Internet/pick up grocery shopping

Parent Cafe
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I’ve supplemented our Walmart deliveries with Sam’s visits twice. I’d like to go again but worry with the current covid surge… may need to try curbside pickup.

In some ways our social life is more interesting now. We miss in-person contact (except for a few backyard distanced visits), but we have regular zoom calls with various groups of friends Wed. Thurs and Friday every week. Often we comment that 10 years ago this kind of thing without zoom would have been so much worse. Of course church is different via youtube - I’ve enjoyed the various meetings and coffee hours via zoom… Not everybody has setup to do zoom, so I do call some people that live alone to check in on them.

What’s the latest advise on risk of transmission via surfaces etc? I was super paranoid last spring with the delivered groceries and will admit we had to throw out some cold items accidentally mixed in our bags of “don’t touch for a few days” items last spring. I still worry, but reports like this one make me less concerned now - https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200903/coronavirus-on-surfaces-whats-the-real-risk

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Per my various posts above, we usually use Walmart ToGo delivery service. But yesterday for the 2nd time I used Whole Foods delivery. It was free with Amazon Prime, but beware they added a $7 tip… which I would have done anyway.

On the Whole Foods order, I included some items not available at Walmart as well as some items for our Christmas shipments. It is VERY easy to input order via Amazon.

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Curious what your current wait times have been between order and pickup (or delivery). Last and only time I ordered delivery from a grocery store, was early in the pandemic. The wait time was 7-10 days. It was nice to be able to change the list during that time, but difficult to know what I need that far in advance.

The order was actually close (I was very explicit about substitutions). But personal communication was non existent. No calls, no texts, nothing to let me know delivery would be running 3+ hours late. Other friends shared their “personal shopper” was often contacting them to ask questions.

I’m a bit gun-shy about trying this shopping method again, so wondered how it has changed in the past 6 months.

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I use this for Costco which uses Instacart. I usually get my order within a few hours.

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In our area, we can usually get “tomorrow” (or sometimes the day after) for Walmart delivery and Whole Foods delivery.

Typically we create a tentative an WalmartToGo order and reserve a slot for “day after tomorrow” (we like 9am timeslot). That way we have time to add more items to the list as we think of them. It’s really easy to add extra items - cutoff for changes is 1:45am day of delivery.

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I guess not all Wal-marts are equal. My mother has had trouble with her orders. I guess I’m lucky. They now have “Next Day Home Delivery” at no extra charge. They recommend a tip amount and require a $35 minimum order. Other than dozens of plastic bags, I’ve liked this service.

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I’ve been grocery shopping online for over 10 years. It used to be better before COVID, after the shop I’d get a call asking m3 about substitutions and if I needed anything else, now I just get a text with one substitute choice. It’s also harder to get a time slot. Instacart is great for other stores and getting things quickly, just more expensive, plus I tip well, especially during times when the shopper had to stand in line to get in. I’m an impulse buyer so I save money.

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Yes, the Walmart (and Whole Foods) experiences will vary by store. And it can also vary by day . Over past 8 months of approx weekly orders we’ve had one very bad delivery (came next day) and one or two a few hours late. I was just adding one datapoint from our situation.

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129

Once again I gave this a shot - this time due to a combo of needing to save time and Covid increasing at alarming levels around us. There are a few items our local grocery store doesn’t carry, but Walmart does, so we opted to order and pick up our whole weekly shopping trip + Christmas stocking candy there.

The wait time at pick up (8-9am slot) was 30 minutes. That’s 50 minutes after I was told it was ready and to come get it (7:41am the text arrived). (Took me 20 minutes to drive there.) The very, very nice young lady with my groceries apologized profusely telling me there were only 2 people working - and she had just started at 8:30. I’m not sure why they are understaffed - didn’t ask. There were 12 parking spaces for pick up, all of which were full by then. The first 15 minutes I was there I didn’t see anyone get groceries.

5 dented cans, two severely - so I submitted a return request and got refunded for the two. It means I don’t have to pay for chicken food (that’s their destination at this point), but I also don’t have the chili I wanted for humans.

The three other slightly dented cans (all collard greens) I wouldn’t have bought, but don’t seem bad enough to not use since we have them.

One severely overpriced 76 cent green pepper - only ordered one due to being fearful of the quality. This early in the morning it may have been the best stocked, who knows, but I wouldn’t have bought it. I will make sure what’s usable of it gets eaten tomorrow so it doesn’t all go bad. I possibly could have had that refunded, but I don’t feel right asking for it when we will eat some of it and it’s inexpensive.

Everything else is fine. I remain on the fence about whether I like the service or not. When it works well, it’s great. When it doesn’t, it’s frustrating. There’s not really a middle ground. Most of this was good I suppose. I just need to allow more time in the future if I choose to do it again.

The other aspect of this visit was watching who was shopping inside of Walmart. It was mostly middle aged and senior citizens, both male and female - very few youngsters (<50 or so) and no kids. With the virus all around this particular zip code right now, these are precisely the people who probably shouldn’t be going to Walmart. I wonder how many know the service exists or even have access to computers (for the oldest set). They have an earlier hour just for senior citizens, but this was after that time period. Maybe they should extend it later on at least one day per week?

On the Say It Here thread someone posted something to the effect of being amazed so many people are so fearful of death that they are willing to give up living. Honestly? I’m not sure a trip to Walmart is worth the potential of giving up life in such a gruesome manner (or living with after effects). To each our own though, I suppose. We all pick and choose.

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For those ordering online (or going to stores), consider calling an elderly neighbor. That may allow avoid a trip to the store if you can get them a few fresh items (milk, veggies etc). Or there might be an item they’ve been unable to get at their own store.

Early in the crisis we made a few household happy with toilet paper. (Sams had automatically put two huge multipacks in husband’s cart - he was so surprised he didn’t have time to object.)

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@Colorado_mom That’s a really good idea. There’s one couple just down the road that I will do this with. I know they have a son, but I’m not sure how much he’s been able to help.

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We just used the Kroger pick-up service for the first time today. Loved it. Shopped online during the evening, and picked up later the next day. My pick up wait time was probably 10 minutes (I arrived about 10 minutes before my scheduled hour). Only 2 items were not available, which they texted earlier to let me know. I asked for no substitutions, but our selections are rather basic.

It was SO easy to find things online. If you shop with a user card, they keep track of your past purchases, so the items we use most were all at the top.

Produce was a little more ‘ripe’ than I would have selected, but still fine. Worth the trade-off.

The only thing I didn’t like was the missing spontaneity of finding new or interesting things as you shopped, or heading down an aisle, and remembering something missing from your list.

I’ll definitely try it again.

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A month ago I could get a same day pick up time if I ordered before noon. That contrasts with not being able to get any pick up time within a week during the early days of the pandemic unless I placed the order shortly after midnight and settled for a five to seven days out. Now I see longer wait times and no more same day scheduling.

Walmart has improved its system and now allows shoppers to approve specific potential substitutions or to decline any substitution on an item by item basis. That has increased the percentage of items we receive since before I was reluctant to for their employees to make substitution choices.

Kroger, at least near us, has trouble keeping proteins in stock. I ordered eight different proteins in late November and received just one. They were also out of lactose free 2% or fat free milk, so I got one carton of LF whole milk.

I got lucky with an online order of mostly packaged food items last week and finally scored some Lysol wipes. We ran out last month after using them since March to wipe down food containers and packages before storing.

With the significant increase in hospitalizations we’ve seen in our area, H and I are still not going shopping in any stores. We’ll be satisfied with eating more canned foods as our frozen food supply is depleted.

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