it. Went to buy two cans of chickpeas for hummus, ended up with one chickpeas and one romanos.

As it turns out, romano bean hummus is not quite the same but pretty tasty anyway.

[dragonyphoenix]

That does happen to me. I will sometimes grab the vanilla yogurt rather than the plain,

[pauamma]

It happened to me once that I recall. I only noticed when my current tube of toothpaste was empty, so I reached for the new one I had bought a few days before, and only then noticed it was actually denture adhesive.

[darkoshi]

I sometimes catch myself reaching for the wrong thing at the grocery store but I'm not sure it's ever gone further than that. At least not often enough to remember. I'm usually a slow shopper and scrutinize things to make sure they're vegan, etc.

But there is that ONE time, the great vacuum cleaner debacle, where I very carefully researched and decided which vacuum cleaner I wanted to buy but then *somehow* came home with a completely different one which just happened to also be the color red.

[hafnia]

I've had this happen once — bought fat-free half and half instead of the regular kind. Ergh.

[goljerp]

Yes. Most often I end up buying Trader Joe's unsweetened unflavored almond milk, when what my wife wanted me to buy was Trader Joe's unsweetened *Vanilla* almond milk. (I don't think I've ever purchased the sweetened version of either). Once I made the horrible error of buying decaf coffee for my wife. I do occasionally do this with things I like, but they're not as seared into my mind. :-)