Check-In. And I thought I was inconsistent.

The biggest downside, to me anyway about dairy-free, believe it or not isn't the fact that it's somewhat more pricey than the regular dairy options. It's not even the fact that in order to get dairy-free you often have to go vegan, or gluten-free. Or sometimes even, gluten-free, fat free, sugarfree, flavor-free.

What never fails to piss me off is the completely random and inconsistent ways that grocery stores seem to stock the dairy-free options. Sure, put them in the organic or natural section, I expect that. Put them in the Vegan section, I can even deal with that. Even better, put them in the same cooler as the organic dairy, I can deal with that. But when they're randomly intermingled with the organic "regular" dairy, it makes me want to cry.

Why is it so difficult to put the dairy-free/vegan all on one or two shelves at the top or bottom of the door and fill the rest with organic dairy? Why do should I have to sort through organic cheeses and spreads to get to the one tub of Better Than Cream Cheese at the back? Why is organic ice cream stocked between rows of dairy-free and vegan desserts? I stock shelves as a large part of my job. It's not like it's hard to put the Daiya shreds up or down one shelf.

And while we're talking about it, why does it seem like the dairy-free stuff is always randomly in and out of stock? Do they order by hand? (Ok, at Sign of the Bear, they do. But they're also way more organized than grocery stores I'm talking about.)

For the longest time, I was convinced that nobody but Sign of the Bear carried Better Than Cream Cheese. Now it seems that (at least our local) Wegman's has an over abundance of it, crammed in the back of the bottom shelf in the last cooler in the natural/organic section. They carried Tofutti Cuties in Key Lime and All Vanilla forever. Tonight I go, all they have is the classic vanilla with chocolate wafers. No sign that they ever even carried the others.

My Giant doesn't have any Soy Yogurt and hardly any natural, organic, dairy-free or Vegan options, even though the next closest Giant to us has an entire organic/natural market in the back and several other Giants in our area have an organic aisle. Nevermind, my closest Giant is on the opposite side of a city park from WEGMANS!!

This is a huge change for me and I'm trying to be good. I really am. Why are the grocery stores making it so damn hard!?!?! You wouldn't randomly change your regular ice cream flavors. Sure they add new and get rid of poor sellers, but the dairy-free stuff seems like it changes from week to week sometimes.

The regular dairy cheeses are always neatly organized, excepting when there's an amazing sale, why is the dairy-free/Vegan/Organic always a huge mish-mash that looks like there was a total free-for-all battle in the cooler?

Come on, be nice to those of us who need/choose to eat a little differently.