In store but now I have to tussle with the shoppers for on-line stuff.
I’m laughing at the idiot suggesting that substitution! Guess the store did not stock sandpaper!
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Just imagine if they hadn’t called and you were trying to figure out why in world you got aluminum foil. 
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I “need” to choose my food myself, including non perishables. I am a bit of a control freak, so I guess that explains it! I don’t mind grocery shopping. When my kids were young, I would have definitely let someone else shop & put it in my car for me, though. My D takes advantage of it for a lot of her groceries - she orders from Kroger, setting her time for first delivery of the morning. It comes right out of the warehouse, and she finds it to be very fresh. She still enjoys doing some in person shopping on the weekends, and her 4 year old loves going to Trader Joe’s and Costco.
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I’ve done all 3 over the past few months. If all 3 were the same price, I’d choose delivery more regularly. The convenience and time savings is often worth the poorer quality shopping than I’d do myself, awkward substitutions for the items that are unavailable, and missing the opportunity to see items in aisles.
However, the price structure is not the same. Delivery services pass on the costs of delivery to consumers and generally add a profit margin beyond that. So I only choose delivery when I can get a good deal, such as when a 40-50% type off promo is available, which I can often stack with other discounts.
Instead I typically choose in store shopping. I know what I am going to buy and often combine grocery trips with other activities for which I am in the area/plaza, minimizing time burden. It’s common for stopping at local supermarket to add under 15 minutes to my trip. I also go to Walmart and Costco ~1x per month . They are further away and take substantially longer (particularly Costco), so I go less often, and stock up when I do make the trip out.
I don’t mind grocery shopping but I also don’t do big box shopping that often (funny though I did it today!). I stick to Costco, a local produce market or the farmer’s market or a small local grocer that is near a spot I am often. Only do a big box trip every 6-8 weeks or so.
I also want control over what I’m buying especially with produce, dairy, meats - basically the perimeter of the store which is where I do most of my shopping anyway.
Tried home delivery a couple times during Covid and it was ok, but not fully accurate and unless I’m physically unable to go to the store I’m not too interested. .
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I love using pickup at our local Shoprite! I know the employees are treated well there. They do a good job and I feel like I’m supporting a local business that supports the community in many ways. So that’s my go to each week.
I also go to TJ’s for things I like there every couple weeks. Again, well run store with the best people working there. That one I go into as they don’t have pickup, but it’s a fairly small one and I can get what I want and be out in about 20minutes, 30 tops.
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We (meaning D1, SIL and I) started online grocery shopping during Covid when we had two tiny, tiny at risk newborn twins (think under 5 lbs each), plus a frontline healthcare worker working long hours, and another person trying to WFH with tiny, tiny, newborn twins.
It was a lifesaver. Since the household is vegetarian, getting meat, fish, etc isn’t an issue. We’ve used Kroger/Ralph’s and Amazon Fresh. And very occasionally, Whole Foods. In CA, we only did curbside pick-up, not delivery. (The pick up manager at Ralph’s knew us by face & name we did it so often. With 3 little kids–it was usually 3x/week. She was great and always picked out great looking fruit & veggies for us.) It was tremendous timesaver and sooooo much easier than dragging a baby and 2 toddlers to the grocery store.
In VA, they’re using Instacart ($99/year) which I’ve been less impressed with. You get a different shopper every time and some of substitutions are questionable (Cholula hot sauce is not the same thing as salsa…) and some of the produces has been less than ideal–though that may a store issue not shopper issue. I’ve done in-person shopping at the store and their produce is not always good or available. But putting in an order and having your groceries appear on your front porch an hour later is great. Especially since the house is located in a hilly lot which require carrying the groceries up the equivalent a flight of stairs. (When we got grocery shopping in person, it does involve lugging the groceries up a flight of stairs inside the house since the carport connects to the basement level.)
In season, I go to the local farmer’s market for produce, but it’s closed now until April.
We began using curbside weekly when Covid began and the curbside fees were waived. I’m ok with the three percent upcharge, because online ordering makes me more likely to adhere to my list and not add impulse buys as sometimes happens in store. I hit Costco once every month or so (if only they had curbside) and Target curbside/shipping about as often. I enjoy in store shopping in specialty markets on occasion, but my stamina and social battery are low these days, so I save them for seeing friends and volunteering.
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They built a TJs near us when our son was about four years old, but we didn’t shop there at the time so just drove by it a lot often saying we should stop in sometime. One day he asked what Trader Joe’s was, and I told him it was where parents went to trade misbehaving kids for better ones which was why we didn’t need to go there (yet). He’s never been fond of that store. 
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In NYC we have freshdirect. We pay a fee to get delivery. They only have online shopping, no physical stores. Their prices tend to be a bit higher, but not by a lot, but their products are a lot fresher and higher quality than other grocery stores. Their berries are usually good for 1 week plus, and they are very tasty. It is rare they are out of stock, and you would usually know what they don’t have prior to check out.
I also have Whole Foods option, but I am not as impressed with them. They don’t have as good control of their inventories. Few times I have ordered from them, there were items not available.
I shop Amazon Fresh for cheaper stuff, like canned soups, instant meals, and pizza. I’ve had good experiences with them, so I may do more shopping with them.
I prefer online shopping over shopping in person. I can usually do my weekly shopping online in 15 min and I could do it anywhere in the world. When I am traveling I would order my grocery while at an airport and have it delivered by the time I get home.
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ShopRite is a 2 minute drive, TJ, stop and shop, stew Leonard’s, Costco and target maybe 5 minutes, so it’s not about the drive, but the convenience, and I do support our local ShopRite, always giving back to the community. Another benefit of curbside is that I’m not running into a dozen people I know.
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My friend ordered a brisket for Rosh Hashanah, and they substituted a ham! That turned me off.
I am having Costco withdrawal. My card was hacked a dozen times by Uber. The second card was hacked before it arrived. Now I’m waiting for the third card.
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I have all those nearby–a little farther away than you, but they are mostly clustered close together. I wonder if we’re going to the same ones?
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During COVID, I got great curbside service from Kroger in my KY hometown and I would make a mad dash into local market that has wonderful fresh produce and some other specialty things I loved in the early hours before it because more crowded with people wanting deli lunch options, etc. They also had a drive-thru. Now that I’m in Nashville, the Kroger stores have good curbside service except that they don’t have some meat options (think bacon, sausage, ground beef, etc.) available through curbside. If you can’t get everything you need, what’s the point? I have complained through their feedback feature, but their regional powers-that-be are not responsive. I use curbside occasionally, but would use it more if they fixed their product availability (there are no shortages in the stores). The nearest Kroger to my condo is less than 5 minutes away, but it will close on January 31 next year as the strip shopping center, built in the early 60s, is set to be demolished in favor of a denser development of condos, hotel, retail, etc. 
Fortunately, I also have a nice Publix (with higher prices) and Trader Joe’s about the same distance from my home.
Could be!
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I just love to actually see the items I’m buying, especially produce and meats. I need to alter my cooking if the food doesn’t look like it’s fresh or if a main ingredient is out of stock. I don’t like the substitutes they sometimes choose.
I’ve tried curbside with WholeFoods and local grocery. The veggies were definitely past their prime and shouldn’t have been sold, much less purchased. I got a refund but then had no veggies for meal prep. They didn’t have another item that was a key ingredient so basically I was stuck. I tried once more and the meat was all bone and gristle so gave up on letting others shop for me.
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I did Instacart a couple of times during Covid (once when my college kid came home to isolate after testing positive and we were out of town), but I like to pick out my own groceries - especially meat & produce. Also, trying to make an online grocery list from memory doesn’t help me. I need to go up and down each aisle and have my memory triggered by seeing the items that I need.
I frequently do curbside pick-up at Target, which saves me money on impulse items there 
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I do go up and down aisle on my iPad, I shop the online circular and my past purchases. Before COVID, they’d call you to ask about substitutions and ask if you needed anything else, now they text you with a substitution, you can say yes or no.
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At home we’ve been doing curbside pickup at Harris Teeter since before COVID. We used to really like it, even though we did get offered some weird substitutions.
Funny/related - we were offered cranberry sauce instead of cranberry juice, and a ham instead of something that was definitely not a ham. Once we came home and unpacked an entire big thing of produce bags (we are still using them). Our most interesting was the huge ring of keys to the entire store. I did call them right away for that one, and they came to get them.
More than once Harris Teeter has brought groceries to our house bc they messed up pretty badly.
For the last couple of years Harris Teeter hasn’t been as good (I think it had to do with Kroger buying them out).
We are now in the Caribbean. I discovered that we could order groceries and have them picked up. They upcharge 10%. I decided it was well worth the price - otherwise it would have been 4 of us running around the store in circles buying a bunch of crap we didn’t need. This way we could think about what we needed, and limit stupid stuff. I say we saved more than the upcharge.
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