Hodd

Just popped to my local supermarket, a minute’s walk from my house. It was 9pm, and you can imagine how many late night trips I had there in my drinking days.

Anyways, slightly unprofessional of the two bored staff members at the checkouts, but they were talking about some of that day’s customers in less than glowing terms. There were references to people who came in every night for vodka or six packs of beer. I’m quite sure I was the subject of gossip back in the bad days. In my defence, I never varied the routine by shopping elsewhere to disguise the daily quantity. I just didn’t care and didn’t talk to the staff nor really know anyone. Yikes, now I get embarrassed buying a sneaky chocolate bar in case someone, especially the kids from the local school where I sometimes teach, see me.

A lot of drinkers think they go unnoticed - I’m still not sure of the phrase functioning alcoholic - but I think I can spot problem drinkers in supermarkets. I could be wrong, but it takes one to know one.

Hope everyone’s doing ok 🙂

LazaB

I was actually friends with people in my local Liquor store , sometimes they would give me advice like why are you drinking so much you are so young you shouldn't do that but i just didn't care , i was too busy thinking how am i going to hand over the money without them noticing my shakes.

Purplrks3647

I used to try and change up where I shopped for wine instead of going to the same store every day….same with going to the bars….they still knew, I’m sure…

TheAten

I laughed and joked with the friendly staff at my local Tesco about my drinking - if I was buying beer at around 12pm it was “oh you’ve come to get your lunch!” And same for dinner etc. I was very blasé and open about my drinking. Now that I’ve stopped, I don’t know how I feel about that. Funnily enough though now I’ve stopped I seldom need to visit that Tesco as my routine has completely changed.
It was only 70 days ago that I last bought beer at that Tesco and yet my life (and body) look so different. I’ll be interested to see what it looks like after a year.

joe801

I have no doubt many gas station clerks wanted to ask me if I had a "problem" same for the grocery store cashiers. In the end I had to self-checkout because of extreme anxiety.

I've seen many people of all ages, race, sex, in stores and it's clear as day the shopping cart items and look, I don't dare look down them and I've tried to spark conversation with many the majority are simply too nervous or in extreme hurry.

I'm sure people talked about me, I forgive them.

LazaB

Were you only drinking beer ?

Hodd

I ate breakfast in a well-known pub chain this week. People drinking alcohol in there at 10am and on first name terms with the bar staff. That must be upsetting for the staff seeing people not only wasting their lives every day but also their health.

I probably shouldn’t go in such places, but it’s not often and it’s amazingly cheap - bottomless coffee too!

TheAten

I was drinking beer, yes. I don’t understand the question.

LazaB

It's interesting to me how someone with a drinking problem can have enough control to only stick to beer , i wish i was like that

RunnerF

Great thread. I remember changing the stores I would shop at to buy my beer. I also made sure I removed my work identifying clothing. I cringed when I encountered someone I knew in the store as the quantity I bought and day of the week I bought it screamed “This guy has a problem “. I will always remember the owner of the local butcher shop, whom I had come to know quite well, say to me as I inspected and read the beer can labels “I know what you are doing. You are looking for the one’s with the highest alcohol content “. I was embarrassed because it was true but lied, which I don’t think he believed, that I was looking to see where it was brewed. He was right I just wanted the highest alcohol content to get the job done as quickly as possible.

Don’t miss those days.

Cityboy

Lazab, I can't answer for others obviously. By the time I was 50, I just couldn't take hard stuff anymore but could drink insane amounts of beer and still function on some level.

The nature of my work takes me different places, so I had numerous stops for beer after work. As I was working through the various triggers during those first few weeks and months, each of those old beer stops brought another trigger.

It often seems like I can see in someone's face that they are nursing a hangover. Pretty sure that a lot of people knew that I was chronically hungover. After three years, I think that there are still a few people who don't know I quit, but I'm not concerned with them in that way.

least

I used to go to the grocery store as soon as they opened to get some more wine . I'm sure they knew I was in bad shape.

TheAten

I see! Well it didn’t feel like much control when it was on average 20 cans at a time! Sometimes I had drunk so much fluid I felt like I was what can only be described as drowning. I think people (not you, just people generally) forget that if you drink enough of any alcohol, you can get severely drunk, which I did, often.

zenithboy88

My local town has 2 liquor stores,
I would of course alternate as I would stop daily at one of them.
One store was higher volume with a few more clerks, which was good for my purposes.
The other store had one cashier with no personality, not that I'm that friendly either.
I really hated going there, just awkward and gave me a negative feeling. I just felt judged or something.
It was bad enough feeling tethered to these places, like I was buying air to breathe.
I just don't miss going into these shops.
It's so nice to be free from that mess!

Hodd

^ I was going to say, as a very inept part-time chemistry teacher, I know all booze contains ethanol, and that’s the substance our poor old livers have to deal with. I’m not sure if it matters if it’s low strength beer or the most potent hooch. It’s all nasty stuff for the likes of us.

DriGuy

I lived in a small isolated town. I started driving 80 miles round trip to the next closest liquor store when it dawned on me that that guy at my liquor store was getting to know me all too well. Then instead of going to that store every other day for a half gallon of whiskey, I would only show up every 4th day. Like that might convince him I didn't have a problem.

Stories like this are not just amusing anecdotes for me. This was the stage where after 30 years of hard drinking, I was actually beginning to see what I mess I was becoming. In a way, these kinds of recognition are part of the beginning of recovery. The hard part is still ahead, of course.

Scott2295

I have two towns where I shop with multiple liquor stores in each. This is Wisconsin after all. I had a regular rotation where I stopped to get my bottle. I am sure all of them noted the sales reduction when I quit lol.

Cityboy

Scott, I'm pretty sure that Anheuser Busch InBev dropped a couple of points when I quit.

Hevyn

Coors Light must be missing me. I'm just a small woman - in the end, a 30-pack a day wasn't unheard of.
So thankful those days are over.

Pondlady

I too used to read labels looking for alcohol %, pretending I was studying something else - LOL ! I also used to go to Trader Joes, who had good prices on wine and stock up, placing bananas, greek yogurt and fresh flowers over the wine......as if that fooled anyone !!