Hearing loss can make tasks in your everyday life a lot more challenging. This is especially true for grocery shopping. What seems like a small outing for groceries can turn into a stressful, overstimulating and frustrating experience for those with hearing loss.
Challenges of Grocery Shopping with Hearing Loss
- Consistent background noise. Music playing over speakers, clattering carts (with that one wheel that won’t stop squeaking), freezers humming, scanners beeping—grocery stores are noisy. If you have hearing loss, the auditory processing center in your brain may become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of noise, leading to irritability and fatigue.
- Engaging with staff. Asking for help while shopping and speaking with the cashier at check-out is already difficult with hearing loss, compounded by the fatigue from navigating the aisles. Not to mention it can be frustrating and embarrassing to ask the cashier to repeat themselves several times (“Paper or plastic? Do you want a receipt?”).
- Lots of people. Grocery stores get crowded. Not noticing someone is near you because you didn’t hear them can be startling, and you never want to miss someone trying to speak to you.
Tips for Your Shopping Trip
Given these challenges, it’s understandable that some individuals with hearing loss might choose to avoid grocery shopping altogether or delegate the task to someone else. However, social isolation is one of the major impacts of hearing loss on quality of life; it’s beneficial to try to get out and about if possible.
- Take a list. Make your shopping list ahead of time to reduce the number of decisions you need to make while in the store and minimize the chances of forgetting something. Go the extra mile and write the items in the order in which you’ll get them at the store.
- Plan your grocery trip. Pick a smaller store if possible, where it will be less crowded, and shop during non-peak hours to avoid the crowd even more. Weekday mornings or late evenings will yield a quieter shopping experience with reduced background noise.
- Use self-checkout. If seeing a cashier at the end of a long shopping trip is too exhausting, consider the alternative: self-checkout. The machines use both visual and auditory cues to guide you through the checkout process.
Furthermore, we recommend you wear your hearing aids to the grocery store. The background noise suppression capabilities of your headphones will cut down on a lot of the overstimulating background noise and amplify the sound of speech so you can chat with the cashier with less difficulty. If you have hearing loss but don’t currently wear hearing aids, call The House Institute to discuss if they might be right for you; they’ll certainly make grocery shopping less stressful.