Buying diapers at the store embarresing?

I would buy diapers at the store but I don't want to be embarrassed by the cashier and the people around me! What if I see someone I know? Have you ever been embarrassed buying diapers in public? Has the cashier ever looked at you?

I have bought diapers at the store. I usually go to a store I don't normally go to. No one has said anything and they really can't as it's none of their business. Really, if you're buying baby diapers they will assume it's for a baby not you. If you buy adult diapers they would probably assume it was for an elderly parent. Most grocery clerks are too busy. Best advice given here many, many times: If you're nervous, go to a store with self checkout.

Usually the cashier doesn't care, you shouldn't worry too much about that, I used to think the same way but I realized there's nothing to be afraid, it gets easier the more you do it, and the reward is worth it!

I must admit I was nervous/embarrassed for a while when I first started buying diapers from the store but quickly realize as some posters mentioned above that people don't care about what you are buying. If you are afraid of running into someone you know then walk around like you are browsing to scope out the store. Thats what I use to do when I first started buying from stores. If buying online is an option I'd recommend that I haven't looked back since I started buying online.

It's pretty common to feel embarrassed to buy diapers at the store when you first start out buying. I know I definitely was embarrassed when I first began buying, and I used the self-checkout to avoid any possible questioning about why I was buying diapers, regardless of how improbable such an event would be. And yeah, the cashiers generally don't care and are just trying to move the line along as quickly as possible and have no desire to question why you're buying whatever you're buying. The more you buy, the easier it becomes. Of course, it's best to just buy online.

Its actually a bit of a thrill, only ever once had the cashier in a pharmacy challenge me and and query if I was requesting the right product. she then pulled a face and went and fetched. out of 100s of times thats the only time that stands out for me.

I usually get mine at Walmart. My store is open 24hrs (so I usually go after 10pm) and do self checkout. While I'm shopping, I use a basket, so nobody can see what I'm buying. It's a pretty painless process.

I have only bought diapers maybe a dozen or so times, and always at a store. I was apprehensive at first, but it didn't take long to get used to. To minimize the chance of meeting anyone I know I go to a store a few miles away, and after putting the diapers in my basket I always go straight to the checkout. I usually use a self-service checkout but have used a normal checkout too, and the cashier didn't bat an eyelid.

PoweraidRed said:

I would buy diapers at the store but I don't want to be embarrassed by the cashier and the people around me! What if I see someone I know? Have you ever been embarrassed buying diapers in public? Has the cashier ever looked at you?

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You gotta just act normal, the cashier won't care what you buy, I work in retail and I get the item, scan it, give it back to the customer and then forget a little later even if the item I scanned was a pack of diapers. It's hardest the first time round and gets easier after that.

I was a bit apprehensive & embarassed the first time I bought plastic underpants myself as a teenager but soon did not need them anymore and they were the only protection I bought that one time. In college though I defintely needed them and once my roomate understood my need for wearing protection and the subsequent months, it became easier to purchase them. I did not have disposable diapers back then to buy so snap on diapers and plastic underpants and then adult training briefs (thick underwear for lighter releases) were my norm. Typically once I had about 6 plastic underpants and several snap-on diapers and thick training underwear I did not have to go shopping for several months. Even when I did, I was not apprehensive or nervous as the other side of me waking up in wet sheets possibly 1-2x per month was a terrible alternative to buying protection sporadically.

Over here in the UK it isn't as easy to buy them in the shops. Only limited stores stock proper adult diapers and they are usually chemists or disabled shops.

Years ago I purchased from a pharmacy in Chester which is an hours drive for me because it was recommended as a shop that sold tena. Back then they were the proper plastic type. The staff used to ask your name and address and what disability the wearer had so the tax wouldn't apply. I remember once accidentally giving them my proper address and phone number at home so I was petrified that someone was going to call or phone up about what I had bought.

The Internet has made life a lot easier. I have just received a box containing 7 different packs of nappies, from save express in Germany....a proper selection for me to try out.!

Usually, I use the scan as you go device to avoid the cashier or to avoid employees bagging items at the self checkout, and I use fabric bags, so not only am I Eco-friendly, but also no one sees what's in the bag. I've had workers give me strange looks in the aisle, one even asked if I needed help finding a product. I was initially embarrassed by the offer, but I brushed it off and politely said no thank you.

Eco-friendly? sure with a dozen or so diapers that are going to end up in a landfill.
Not that I object to your diapers getting landfilled, but why try and greenwash it? you use the bag because it hides the diapers, not for any environmental reasons.

I'd frankly find it more "embarresing" to spell "embarrassing" incorrectly. :smile1:

I haven't bought drugstore-type diapers in years. I go online to order the disposables (and cloth diapers) I use. That's why God invented the internet!

It definetly gets easier with frequency, going to stores outside your neighborhood and using self checkout. Now I really just buy on line since that is the only place I can get the products I want.

For real embarrassment, for a guy, try buying famine protection for your wife. I can never go to the counter with just that in my hands (on those rare occasions I have been summoned to do such transactions). The last time I had to do that at my local Walmart, I grabbed an inexpensive hand sanitizer to go with it. Just couldn't get myself to buy the one product for her alone. Diapers for me are a piece of cake after doing that lovely deed for the wife....

By age 12, I was walking to the supermarket with my allowance to buy Pampers for myself. So nope! Got the whole embarrassment thing out of the way with LOOOOOONG ago!

But those first few times were certainly nerve-wracking. At the time, Pampers and Huggies were doing gender-specific diapers, and so I bought Ultra Pampers for Her, figuring that the gender mismatch would throw the cashier off my trail. ("Hmmm... A boy... buying girl diapers... Well! They're obviously not for him.") Kids' brains work in funny ways. But I credit that first diaper purchase with kickstarting my sissy side.

I bought Ultra Pampers for Her, figuring that the gender mismatch would throw the cashier off my trail. ("Hmmm... A boy... buying girl diapers... Well! They're obviously not for him.") Kids' brains work in funny ways. But I credit that first diaper purchase with kickstarting my sissy side.

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I can totally relate to this. I bought girl nappies because they were cuter and I liked the idea they were made with anatomical differences in mind. But now you put it into words, that thought rings a distant bell many years later. I was disappointed, when moving up to the next level, that there was no equivalent distinction in adult nappies.

Agree with the above that it's potentially more embarrassing to buy over the counter in the UK than many other places, or at least was a few years ago, because of the VAT exemption. At my first purchase in a healthcare shop I knew this was coming, but being presented with a form to fill in and the cashier saying 'please fill in the details of the person who will be using them', and knowing that making the wrong declaration could technically be tax evasion, really put me on the spot. After a couple of purchases, I realised that paying the VAT demonstrated to the cashier that the products weren't for my own personal use. On the pretext of some foreign healthcare insurance that the 'intended user' had, that got really complicated if the VAT was exempted, I started to ask to not claim the exemption and just pay the higher price. That probably puzzled them a bit but hopefully re-inforced the idea that I was buying for someone else, and that I was trying to be meticulous about not falsely claiming exemption. After a 24/7 stint, and a DL relationship, things became rather less troublesome. I started using a different store where, as I had no history of alternative 'justification', I could happily discuss performance of different brands without batting an eyelid. It's just practice!

Paxe, rules are for less than 200 nappies/pads they are vat exempt, no need to fill out any paperwork.

Problem is some stores like to make it difficult so they can charge the vat. but never pay it to Liz. I believe its called fraud.

Cottontail said:

By age 12, I was walking to the supermarket with my allowance to buy Pampers for myself. So nope! Got the whole embarrassment thing out of the way with LOOOOOONG ago!

But those first few times were certainly nerve-wracking. At the time, Pampers and Huggies were doing gender-specific diapers, and so I bought Ultra Pampers for Her, figuring that the gender mismatch would throw the cashier off my trail. ("Hmmm... A boy... buying girl diapers... Well! They're obviously not for him.") Kids' brains work in funny ways. But I credit that first diaper purchase with kickstarting my sissy side.

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I used to buy girls diapers such as DryNites so people wouldn't think it was for me but now I buy the boys ones and don't care at all what people think