Shopping the Smart Way - Essay Example

?March 4, Process Observation Paper Shopping the Smart Way Throughout our day to day lives, we perform and complete millions of tasks. We often go through the motions, not beginning to consider how many tiny steps go into all of the things we do during a given day. However, if we considered each of our activities as a process, we could see things in a whole new light. If we took the time to consider our day to day, we would realize that there are many careless errors involved in the tasks we perform, which sometimes even lead us to not complete these tasks. Even our completed tasks contain many errors. We could, perhaps, improve our efficiency as well as the amount of time spent on various tasks we perform throughout a day. By carefully observing a process step by step, you can see which of its components work and which do not. One such component that can be a part of anyone’s day to day life, one which can be improved upon, is going grocery shopping. Grocery shopping is a necessity in all households. There are very few people who can live on fast food and take out alone, despite their claims otherwise. Naturally, we need to keep our refrigerators stocked so that we are prepared when hunger strikes and we’ve grown sick of the drive thru. Once we have exhausted our supply, we have no choice but to brave the crowds and head to the supermarket. This can undoubtedly be a time consuming and tedious process. However, if one breaks this process down and carefully looks at each of the components of this process, we are capable of finding ways to do grocery shopping that are more efficient, saving you both time and money in the long run. To understand the errors in this process, we must walk through the grocery shopping experience as it naturally occurs. There are many different situations for such a task, of course. Everyone completes things like this differently. I will approach a scenario where many common errors are combined in efforts to show how these errors, whether happening collectively or exclusively, can be avoided. The scenario that we will look at is one that happens more often than you may think: a last minute, slightly chaotic shopping trip. Imagine for a moment that you have come home after a long day of work. You are exhausted and extremely hungry. It’s a busy time of year for you at your job and you had to sacrifice your lunch hour and break in order to get your work done. You come home after this seemingly never-ending day, ready to fix yourself your favorite dinner before you turn in for the night. You reach your refrigerator only to find empty shelves and drawers. At this point, it seems like you don’t have very many options. You sigh, grabbing your keys and heading right back out the door you had just come through. As you’re getting in your car, your phone rings. It is your friend telling you he’s coming over. You offer to pick him up if he will help you with your grocery shopping. He agrees and you go pick him up. Once you have picked this friend up, you reluctantly drive to the supermarket. You look over at the checkout counters as you walk in and see the lines are very long. It’s dinner time and the supermarket is full of people getting last minute items they need. You decide you need to hurry up through the supermarket aisles so that you can get on line before it gets any worse. You and your friend devise a plan where you will split up and each start on a different side of the supermarket, meeting in one of the middle aisles Since you went there on such a whim, you have no list. You decide to go aisle by aisle, looking to see what you need in each. You walk up and down the aisles, looking at everything that meets your eye and finding some things you needed, but indulging more in things you don’t need, reasoning that you are allowed to splurge for whatever reason. You and your friend meet in the middle and put the contents of your separate baskets into a cart. You’re satisfied as you make your way down the last aisle toward the checkout counter, considering the fact that you’ve got a full cart to satisfy your empty stomach. After a long wait on line that you were unable to avoid, you empty the contents of your cart onto the conveyer belt at the checkout counter and listen numbly to the sound of each item being scanned as you talk to your friend. It isn’t until your total comes out to three hundred dollars that you are suddenly alarmed, questioning what you actually just bought. You know that you should probably look through your cart and decide what you don’t need. There’s a line of people behind you who are growing impatient, however, so against your better judgment you swipe your credit card and begin to hastily bag your items. You gather your bags as you both make your way to your car and unload everything into your trunk and drive back to your house. You and your friend struggle to carry everything into your house. Once you do, you begin to put things away. As you’re putting your groceries away, you realize how many things you forgot to get that you needed. Also, you realize that you and your friend overlapped aisles at some point, picking up multiple amounts of the same items. You know going back is out of the question. You try to ignore it and make you and your friend dinner, only to realize you forgot something that was essential to your recipe. As you both sit there eating your not-so-perfect dinner, you wonder where it all went wrong, but write it off to a bad day. Naturally, there are many things that are wrong with this process. Grocery shopping may seem like a no brainer, but there are many things you need to take into consideration. A trip to the supermarket means spending your hard earned money and precious time, so it is important to get it right. The above situation is quite realistic and happens to many people. Therefore, it is important to observe the errors in this process and look to how they can be corrected. To most people observing this process, the first error here may not be quite so obvious. The first error was in discovering the empty refrigerator. Naturally, you should keep track of your items, and this doesn’t exclude food. An empty refrigerator doesn’t happen overnight; it is gradually emptied rather. You need to be aware of how much you have left of what so that you do not have to go on last minute shopping trips. These things need to be planned in advance to avoid loss of both time and money. It is also important to note that you should not go grocery shopping when you are hungry. While hunger itself is not an observable trait, the reasoning behind it has everything to do with observation. When you are hungry, food looks more appealing. If you go grocery shopping while hungry, you are more likely to rush through your shopping to get to the appealing food. Also, you are likely to buy more food than you would if you went shopping on a full stomach because it all seems that much more appealing to you. In the example scenario, the shopper also does not have a list. Without a list, you are relying on memory to figure out what you need to get. It also leaves you without structure. In other words, without a list, you are liable to forget items you need and pick up items you don’t need. The list does not just serve as a reminder; it serves as a way to keep track of what you have to spend, how much you have to spend, what you can be flexible on, and what you cannot break from. The time at which you go shopping is also important. Going at the end of the day after you have done many other things is not a good idea. You are overtired and it becomes a chore at that point. Grocery shopping is a time consuming process, so you should go into it knowing that you need to allow a certain amount of time to get you shopping done. By going at a busy time when you are in a rush, you end up rushing through your shopping to try to save time. In the long run, this actually wastes time because you are not paying careful attention to the task at hand. The addition of the friend to this equation is another error in the scenario. While there is nothing wrong with entertaining friends over a nice meal, when the previous factors are considered this is an unwise decision. Now you have not only your own precious time in consideration, but that of your friend as well. Also, your need to unwind will yet again cause you to rush through the task at hand. Your friend, who could seem like help in this situation, could also be a distraction. No one spends time with friends in silence, so talking and catching up can take your attention away from your shopping and cause you to focus more on your conversation. There is another major error that occurs involving the friend. This error, however, could easily happen if you go grocery shopping with anyone—a friend, your family, or otherwise. This error would be splitting up in the supermarket. By splitting up in the supermarket, you cannot confer with the person you are shopping with about the items you are adding to your cart or basket. This allows for the possibility of picking up the same items, as it occurred in the example scenario. While this strategy may save you some time, it wastes money and leaves you with a surplus of items you don’t really need. Also, in the scenario the friends do not confer about what is needed, which allows for further confusion and overspending. Walking up and down the aisles in a grocery store may seem very simple. There is a lot of thought that goes into designing these aisles, however. Because of this, you should approach your shopping with just as much thought. Psychologists have proven that expensive items, or items that your supermarket is trying to push are placed at eye level. Many shoppers don’t take the time to look above or below eye level, instead grabbing whatever is right in front of them. By not shopping carefully, you are wasting money. There are deals that are available to you that you are simply not taking advantage of. The time factor comes in here as well. If the common shopper who takes their time shopping is missing out on these deals, naturally a shopper who is in a rush will miss out on them. By rushing, you’re also not taking time to compare items to figure out how to get the best bang for your buck. Again, you are compromising time for money. You can finish stocking a whole refrigerator in ten minutes, but spend hundreds of dollars more than necessary to do so. These shoppers meet in the middle aisle feeling successful. They both empty the contents of their baskets into a cart without another thought. It is apparent, however, that they have made yet another error. They are looking at the full cart and assuming that all the necessary items have been picked up. The sacrifice of money for time is visible yet again. If these shoppers weren’t in such a rush, they might have looked over the items to make sure they had everything. Also, if they had a list they would be sure they got all the necessary items. Without double checking and without their list, they are just hoping that the job has been done. The quantity vs. quality principle applies here: the quantity of time saved may be high, but the quality of the contents being bought is at risk. While the importance of these two factors may vary from person to person, generally equilibrium of the two would make for the ideal experience. With the long wait on line, the shoppers missed another opportunity to double check the inventory of the cart. By having two people loading items onto the conveyer belt when they finally did get to the front of the line, they missed their duplicated item error. They missed it again by hastily bagging their items. Also, if a shopper questions the reason their total is so high, this indicates something must have gone wrong somewhere. By ignoring it in attempts to hurry up, they missed the opportunity to pick up on the error. Likewise, if one of them had loaded items as the other prepared to bag, the error would have been picked up on. They chose to do things in a less efficient manner, putting saving time before all else again, which led them not to realize the error in their experience before it was too late. After reviewing all the errors in the above situation, the ways they can be corrected are somewhat obvious. To summarize, when going shopping there are some guidelines one should follow. First of all, allow your shopping experience to be a leisurely one. A lot can be sacrificed to save time, but these sacrifices defeat the purpose of the trip itself, as we’ve seen. Secondly, it is important to plan ahead. One should know when they need to go grocery shopping so they aren’t left in a situation such as the one above. Careful planning can allow you to avoid this. If the shopper in the example scenario had planned ahead, the shopping trip wouldn’t have had to happen. Also, if the shopper planned ahead he or she would have a list to serve as a guideline for what needed to be bought. By formulating a list gradually as you start to notice you need something, you can be better prepared for a shopping trip, whenever it has to happen. When you finally do arrive at the supermarket to do your grocery shopping, take the time to search for deals. It is amazing what you will find when you look high and low (literally) at all the options available to you. Once you have done that, checked off everything on your list, and feel you are done, it is always good to double check. You can do this either as you check out or beforehand. By double checking, you can be confident you haven’t forgotten anything. Also, if you have a question about your total, you shouldn’t hesitate to ask. The shoppers online behind you and the annoyed looking cashier will get over the fact that you are taking up some of their time. As the customer, you have the right to ask questions and make sure your experience is an efficient and pleasant one. It is evident that errors are everywhere in our experiences. In the above scenario, the shopper would have likely been better off just eating fast food or take-out food. The errors made by the shopper lead to a waste of time and money, as well as an unfavorable shopping experience. It is important, therefore, to carefully think through your daily processes, regardless of how big or small, in order to live a more efficient life where things get done the right way. Observing simple processes as an outsider can open your eyes to things you’ve never noticed before. Read More