How Do You...Grocery Shop With Kids?

How do you take kids grocery shopping without losing your cool?

Last June I shared about my experience of  taking over the grocery shopping for our family after Brian had handled it for almost seven years.  All summer and into the fall, I ushered the kids into Walmart every other week and we shopped together.  Once Brian's grass-cutting schedule slowed down at the end of October, I began shopping in the early evening and bringing one or two kids along while the rest stayed home.  Throughout the winter when Brian was home all day, I shopped in the morning or early afternoon and let each of the three older kids take turns shopping with me.  (They viewed it as a privilege to come along.)  Now as spring draws near, I've been anticipating (and slightly dreading) the need to bring all the kids on my grocery shopping ventures again.  It's not that they're not well behaved (most of the time).  It's just that grocery shopping is  a long and tedious job that requires much of my concentration and bringing five little talkers along isn't easy.

There are a few things, though, that make my shopping trips run more smoothly.

1. Shop early in the morning.  I try to leave home as soon we can dress and eat breakfast.  I like to pull into the store parking lot, no later than nine o'clock.  The store is less busy in the morning and the aisles are clearer.

2. Review the expectations before we get out of the vehicle.   I think I know how my children will behave in the store... until we get in there and they are picking things up off of every shelf and getting their shoes caught under the cart wheels.  It helps to remind everyone (when we are still in the van) not to yell, argue, wander, whine, or ask for things. 

3. Bring a snack.  I don't care if we finished breakfast on our way out the door or if lunch is in an hour.  A little bag of snacks is a life-saver when the kids are getting restless and start picking on each other.  

4. Assign an older child to entertain the younger children during check-out.  It never fails!  The kids can be angels the whole way through the store until I'm loading groceries onto the counter, and then they want to whine and wiggle out of the cart.  The older kids are masters at coming up with silly songs that entertain both themselves and the little people they are trying to impress. 

Do you grocery shop with your kids?  How do make the job easier?     Let us know in the comments! 
If you have a question for a future "How Do You...?" post, share that in the comments, too.   

{Edited to add: After reading this post, Anna was inspired to write her own grocery shopping tips here.    They are worth a read.}