I've went out and did my own shopping. I wiped in the store, I wiped at home. I wore gloves. I cleaned the UScan machine with a disinfecting wipe. So this week I decided to do delivery instead. I received a substitute I didn't want. I received a taco seasoning pack that was ripped open. So now I will have to deal with returns.
So pros and cons. Shop for yourself-increased risk, more work. Pro- get only exactly what I want. Delivery-Con may not get what I want, may have to deal with a return. Pro decreased risk less work, but is it really decreased risk if you have to deal with a return and have to go back up there.
Your thoughts?

My grocery store pickup went a little sideways, but nowhere is taking returns AFAIK. I called about my issues and my grocery store refunded my CC. Not safe for them to take returns I am pretty sure, and many stores didn't take food returns even prior to CVD-19.

I do pickup which doesnt have the delivery fees. Also if I receive a substitution I dont want I can have them give me something else before I leave there or adjust the bill. I still have to clean everything when I get it home.
Returns will not happen. If it cant be fixed over the phone Ill have to live with it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2020 09:07PM by CoffeeQueen.

I have not done pickup or local delivery shopping, so I can talk about in-person versus online. It is impossible to get everything at one store with one visit, and it is impossible to get everything online from one store. I am using a combination of the two methods. I get free shipping, which is extremely beneficial. I have to read labels, at least for the first purchase of things. We are watching certain ingredients, and this is imperative. When the websites show the entire label, this is helpful because I can compare products/brands. Now, how can I get the rest of the websites to show labels? Hmm....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2020 09:13PM by Shop-et-al.

I hate Walmart. F&L, you should call them. Maybe they will take care of it over the phone. But it is Walmart, so don't have your expectations too high.

A few grocery stores here charge a convenience fee for pickup ($3). I wouldn't want to check my order when they put it in the trunk. I pay online and want a contactless experience. I take everything out and sanitize when I get home and put it away. That's when I found a few errors the other day after looking over the receipt. They took care of it with a phone call, so I was pleased overall.

I am doing a curbside at a different store tomorrow, this one does not charge a convenience fee. I have high expectations.

All of the stores here charge for delivery. I am expecting a delivery here today before 6 (this store offers the 1st delivery free). We will see how it goes.

Walmart pick up went flawlessly. I was impressed. They ended up substituting the name brand for the generic at no cost to me. I did get red instead of green peppers, which is fine. They asked me by email if I wanted the substitutions. The pickup involved no wait and a friendly associate. They even gave me a free sampler of all kinds of nonsense, which I was not expecting. They were the only store I could get pickup from in PA.

Our Walmarts suck. Good for you, Niner, glad it went well!

My Walmart does a great job of pickup. I switch between Kroger and Walmart in order to get the best prices and products I like from each. I like Walmart because I can throw in some things that aren't groceries... dishtowels, cookware, whatever I need. I got sheets and a blanket and some potting soil last time.

Okay, so the delivery window was between 4-6 pm. They showed up at 6:25. They did not call to let me know there was going to be a delay. I received about half of what I ordered. My husband has a Cheetos addiction. There are only 2 bags left in the pantry. They were on sale at this store (sale ends tomorrow) so I had ordered 5 bags. There were no Cheetos in my order (there's a Cheetos shortage, really?), they gave me canned Lima beans instead of frozen like I ordered (and I requested no substitutions), the dried navy beans were missing, and there were several other items not included. I of course was not charged for them, but I want them to remove the canned Lima beans charge from my order. UGH to canned vegetables!

I have a pickup with a different grocery store tomorrow (no fees), and I still have high expectations. If they pull it off without a hitch they will be my "go to" store for the rest of the self quarantine duration.

All it takes for me is to have my significant other or my son pick up groceries for me to realize I want to make my own selections on fresh items. I am beginning to shop with my son to teach him what to look for.

Yesterday we did several stores and split big packages to repackage and freeze while doing some menu planning. The fresh vegetables were hit or miss so again we headed out again today. The notion of picking a bell pepper that is tall and uniform in shape to make cutting it up easier and more uniform was a surprise to him. He was doing okay on shiny with no wrinkles and bad spots. We deliberately picked boxes of tomatoes from the clearance table because these are tomatoes that were picked ripe and the discount for blemishes and softness makes them well worthwhile. When cut, the seeds are mature and the flavor that of a real tomato--not a gassed green. He picked a ham by weight, I pointed out his selection had a really thick fat layer under the skin and the meat was a little gray so we both dug through the cooler for hams that should be excellent.

The store was empty enough that we walked the aisles and each filled our carts with things we knew we were getting low on but would not have thought to put on a list to be delivered to us. There were sales on canned vegetables so I resupplied my canned beans for various dishes. My mayo was BOGO and even though I have a spare bottle, I now have 3 spares. I finally caught up with a bottle of Oyster Sauce.

It might be cheaper to have someone else pick up my specific list, but I won't be doing that unless I am completely house bound with no one who can go to the store for me.

I may be a bit of a control freak but I absolutely cannot let someone else choose my groceries (or clean my house or mow my lawn, etc.)! It must be done my way and only I can do that. Plus, I am cheap so don't want to pay extra for anything.

@sestrahelena .. I'm with you! I want to choose my own dairy, meat, bakery items, and produce. I wouldn't have issue with non-food items, such as kitty litter or laundry/dishwasher pods. Another grocery phobia of mine is that I **NEVER** take the front-most item on the shelf. You have no idea how many people have touched it, then put it back on the shelf. Been that way for years, but it seems to be even more prudent today.

I did a pick up with Walmart the other day because they were the only ones I could get a slot with! I'm also too cheap to do instacart etc as everything costs more than in store plus tipping. Walmart was pretty good - I didn't like the subsitutions but they didn't give me a chance to return them as the drop off so they just refunded my account instead. I did have a few issues with the fruit & veg (I never normally get them at Walmart for that reason) but they also got refunded with no questions asked.

I've used Walmart Pick up for over the last couple of years. I loved it. Good produce, good meats, Very few substations and usually and when they did sub it was always better or larger.
Not so since the COVID. My first order was late and I waited forever and on;y about half the items I wanted were in stock. Yesterday I placed an order and went to pick it up to find out they were running an hour late. I had the hold it for me and picked it up this morning, Things were almost back to normal.
So if this is your first time trying the pickup thing, realize this is not the normal.

I've only done delivery for beer from 2 of my favorite breweries and prepared food also. I've tried to get a grocery order online only twice only to get an up to 2 day waiting period and even do pick up but the horror stories are never ending on my local FB group about it. As long as I'm wearing my mask and the store is doing best practices, I feel ok going to the store once a week.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2020 03:42PM by Jenny Cassada.

I have been doing grocery delivery from Kroger for the past 4 weeks. I'm not sure who people having substitution problems are shopping with, but the Kroger app let's you specify on each item if you are ok with substitutions or not and let's you put notes on each item. So if I ask for Italian Dressing and I am particular about the brand I can uncheck substitutions for that item. If not I can add any brand but not fat free or any Italian dressing but do not substitute another flavor. I haven't had any problems.

The grocery store I used yesterday had a "no substitutions" request checkbox, and for everything I ordered, I chose "no substitutions" but they gave me canned lima beans instead of the frozen ones (the frozen ones were on sale and yielded more beans). I was fine with only getting half of what I ordered, but subbing things was a big error on their part (that and being 30 minutes late during an already lengthy 2-hour delivery window).

Trying a different grocery store today that might be my new "go to" store if they get it right. We don't have a Kroger here.

I tried using the Ralphs (Kroger) site yesterday for curbside pickup but it was not user friendly at all. I had to go back to square one after each item in my cart. Then it told me I had to choose a different location as my store did not have curbside pickup. I put Brussels sprouts in my bag. The price was 99 cents. It did not say per pound like every other veggie item like that did. So was it for a bag? How big? One brussel? One sprout? The item is in this week's sale ad and it is the same there. I really need to go to the store and see what they are talking about. I could not put in my order anyway as the site crashed every time I tried to switch to a different location.
My plan now is either to try getting up for the middle of my night senior time or to go the last hour the store is open. A friend said they went late and almost no shoppers were there. My store is great. The employees are being really careful and so is the store but the other shoppers are the ones not paying any attention to the rules.

Today I used Giant Eagle grocery curbside pickup (free). I waited less than 2 minutes for my groceries. I popped the trunk and they loaded me up. There were a few items out of stock, but other than that, it was seamless and accurate.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

The grocery store I used yesterday had a "no substitutions" request checkbox, and for everything I ordered, I chose "no substitutions" but they gave me canned lima beans instead of the frozen ones (the frozen ones were on sale and yielded more beans). I was fine with only getting half of what I ordered, but subbing things was a big error on their part (that and being 30 minutes late during an already lengthy 2-hour delivery window).

Trying a different grocery store today that might be my new "go to" store if they get it right. We don't have a Kroger here.

A fantastic report! This was for a specialty item from a local specialty store, but I will include it anyway. I placed a phone order and paid via credit card. We arranged the pick-up time before I left home.The location's procedural changes were explained clearly and followed exactly. I was informed at each juncture what was happening and what would happen next. Each step in the process occurred as it was described. The employee was courteous and upbeat. Their communications were clear and easy to hear. I will continue to do business with this location and recommend it others for various reasons based upon the selection of merchandise, the quality of care given to the hand-made items, and the ease of using curbside pickup.

If this were a mystery shop, they would have been given one million points on a scale from one to ten, where one is epic fail and ten is so good we should clone them.

Anyone see where Aldi is now offering both curbside and delivery?

I saw that in store but there are so few employees I would not have been able to ask anyone about it except the cashier or the gal outside who was cleaning carts. Kinda makes you wonder whether it would be store employees pulling the order or some outside company doing so for pay by customer or store.

Instacart. They do it. It's $3.99 for a delivery. I haven't checked out what the curbside pickup cost is yet.

Nice to know that they are cleaning the carts.

Overall, I've had positive experiences with online ordering. My store calls me prior to pickup. They advise me of out of stock items, and offer substitutions, if any. After that, I get an email telling me when my order is ready for pickup. No, my personal shopper is not as picky as I am when choosing produce. But, I can live with it. I've gotten a few bum items. I've also gotten items that I didn't order and wasn't charged for. Got a free rotisserie chicken. Called the store to advise, and they told me to enjoy it. Got browned spring mix greens. Picked them over. Didn't call the store. Last order I picked up, my picker/delivery person was the pharmacy tech. I recognized her as I had shopped her.

We're doing the best we can, for the most part.

Im inclined to let a lot of little imperfections go. If I get the wrong bacon thats okay. I feel lucky to have pickup service at all. I do wish I could pick my own produce but I'll live.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

Instacart. They do it. It's $3.99 for a delivery. I haven't checked out what the curbside pickup cost is yet.

Nice to know that they are cleaning the carts.

Instacart varies greatly depending on where you originate your order. Instacart handles deliveries for Kroger. If I place our order from the Kroger app I get the Kroger prices and I have to pay a $9.95 delivery fee. If I place the order from the Instacart app I pay a lower delivery fee but groceries in my area at least are 20% higher

Umm... can any of the bad produce be used for compost?

I was referring specifically to Aldi. Sorry I didn't make that clear.

@bgriffin wrote:

@JASFLALMT wrote:

Instacart. They do it. It's $3.99 for a delivery. I haven't checked out what the curbside pickup cost is yet.

Nice to know that they are cleaning the carts.

Instacart varies greatly depending on where you originate your order. Instacart handles deliveries for Kroger. If I place our order from the Kroger app I get the Kroger prices and I have to pay a $9.95 delivery fee. If I place the order from the Instacart app I pay a lower delivery fee but groceries in my area at least are 20% higher

Yes, my point was that if you are ordering through Instacart you might check ordering through Aldi to compare prices.

Yes. When you go to Aldi's website it shows instacart as the method for delivery.