Guess I am lucky because Amazon has been delivering food to me within 2-3 days. Anything $35 and up is free delivery.
I have had great luck with pick-up at Walmart. I don’t have to get out of my car. They even take EBT cards. The selection isn’t perfect but I’ve had a lot of success with the substitutions. I got a dollar box of chalk to put in my kid’s Easter basket. They were out so they gave us a 15 dollar huge sidewalk chalk kit. I ordered generic cheeses and almost all were replaced with bigger packs of name brands. I’m not charged for the difference either. I used Kroger for delivery and I was happy with that but I paid over 20 dollars for the delivery fee and tip so it’s not something I’ll ever do again. I enjoyed it though. The whole time my shopper was working she’d send pics for any substitution and I could say if I wanted that or change it to something else. I still think I came out ahead better at Walmart though.
I’ve struggled a bit with Instacart lately. Of the last 4 orders, two were so totally botched that no groceries reached me. One was fine (one substitution, that I had OKed). The most recent one had about six items fail to reach my door, but they did somehow reach my bill (Instacart did quickly refund me when I made contact, and that cost the driver a large chunk of the tip I’d intended, since I don’t feel inclined to reward that level of screwup very much). Walmart delivery has been at usual levels of competence, but it’s very hard to get a time. Shipt did nicely on one store that I typically use Instacart for, but they’re pricy (higher prices on the individual items).
This reminds me: I wish we could specify “if X is not there, Y is OK” as part of placing the order.
Peapod has a “allow substitutions” checkbox that covers the whole order. Unfortunately, sometimes they substitute something quite different (hint: a semi-sweet baking bar isn’t quite the same as semi-sweet chips, nor is frozen spinach the same as frozen kale). And other times the substitutions are less obvious but just as acceptable. If I order 90% lean ground beef and all they have is 93% lean (or 85% lean), I might or might not be OK with it. Bone-in-chicken breasts would probably be an acceptable substitute for a whole cut-up chicken. If they don’t have elbow macaroni, bowties might be fine depending on how I plan to use it. If I ask for brand-name Raisin Bran, store brand would be fine at some stores; at others their store brand sucks. Etc. - basically the ability to specify comments re substitutes would save a lot of missed sales (and a lot of texting from Instacart shoppers).
We used Peapod (online grocery delivery service from Stop & Shop) last week for the first time. It’s the only online grocery delivery we have available. [ETA: Actually it looks like Amazon Pantry may be available again now – I’m going to check it out.]
Currently a two week lead time [for Peapod], though you can edit your order up to the night before. We tripled our order in the two weeks before we got it.
However, we only got about 75% of our order. I guess Peapod/Stop & Stop doesn’t keep track of their inventory like other online retailers, because everything we ordered was showing up as available the night before.
I understand that grocery stores are experiencing shortages, but would have preferred to have been told in advance so that I could select alternate items instead of the items in question simply not showing up. We had “allow substitutions” selected in our preferences, but like Mama Zappa mentioned, it was very hit or miss (mostly miss). In most cases, we didn’t get anything in place of the out-of-stock items.
I was amused and could only shake my head when I saw the newest-Hershey kisses cereal
Just spent the last hour ordering what I could from Amazon Pantry. It looks pretty picked over, likely because a lot more people are buying groceries online now. Hopefully they get things back in stock in the near future.
Even though I am a Prime member, delivery is scheduled for May 5th.
I finally got my Peapod delivery I scheduled 2 weeks ago. I kept checking the site and adding items as they went in and out of stock. I ended up with less than half of what I ordered. Of course no paper goods or cleaning supplies and I am almost out of dish soap. I basically got cheese, apples, Diet Coke and kitty litter. I was hoping for bottled water. While I don’t have bread, I did buy matzoh for the holiday and since they didn’t have regular matzoh I had to buy whole wheat.My mother later gifted me a box of regular matzoh because she had 10 boxes (for 2 people!). Anyway, I have discovered that whole wheat matzoh tastes basically the same as regular matzoh, ie like cardboard albeit whole wheat cardboard. Anyway, it looks like I will be living on matzoh and cheese washed down with Diet Coke. I guess if I don’t have toilet paper, I will have to ask Boris if I can share his box. I’ve looked into Target pick up but they have nothing available except junk food.
Addendum: I just realized I still have 6 eggs since I bought 8 to make matzoh ball soup. I guess I will be eating matzoh Brie and cheese omelets too. I also have a tub of tzatziki, which I think may make a good dip for whole wheat cardboard.
My neighbor is going to make a curbside pickup order at Costco and asked if we wanted anything, so I went online to look. 2 day deliveries are taking 7 days. They are out of just about anything I want.
We went in person last week and got most of the stuff on our list, so I think I will keep going to the store.
Wow. They really are backed up with shipments.
We’ve ordered regular stuff from Amazon and have basically given up on the Prime ‘get it in 2 days’ concept; they are giving arrival dates of a week or more out. In fact I’ll usually select “take a while longer, give me a credit for digital services” nowadays. So far, things have usually arrived a bit sooner than the promised date - so perhaps you’ll have your order before the end of the month.
I’m working on a pickup (vs delivery) Peapod order. They’ll flash up a message every time I log in saying “some things may be removed from your cart” and in fact yesterday I logged in and they notified me that two specific items had been removed: a bottle of toilet bowl cleaner, and a bag of unbleached flour. I wonder if that means they expect they’ll have all the other stuff…
I’ve found that specialty food sellers are out of everything online also - see Bob’s Red Mill and North Bay Trading. I’d hoped to get some more hulless barley from BRM, but no luck.
We still depend on ordering online from a grocery chain and making a no-contact pickup at the store down in the county seat, with 7-10 day lead times, though they boosted hiring and have more slots available. MrsRico also placed orders with Walmart, and FedEx somehow managed to find our remote cabin and leave packages on the back steps - a dozen packs of Dinty Moore stew one day, a big bag of rice the next, and now 200 vinyl gloves! Finally! But Wally doesn’t ship liquids and that grocery’s wine is much too expensive. I may need to start home-vinting.
We got an erroneous delivery yesterday, but didn’t realize it until the driver had left. We called Instacart and they told us (after much confusion on their part) that they could not pick up groceries from a home and that the store wouldn’t take them back in any event. So. . .free groceries, I guess. I foisted off the half gallon of chocolate almond-cashew milk on the neighbor, but we can use the rest of it. Problem is, the stuff that we DID order came just now, so the fridge is groaning, as is the freezer.
Yesterday, a box of 36 small boxes of facial tissue arrived. We’re set for paper products for the foreseeable future.
Off to repackage some pork chops and ground meat.
We’ve been pretty happy both times & I expect we’ll keep using it for staples. Of course no TP, paper towel, dry pasta, but everything else. I do mask & glove & venture out for my meat.
Only one store in my rural area offers delivery, and it’s the store that I have a beef against since they engage in bait-and-switch advertising and frequently overcharge me.
So I’ve been doing the Walmart grocery pickup thing about once every two or three weeks. You don’t even need to get out of the vehicle, and they’ve stopped requiring a signature. Snagging a pickup time slot is kind of tricky in the age of COVID. Until a couple of weeks ago, you could get a slot by logging in just after midnight, as noted by another poster above. They’ve since changed their system. Now reservations for the earliest slots (for pickup at 8-9 A.M. several days in the future) open up at 1 A.M., then the next slots (pickup at 9-10 A.M.) open at 2 A.M., and so on until all the slots for that day are open.
It strikes me that the services which are sourced out of a central warehouse must be safer for the workers versus the ones that are sourced out of a store, mainly because at least with the warehouse-based ones, the employees are only exposed to each other as opposed to each other and all the boneheaded retail shoppers.
I’ve got my first curbside pickup tomorrow. It’s a lot cheaper - and in theory I could pop into the store before or after to get anything I’d forgotten - but I’ll avoid doing so. No tip, supposedly, either - though I asked my son (who used to work for that chain) if tips were forbidden and his answer was “uhhhhhhhh, officially forbidden, but as long as the manager doesn’t see…”.
The way it works there is they’ll look at your ID through the car window (which I think means I could also request alcohol, something I can’t get via their delivery service), then they will open the back of the car and load it all in. I guess I could put a ten or twenty in an envelope clearly labelled “GROCERY TIP!!” where he’s going to do the loading.
I realized this weekend that it’s been 5 weeks since I last set foot in a real grocery store: Friday, March 13th at about 10 PM. I do go to the local gardening shop each weekend because they also sell produce, bread, jam etc. and that’s where I go for my CSA box.
Went to the grocery store today. It’s changed since the last time. All employees wearing masks. Limited number of people in the store, a guy outside making sure who also sprays the carts when people leave, X’s on the sidewalk 6 feet apart, arrows in the ailes, you can only go one way down each ailse. And Xs 6 feet apart in the checkout line. I didn’t get within 10 feet of anyone except the cashier.
I finally found a site that lists the number of COVID cases in my city, under 200 in a city of 16, 000. I think I’ll be OK going every couuple of weeks.
Also see that 7-11 is now offering free delivery until 4/30, not sure if that is state- or nationwide. Came in handy since today I forgot to buy ice cream, Advil and paper towels at the grocery store
I got Maxi pads instead of Advil. Called DoorDash since they delivered although they it didn’t say that on the web page, but they couldn’t help me because the account is at 7-11. On hold on the phone now.
The last time I was in any store was on March 24th. Have only done online grocery delivery since then. No takeout either. We are supplementing with a few meals delivered from Freshly each week. Oh, and I did buy some eggs from a local farmer: they left the eggs on their front porch, and I left an envelope with payment.
The last time I was within 25 feet of a non-family member was March 31st. It’s been even longer for my wife (March 11th) and son (March 20th).
My wife actually hasn’t left the house since March 11th.
As I mentioned to my wife and son, this is all much easier than being on a submarine for a 6-month deployment. And actually, we are very lucky to have the luxury of being able to work at home and get deliveries in the first place.
I snagged a Walmart delivery slot this week. Let’s see how they do. Unfortunately it is in the middle of the work day so I can’t order any perishables.
Here in the Bay Area I’ve tried a variety of things. Instacart has worked well. I haven’t had to wait more than a day for delivery. They also allow changes and I can text back and forth with the shopper. I tip really well, and I’ve gotten good service.
Raley’s/Kroger’s own delivery service has worked well. They are booking about 5 days out. They seem to have more things, and are being more creative with how they re-stock. For example, when I order a pound of butter, instead of delivering 4 cubes, they send a 1 lb block. This is fine with me. I get butter and I can cut it up all by myself.
Safeway has apparently melted down completely. They seem to have almost nothing.