7 cringey things Boomers still do at the grocery store that make Gen Z want to scream into the produce section

The grocery store has become an unexpected battlefield of generational norms. What feels like common courtesy to one generation reads as social terrorism to another. These aren't character flaws, more like artifacts of different eras colliding in aisle seven.

1. Writing physical checks like it's 1985

Nothing stops time quite like watching someone pull out a checkbook at checkout. The careful pen retrieval, the deliberate cursive, the meticulous recording in the register—it's a ritual from another era. Gen Z watches this unfold with the same fascination they'd reserve for someone churning butter by hand.

The check-writer isn't being deliberately obtuse. They learned to manage money when paper trails mattered and banks weren't apps. But in an age of tap-to-pay, watching someone balance their checkbook register while twelve people shift their weight behind them feels less like fiscal responsibility and more like historical reenactment.

2. Abandoning carts in parking spots like rogue shopping vessels

There's something almost poetic about a shopping cart drifting slowly across asphalt, freed from its corral destiny. Except when you're trying to park and three carts have formed their own autonomous collective in the last decent spot.

Cart return has become a generational litmus test for basic social contract participation. Younger shoppers see it as the bare minimum of existing in society. Some Boomers treat it like optional extra credit, apparently trusting in parking lot cart collectors the way previous generations trusted in milkmen—someone else's job, already built into the system.

3. Holding summit meetings in narrow aisles

Two carts positioned at perfect right angles. A discussion about Linda's hip replacement that's now entering its third act. The pasta aisle has transformed into an impromptu living room, and everyone else can just navigate around it. It's the grocery equivalent of stopping at the top of an escalator to check your phone.

This isn't malicious—it's what happens when you view grocery shopping as a social experience rather than an efficiency mission. For Gen Z, raised on "get in, get out, avoid all humans," these aisle blockades feel like someone decided to host book club in the emergency exit.

4. Arguing with teenagers about expired coupons

The coupon that expired in 2019 gets produced like evidence in a court case. What follows is a masterclass in negotiation that would exhaust a UN mediator. The teenage cashier, making $12 an hour, becomes the unfortunate representative of every corporation that's ever wronged anyone.

These standoffs aren't really about fifty cents off Greek yogurt. They're about feeling heard in an increasingly automated world where customer service means talking to chatbots. Still, watching someone wage a principled battle over a discount from the Obama administration makes everyone behind them reconsider their life choices.

5. Treating self-checkout like a personal nemesis

The machine says "place item in bagging area." The item is placed. "Unexpected item in bagging area." What follows involves at least three employee interventions, multiple void attempts, and a running monologue about how "this used to be someone's job."

Self-checkout assumes digital fluency while offering zero patience for learning curves—it's designed for speed, not comfort. But the twenty-minute confrontation with technology, complete with commentary about the death of human employment, transforms a quick milk run into performance art about progress and its discontents.

6. Demanding to speak to "someone in charge" about berry quality

One slightly soft strawberry in a container of twelve becomes grounds for a full investigation. The produce manager gets summoned from wherever produce managers hide. Quality standards from 1973 get invoked. The entire agricultural supply chain gets questioned while other shoppers just want their fruit and their Friday evening back.

This perfectionism comes from an era when you knew your grocer by name and could actually see the farm where things grew. But watching someone conduct a quality inspection that would satisfy NASA standards while a line snakes toward frozen foods feels like someone's confused the grocery store with a Michelin-starred kitchen.

7. Insisting the computer is wrong about prices

"That was supposed to be $3.99, not $4.99." The price check ritual begins. An employee trudges back to aisle twelve. The register line grows like a Black Friday nightmare. The principle matters more than the dollar, more than the collective minutes of everyone watching this unfold.

This vigilance made sense when prices were handwritten and errors were human. But the determination to catch the computer in a mathematical crime—complete with visible triumph when vindicated—turns every checkout into a game show where everyone loses except the contestant who's willing to die on this hill.

The real divide isn't about groceries

These grocery store moments aren't about right or wrong. They're about different operating systems trying to run the same program. Boomers learned shopping as a social ritual with human touchpoints and time to spare. Gen Z treats it like an efficiency challenge where the goal is minimal human contact and maximum speed.

The real cringe isn't the behavior—it's watching incompatible worldviews collide in a space everyone needs to share. Some people still write checks. Others would rather spontaneously combust than make eye contact at checkout. Both groups think they're being reasonable.

At least everyone agrees the grocery store playlist is terrible. That's the generational unity we deserve.