The horror of grocery shopping

I am a big fan of Harris Teeter, and it's not all bad.

Certainly all the aspects you describe are those of the sucking variety, and those are pretty uniform over all grocery stores. But Harris Teeter does a few things to keep the dissatisfaction down.

For one, they have an excellent selection of "different" stuffs - lots of sushi, guacamole, etc - that means that finding something for a meal is relatively easy.

They also have self checkout lanes, which I find to generally be uncrowded (the longest I have ever had to wait is for one person to finish checking out) and fast and easy to use. I'm able to usually get through checkout in about five minutes, including the wait. I don't consider this to be too bad.

Since I bag when I check out, I do a smart job of it and keep all the cold stuff together, freezer stuff together, double bag as appropriate - and this cuts down on my hassles, both with picking up cans from a bag that split in the driveway and in putting things away. Since it's all grouped, once I'm done the freezer, I don't have to run back there. It makes it much less frustrating than putting one thing up here, another down there - hey, this goes over there! - etc.

I certainly don't look forward to going to the grocery store, but my experiences now aren't as bad as the ones you describe.