Now, before you go rolling your eyes in doubt, hear me out.  While you may not be able to use your bicycle for that $400 “monster” visit, you can use two wheels to get you those misc items that always crop up between store visits or maybe even visit the grocery store more often to reduce the need for those “monster” visits that require stealing cash from your IRA to buy groceries.

Here are some tips to help you turn a mundane grocery store visit into a two-wheeled adventure!

• Plan your route using an online tool like Google Maps.  Choose side streets whenever possible even if it adds a little to your distance.
• Leave early in the morning on a weekend.  Traffic will be light on a Saturday or Sunday morning before 9:30am or so. 
• You’ll need something to carry the groceries in.  This could be as simple as a large backpack or a large bicycle bag mounted to a bicycle rack.  I use the Topeak DXP bicycle bag and open both saddlebags to exercise its full carrying capacity.
• Ideally, check out your grocery store ahead of time to determine whether they offer bicycle parking.  The local grocery and Target stores near my house both have bicycle racks.  Be sure to secure your bicycle with a lock. 
• For your first few runs, be conservative.  Buy less groceries than your carrying capacity and then work your way up from there so you don’t get stuck in a bind with too many groceries and no way to get them home.  With just a few trips you’ll be able to spot when you’ve purchased an amount of groceries equal to most of your available cargo space.
• Be mindful of how you load your bicycle bag.  I put cans and other heavy items on the bottom of the main central compartment of my bag and lighter items on the saddlebags that hang down on each side of the main bag.  This is important.  If you put too much weight on one side of the bicycle, you might feel unstable when you come to a stop.
• If you distribute the weight of your groceries nicely with the space you have to work with, you’ll find that the ride home will be quite easy.  That’s the utility of the bicycle shining through.  You can carry quite a bit of weight with just a slight performance decrease.  In fact, you’ll find the ride home on your bike may feel even smoother with the added weight (especially on a bicycle with high pressure, 700c wheels).

The only real danger in using your bicycle to grab some groceries is that you may find that the whole experience is a bit addicting.  With minimal effort you can leave your car in the garage, burn a few calories and take care of a necessary trip with just a small amount of effort.