Online Food Shopping - Do/don't you?

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Some food items I buy online because no store in my area stocks these items anymore. :neutral:

Sharwood's Major Grey Mango Chutney. Not seen any in stores for decades.

Campbell's Beef Noodle Soup. No major supermarket stocks this soup anymore.

Maxwell House Decaf Coffee 2-4 cup filter pouches. I've seen regular, but not decaf.

Pappy's Old Fashioned Seasoning. Use to be able to buy locally, not anymore.

LA Vie Pastillines candy tins. Small round fruit flavored hard candy drops.
 

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Bolas - only some supermarkets offer free delivery - most of the bigger ones, Tesco, Ocado, Sainsbugs all have a delivery charge no matter how much you spend. Iceland I believe is free over a certain amount but erm who wants to shop at Iceland?

Really interesting to hear other peoples shopping habits. I can totally understand wanting to look, sniff and feel your fresh produce. I like a sniff and a feel myself.

However, for the bulk of your shop, the boring stuff, its just ideal to save you hauling groceries around, all delivered to your door, fab.

I don't really want to sniff my toilet rolls - well not before use anyway.

Erm or after use she hastily adds....
 
I would use a delivery service for my bulk and canned items, no problem. As long as I can pick the brands I want, I see no reason not to. However, the store I shop is two blocks away from work, on my way home and I love the employees. I have several favorite cashiers and would hate to miss our chats.
 
We haven't used what is available to us for delivery (PeaPod) mostly out of habit I suspect.

We never know what we are going to have more than a few days in advance (and that can be pushing it) so we just are in the habit of a quick run up the street to pick up stuff.

I also get picky with canned items. I don't like dented and banged up cans. Yeah, I know they are fine as long as they haven't been breached, but I don't like them. Sometimes they don't stack well.

Produce I couldn't have delivered unless I had "a guy" that I trusted. Meats and seafood would be the same way.

Paper products, I could almost go for that, but.... sometimes I have had to dig though the stuff at the store to find paper plates that don't have holes in the packaging, or paper towels that aren't crushed to start with.

Ok.. I admit it.. I am way too picky.

And don't get me started on how the cashiers pack your stuff into bags when you go through those lines. I used to be against the self checkout lines, as they reduce jobs. But... those people try to fit $400 worth of stuff in one stinkin little bag at times. Drives me crazy to spend time picking out buns that aren't flattened only to have them toss in the cans of tomatoes in the same bag.. GAH!

I might have to look into the delivery again. ;)
 
You're not being way to picky. I can say that with confidence as I do the same things (so they must be the exactly right things to do).

Actually, SO and I often go shopping together a part of a Saturday morning list of things to do. She brings reusable grocery bags and micromanages the bagger to ensure he puts the right thing in the right bags in the right order. I pretend I don't know her.

This kind of attention to detail is necessary. Once when she told the bagger to put the perishable items in the insulated bag, he asked her what perishables were!
 
Andy and Frank, I'm picky about that stuff too.

Andy you made me think. When DH and I go to the store, I usually watch the cashier ring up the items and he bags or bugs the bagger (we have a number of stores where you do your own bagging. Yay!

But, with the scanners reading the codes, so the cashier isn't punching in numbers, I haven't had a mistake made in ringing up stuff in quite a while. It isn't important to keep an eye on that any more. I should probably be at the bagging end.
 
...But, with the scanners reading the codes, so the cashier isn't punching in numbers, I haven't had a mistake made in ringing up stuff in quite a while...

The scanning makes it a lot easier and more accurate. Sometimes I catch a pricing difference on an item marked as being on sale but no one told the computer.

The real issue becomes the produce that doesn't have bar codes. I often have to tell the cashier what an item is so she can ring it in properly. "That's lemon grass NOT scallions."
 
The scanning makes it a lot easier and more accurate. Sometimes I catch a pricing difference on an item marked as being on sale but no one told the computer.

The real issue becomes the produce that doesn't have bar codes. I often have to tell the cashier what an item is so she can ring it in properly. "That's lemon grass NOT scallions."

Our produce has a sticker and if the scanner can't read it, the cashier keys in the code. You can even tell from the code if it is organic.
 
I arrange things on the conveyor so that they will get packed the way I like them - cans go together, meats and cold foods, dry goods away from the cold foods, eggs and bread last.

It makes it easier for the clerk to bag them right.
 
I arrange things on the conveyor so that they will get packed the way I like them - cans go together, meats and cold foods, dry goods away from the cold foods, eggs and bread last.

It makes it easier for the clerk to bag them right.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am not the only one!!!!!:ROFLMAO:
 
I arrange things on the conveyor so that they will get packed the way I like them - cans go together, meats and cold foods, dry goods away from the cold foods, eggs and bread last.

It makes it easier for the clerk to bag them right.


It helps but doesn't always solve the issue. Especially when it seems they want to figure out where to stuff the bread instead of just using a separate bag for it..

It also amazes me when I tell them not to double bag on the first bag, and then they just keep trying, out of habit.
 
The scanning makes it a lot easier and more accurate. Sometimes I catch a pricing difference on an item marked as being on sale but no one told the computer.

The real issue becomes the produce that doesn't have bar codes. I often have to tell the cashier what an item is so she can ring it in properly. "That's lemon grass NOT scallions."



i allow cashier mistakes if they are in my favor--yeah, right they're scallions, sure, why not if you say so.... :)
 
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But that only helps so much. Some of the baggers are very talented in screwing it up anyways.

Plastic or paper? Paper please. Then how come I don't have one paper bag but I do have a gazillion plastic ones? Pack for the elderly please. Yeah. Put all the heavy stuff in one bag. Gallon of milk and large cans of tomatoes go together. Would you believe that they are actually taught how to pack properly? A waste fo time. Make sure you put the two dozen eggs in the bottom and all the can goods on top of them. And over pack the bags please so everything falls out in the car or better yet, the parking lot when you are taking them out of the carriage. I love to crawl under a car to rerieve my groceries. :rolleyes:
 
Plastic or paper? Paper please. Then how come I don't have one paper bag but I do have a gazillion plastic ones? Pack for the elderly please. Yeah. Put all the heavy stuff in one bag. Gallon of milk and large cans of tomatoes go together. Would you believe that they are actually taught how to pack properly? A waste fo time. Make sure you put the two dozen eggs in the bottom and all the can goods on top of them. And over pack the bags please so everything falls out in the car or better yet, the parking lot when you are taking them out of the carriage. I love to crawl under a car to rerieve my groceries. :rolleyes:
My mom and I had the opposite problem when we used to take the bus to do our grocery shopping. They would want to pack everything in a gazillion plastic bags, and we would have to repack it all into two large double bags (one for each of us). They would say they were trying to make it easier for us because it was too heavy to carry, and we had to explain that having that many plastic bags cutting into your hands as you tried to walk to and enter the bus did not make the load lighter and was NOT helpful!

As far as shopping online, we live in a small town and online shopping through our local stores is just not available. My daughter lives in California, and when she was doing daycare (in addition to having her own small children) she would often order online and then pick her groceries up.

If the service were available here, I might use it for dry and canned goods. Possibly frozen as well. But I would not trust others to choose my meats and vegetables. :cool:
 
Andy you made me think. When DH and I go to the store, I usually watch the cashier ring up the items and he bags or bugs the bagger (we have a number of stores where you do your own bagging. Yay!

But, with the scanners reading the codes, so the cashier isn't punching in numbers, I haven't had a mistake made in ringing up stuff in quite a while. It isn't important to keep an eye on that any more. I should probably be at the bagging end.
Don't be so hasty in assuming that everything is okay if the cashier scans in your items. Here in California several years ago there was a big scandal about supermarkets not having their scanning system and prices posted in shelves in agreement. The shelf would be one price but the scanner would charge you a higher price! Sucker punch! They get lazy and you pay more than you accepted when you saw the price on the shelf. (Nevermind the old days when each item had a price tag...)

So many supermarkets adopted the policy that "if we charge you more than the posted price you will get the first item for fee." If you bought more than one you'd receive the remaining items at posted price. And when you caught them they'd always send somebody scurrying off to check the price, and if the shelf was lower they'd just remove the shelf price (presumably to fix things later).

This may be spooky-weird to you but in my occupation related to computer programming I have a strange ability to remember numbers. I could go shopping for perhaps 2 dozen items and then memorize the prices "on the fly" for all the items! This was one of my favorite shopping games, something I always relished when shopping, getting items for free!

I don't even know how I do it. I grab the item, I look at the price, I fixate... Then at the checkout stand I watch the register ring up, look at the prices, and for some bizarre reason I know when the price is wrong! From my experience I recall I'd get about 90% of the items I complained about for free! (This could happen every 2, 3 or 4 shopping trips.)

They must have gotten their act together because in the last 2-3 years I can't recall getting anything for free, or even asking for a price check. I think their self-imposed store policy ("free if we overcharge you") must have gotten them to finally be motivated enough to have the shelf prices agree with the scanner prices.

It was fun while it lasted! :)
 
Okay, it's not that I would completely trust that everything gets scanned/rung up correctly. I just don't think it is as important to watch the prices while the cashier is working. I can always check the receipt before I leave the store. I often have to do it that way now. Sometimes I shop alone and then I'm watching prices and the bagger at the same time. "Don't put the cans on top of the bananas, please!" "No, use the bags I brought."
 
In Massachusetts stores are supposed to display on the shelf the unit price, the price of the item and on the product the price also. The store where I shop, they are pretty good about sticking to the law. They even do it for the produce where possible. Most of the stores fail to stamp the item itself.

I have to admit that it is becoming more and more impossible to find fault with this store. My major complaint is when the cashier and bagger are chatting away in Spanish. Please give me, the customer, your undivided attention. And speak English please. You have not been employed for the purpose of socializing with your friends. :rolleyes:
 
I usually put my "squashable" items last on the belt, so I can supervise how they're packed, and even if not they end up on top. Bread, English muffins, other bakery items... Putting the bananas last on the belt is a good strategy.

Does anybody but me sequence their items on the belt with any strategy in mind?
 
I usually put my "squashable" items last on the belt, so I can supervise how they're packed, and even if not they end up on top. Bread, English muffins, other bakery items... Putting the bananas last on the belt is a good strategy.

Does anybody but me sequence their items on the belt with any strategy in mind?

I think a lot of us do.

BTW, someone already asked that, in this thread.

It often doesn't help.
 
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