A comic of two foxes, one of whom is blue, the other is green. In this one, Blue and Green are getting groceries. Blue is looking at Green, as Green scratches his chin with his tail, deep in thought. A little further away, a purple fox looks at them, seeming amused. Blue: Was it spring rolls? I think you mentioned spring rolls. Green: …Maybe? Purple: Heh. Blue and Green turn to look at the purple fox as he addresses them. Purple: Same thing every time, eh? Wife sends you to buy one thing, and you completely forget it! Purple raises his tail in embarrassed surprise as Green responds to him. Green: Actually, we’re gay. Purple: Oh! Purple relaxes as Green continues with a joke. Green: And that’s why we’re both at the store, forgetting what we came here for! Purple: Oh, I see!
Not fighting the crowds and lines is enough to make pickup amazing, but it’s really understated how much easier getting everything you need is when you’re still at home and just adding stuff online.
With free pickup I haven’t set foot in a grocery store since Covid. Saves like an hour of frustration a week.
Where I live the pickers declare half of my cart unavailable, but that’s just because they don’t feel like looking for it. So, we have to go into the store anyways. It’s pretty annoying.
The worst is when it’s a buy 3, get 2 deal or similar and they say one is out of stock, so you don’t get the deal.
Around here, that stuff tacks on a huge convenience fee for pick and pack, making it actively not worth doing. Last I looked, it was some $18 fee no matter how many items, and I’d still have to drive 20 min to pick it up, so might as well just… do my own shopping. (For reference, I live alone in a semi-rural area, so each trip is like $100)
Now if I could get it delivered (same fee, but nobody has a service area that overlaps my address), that’d be a different story.
I hate to mention Walmart, but if you’re dealing with 18$ in fees from elsewhere it might be a better option for you lol
Their stupid W+ subscription (yea another sub I know ) does waive the pickup fee for above 30$, as long as you grocery shop 2x/month it should work out to your favor though
Afaik, the closest walmart is way further than an actual grocery store, since we shut down their plans to pave a marshy woodland to set up a super center eyesore just across the highway (walking distance from my place; that would have been a nightmare). idk, I haven’t shopped there in over 20 years. Don’t really plan to start now for the sake of convenience, since that’s how we got that mess in the first place, but I appreciate the info all the same :)
Yeah, I’m in a city with free pickup and even free delivery most time while they’re trying to get people to use it.
Costs the exact same as going in, just save a lot of time and hassle.
I guess you don’t buy fresh produce, meat, or sale items.
We’ve invented these handy things called “lists” … and also, how are you spending a whole hour in the grocery store?
I guess you don’t buy fresh produce, meat, or sale items
I do, like everything else in the grocery store, you can pick it up…
how are you spending a whole hour in the grocery store?
I think the issue is you live in a rural area and not a city.
Checkout was always like 15 minutes, then time walking they and having to navigate a shopping cart thru a crowd of idiots with shopping carts.
Average time was probably closer to 45 minutes than an hour. But yeah, a busy grocery store takes a while from the time you get out of a car to getting back in. Unless you’re rural and there’s just nobody else there.
Compared to a five minute wait for them to load your car.
I’ve found that they consistently select poor produce and meat; it’s not a task I am willing to leave up to others. That’s not even touching on the problem of when they simply pick the wrong item.
Also, I live in a major city.
I don’t know what to tell you then, my store is on point, sorry yours sucks.
But in a major city, you might want to just try a different store.
I’ve tried multiple stores in multiple parts of the country. On average, they all suck. Fortunately for these stores most people have poor standards and don’t care about paying higher prices.
Also, soon I’ll have no choice in stores once the Kroger-Albertsons merge goes through!
K
Make an excel with all your usual items. Either use an online version and color marek needed items while home, or print many hard copies and use a marker to make your current list. Add items by hand if you need something not on the list. Most of the items are constants, so it will be easier to check it at home and see what is needed. At the shop you can circle/cross items so you’ll know if more shopping is needed. Else I’ll forget it the moment I leave home.
I used to use an app called Out of Milk which was great. You could scan barcodes to add items to your pantry, track it, sync among different users, the whole kit and caboodle. My wife unilaterally decided to drop it and I refuse to go through the pantry to assemble a shopping list without computerized support, so now she takes care of it. and she always forgets to buy stuff or buys stuff we don’t need. I suggested many times to go back to what we had but she’s just not keen on it. Marriage is compromise, I suppose.
