A Tisket, A Tasket...Don't Have to Push The Basket

I did my grocery shopping today and I didn't even have to leave the comfort of my van.  Yup, I finally decided to try the online shopping feature that my local grocery store offers.  Yesterday I logged onto their website and after setting up my online account using my frequent shopper card (got to get those gas points, you know), I was soon browsing through the store online.

Giant (my local store) has their system set up so that you can shop by category, by aisle, or just type in a product and search that way.  It couldn't be easier.  Once you find what you want, you adjust the amount that you want to purchase and then you select it to add it to your "cart."  There is also a place where you can  enter comments (more on that later).

The final step is to set up the time you want to pick up your groceries.  You pick an hour time slot (i.e. between 10-11 a.m. on Tuesday) and then you print out your order and that's it.  If you have any coupons to use, you just bring them along with you and hand them to the clerk when you pull up in the designated area.

Since this was my first time, I was unsure if you were supposed to tip the person who brings your groceries out to your car.  I called the store and asked and they assured me that I was not to tip.  I just needed to pull up in the lane clearly marked for the online shoppers and someone would come out to get my name and my credit card.

That's exactly what I did.  I pulled up, a nice young man came out and asked for my last name and then I handed him my credit card and my coupons.  Soon he came out with my bags of groceries and loaded them in the back of the van.  Next out came a grocery clerk with my receipt, my credit card, a charge slip to sign, and new coupons that my order had generated.  I signed the slip, she thanked me, and I was on my way back home.

The whole process took about 5 minutes.  Unloading the groceries and putting them away took a tad longer because I was checking items against my list.  When you place your order, you can indicate whether or not you want the personal shopper to make substitutions.  I had said they could but they didn't fill two things I had ordered - a box of Barista K-Cups (they were out-of-stock) and a carrot cake from the bakery (also out-of-stock).  Darn!  I was hoping to have that carrot cake for lunch.  Guess the fates knew it was something I should not have.  I wasn't charged for either item either.  Now, in the comments section, I'm thinking that I COULD have said that "any" K-Cup by Barista would have been ok.    They also had a question on my ground beef when I had ordered a pound of ground beef three times.  They had asked me about it when I'd called with the tip question.  I explained that I hated to touch meat so I wanted to have 3 individual packages of a pound each so that I wouldn't have to separate the meat.  That way, I could just plop it into the frying pan when fixing a recipe without having to do much touching.  They probably thought I was nuts but said politely that they would go pull it for me immediately and have it ready when I arrived.  I COULD have indicated "please pull 3 1-lb. packages" in the comments part and there would have been no confusion.

I'll definitely be using this service again.  The extra charge for the convenience is only $4.95 which is peanuts, if you ask me.  If you are near a store that offers this type of service, give it a try.  You might find yourself pleasantly spoiled.