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What is the fear of grocery stores?
For most people, shopping for goods is easy. They don’t think twice about stepping into a large superstore such as Walmart and checking out their goods.
However, for some people, anxiety in grocery stores is a real fear that they have developed over time. The fear of grocery stores is highly relevant to social anxiety – the fear of judgement and scrutiny from others, doing things ‘wrong’ which can cause a scene, and a number of intertwining reasons.
Why does anxiety in grocery stores occur in the first place?
Being an employee in a grocery store
One of the most common ways grocery store anxiety occurs is working within a grocery store setting, so being a store employee.
Cashiers with social anxiety are responsible for serving hundreds, if not thousands of customers per day walking through the door. That is a lot of customers to make small talk and interactions with!
Being a customer in a grocery store
Conversley, people shopping at the stores can be as anxious as employees working within a grocery store.
Why is that?
Well, there is several reasons why.
Reasons customers can feel anxious in the grocery store
- Post traumatic stress disorder – something bad had happened to them once in the grocery store, such as a purse or wallet theft.
- They are depressed and anxious about outside events, especially when going through a difficult time such as studying stress
- Feeling concerned about coronavirus and worrying if they are immune or not to it, due to media representation of the virus
- Exaggerating the idea or fear of going into a grocery store.
Reasons employees can feel anxious in the grocery store
- Managers walking around and checking on employee performance
- Fear of people in authority such as managers or authority figures in the store, in case they embarrass themselves or do something ‘wrong’
- Worrying they could be let go soon based on a mistake they made
Why do people feel anxious overall when inside supermarkets?
For the most part, it usually has to do with their thinking trends and patterns. Here is some of their thinking styles to take note about.
They worry and anticipate
Worry is the process of anticipating and thinking about future or upcoming events.
They might worry how they’ll come across to colleagues, other customers and people generally.
Learn more how to control worrying
They ruminate
Rumination is thinking back to previous events or situations that occurred, in magnified detail.
For some people, this makes them feel depressed and even ashamed about how they are.
Recommendations to combat anxiety in the grocery store
There are several ways you can feel more comfortable in the grocery store, whether you are an employee or a customer. Here is what we recommend (take note!)
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- Shop at quieter times of the day. Do not shop if your a customer at peak times such as 5-6pm. Go shopping around 8-9pm instead at a quieter store.
- Get plenty of sleep if you know you have to go shopping the next day. Lack of sleep can impede your focus and make you more irritable.
- Do your best not to think about what the security guards, managers and anybody else is thinking. Put yourself in the present moment.
- Try not to shop when you feel stressed, angry or on edge.
