online grocery shopping, anyone use it, what do you think?

[canadian gardener]

I was fascinated by a flylady letter this morning that talks about using a new service in her area, where she submits her grocery list, and marks when to pick up, and she avoids the whole mess of time in the store shopping for herself.

At first I thought, how spendy of her. (when will I quit being so darn critical of other people's choices when it doesn't fit my idea of frugal?)

Then as I read the letter over, a lot of it made sense.

here is a gal who is going out to restaraunts and take out joints, and gaining weight and losing health and money.

She goes onto menu mailer (I've explained that one before, if you wonder what it is, google it, menu mailer has freebies on her site)

picks up a good nutritious menu, emails the store with her list, picks it up and cooks it thru the week. No toddler on the shopping trip-- (her child is 3, and I know lot's of ladies cope with more-- my sister has 6 and she took them shopping with her too, which was exhausting)

and now she is saving money, time and her health.

Interesting use of choice there.

Instead of all or nothing thinking, this gal is using the 80 20 rule, where she is maxing out the benefits she can cope with now and reducing the strain on her limited energy and budget.

(I'm not saying she couldn't save more if she did the shopping herself using sale flyers, coupons etc but for her right now, that isn't going to happen)

She made a conscious choice, that a lot of us might pass up, but it illustrated a good use of thinking your way thru frugality.

Sometimes in the quest for the ultimate in savings, we burn out and go back to our spendy ways.

If she had to shop AND cook AND find the bargains she probably wouldn't be able to change so much all at once. So she spots her problem, take out food and restaurant food

and she uses a clever little solution that takes her up and out of her financial and nutritional mess.

yes it still will cost more than if she did it herself, but she is using her limitations and getting up beyond them by being honest with herself and

NOT SAYING to herself "oh gee I gotta do it perfect right away" which leads to "oh gee it's too hard, I think I won't be bothered".

NEAT.

Now I'm wondering how many places offer this kind of service and what it costs?

Anybody know, anybody have experience with this new form of shopping?

I don't know, maybe it's a wonderful savings (after all it keeps you out of the store, and away from impulse buying)

Strikes me that the people who sell impulse products in the grocery stores won't like this innovation.

[canadian gardener]

here is the letter btw for those who want to read it:
Dear FlyLady,

When this month's habit rolled around it came at a critical time as
I had been eating out way too much, spending way too much money and
adding to my body clutter and not feeding myself or my 3yo DD the
way I wanted to be. I always used the excuse that it was easier
since it's just the two of us to eat out. It's not easy to listen
to "mommy, I'm hungry", "what are we gonna eat", "do we have to..."
You get the point. Then I'd have to get us ready and loaded into the
car, spend the money on gas to get there and then the food that she
would barely eat anyway.

I decided I had to do something and your reminders were just the
push I needed. So off to the Saving Dinner website I went to update
my e-mail. I had subscribed some time ago, but even having that ammo
was not enough without routines in place to get the shopping done
and having a shiny sink to do the prep work. Then, I decided to give
it a whirl and took last week's grocery list and let my fingers do
my grocery shopping ONLINE! There was a free trial of this shopping
service at a local grocer. You type in what you need and select the
time you would like to pick it up. I sat down with my categorized
list from Leanne's menu and sent it off. I knew what I would be
picking up, what I would be preparing with the ingredients on hand,
and I knew what I would be spending before I even left the house. No
impulse shopping, no dragging my 3yo around the store (multiple
times a week).

Knowing what I am going to prepare for dinner is a huge weight off
my shoulders. It has eliminated the nasty drive thru excuse for
dinner. Everytime I put my daughter's meal in front of her and hear
her say "mmm, this looks good" my heart smiles. I have a feeling of
pride that I'm doing something good for us. Last night my little
girl said she loved cauliflower. (I never would have fixed it but it
was a serving suggestion on the low carb menu mailer...steamed it
up, then mashed it with a little cream cheese, butter, salt and
pepper)

I just finished my grocery shopping online again. I feel like I'm
cheating by having someone else do my shopping but I'm keeping
things in perspective...it's all about babystepping right now. I
will eventually graduate to doing this on my own but for right now
this works and is a huge improvement over the alternative. It has
gotten fresh, delicious, healthy meals prepared by me on the table
to be enjoyed. And for that I thank you so much.

flappin' happily to the dinner table in Charlotte

[canadian gardener]

body clutter is fat btw in flylady land.

flylady is also big on baby steps.

[babymav]

I did use the peapod (stop n shop) service once a long time ago. I was very pleased by it. They delivered the groceries to my house (I lived on the 2nd floor then) and the guy even brought all of them upstairs. I think he felt bad for me I was 9 months preggo then. I was even able to use coupons.

[Dedlered]

I actually like the idea of using a service such as this however, it has not been fully implemented in this area yet. Which is unfortunate. In my mind, and to me, it would be a definite advantage both time wise and cost wise. I say cost wise only because of the time it will allow me to spend with my family on the weekends instead of in the grocery store.

[canadian gardener]

It's a convenience, and I suspect it really does save money simply from not going into the store, and sticking to a list. You don't get distracted with impulse buys, you save time and energy which you can then put to other areas of frugality.

I wish I had one I could experiment with here, it's intriguing.

[Michelle]

Originally posted by canadian gardener
It's a convenience, and I suspect it really does save money simply from not going into the store, and sticking to a list. You don't get distracted with impulse buys, you save time and energy which you can then put to other areas of frugality.

I wish I had one I could experiment with here, it's intriguing.

I don't have one in my area, but if we did, I would be checking it out

[Scattymum]

The local supermarket does one, except they only deliver in town and I live outside town so they wont deliver to me . I think they charge a 5 euro fee for doing it. Personally I would love the service, If I were doing a monthly shop It would pay for me to get it delivered by the time I pay for petrol and time saved. It would mean I only buy the things off my list and not be tempted with other things,plus I wouldnt have to deal with 2 kids who pull things off shelfs or jump in and out of the trolley LOL the website also has all the in store specials and you can use your coupons at the * checkout* area. I have a friend in another town and she loves this service , she has neck problems and is always reliant on someone to drive her around and she prefers to shop this way. I would love it if they could extend the area for delivery here!

[forestdale]

Margery we have this feature on most of our city and large town supermarkets. From my calculations it costs around 10 - 15% more to shop online. They sometimes charge a "Service fee" for home delivery. This is my local one:

http://www.homeshop.com.au/category.asp

[Englishlady]

We have had it here too for a number of years, however there were "teething" troubles to begin with............one woman ordered Lemons & got lemon toilet cleaner that kind of thing.

We have used it once or twice, but now Dh does all the grocery shopping ( has done for a few years now bless him )

I might use it if I were single or he were not around as it is brought to the door ( saves the heavy lifting ) .

The charge here used to be about £5-7.00 not sure what it is now though...........If we DO get vile Winter Weather like they predicted is sure beats risking the car skidding/getting bumped, so might well be the lesser of two evils in that circumstance.

[QuilterMom]

It's not available anywhere around here that I'm aware of - at least not anywhere we shop. I don't know that I would use it and it's doubtful they would deliver to where we live anyway.

[pita1213]

one of the grocery chains around here offers this, though it's one of the more expensive stores so i haven't looked into it.

i too used peapod a few years ago when we lived in CT. when we were in fairfield we were in the delivery area so i used it a good bit. i didn't drive at the time, and the best time to shop was when dh was at work. well i had to walk with two kids in a wagon 2 or so miles each way. wouldn't have been bad except it was hilly. two steep hills to go up both ways. i did it for small trips because you had to order a certain $ amount for peapod to deliver and not charge a big fee. half way through using them they changed things a bit, you had to order more for them to charge the $5 fee. if it was less the fee was horrible. it was great though in the winter because the sidewalks didn't get cleared so we couldn't walk to the store. they delivered right to the door and took coupons. the coupons would be applied to the next order though. i had a couple of problems, but they were really good about fixing them. one time they sent the wrong lunch meat. i called and they were really nice about it and credited my account. the second time i ordered store brand neosporin and they sent store brand desitin. it took me a little while to get the girl to understand what happened. at first she tried to tell me that they can substitute items if the store is out of what i ordered. i told her i understood that and that is fine, but what basically happened is i ordered antiboitic cream for cuts and the sent me diaper rash cream. fineally got that through to her, and they sent someone out with a replacement. unfortunatly they came with the store brand desitin again i explained it again to the delivery person, even showed them an old tube of what i wanted, and she understood what happened and said she'd get it fixed, but it might be the next day. no big deal as i wasn't out of the tube i had. well the girl came out later that evening after she got off work to bring me the right item.

if peapod was available here, i'd probably use it again since they take coupons and the sales online usually matched the ones in teh store. it would be a big time saver for me since i work. i wouldn't have to spend a day off going shopping.

[Michelle]

I just found out that Peapod is available in my area. The prices are more expensive than in the store, but there's a $15 credit for 1st time users, and their loss leaders are truly less than what I'd normally spend in the store, so I'm thinking about trying it.

[dolphin]

I just saw on the news Friday that Amazon is getting into the online grocery business. I haven't gone to look at it yet though.

Our local stores did this for a while but I didn't take advantage of it and I don't know if they still do it. I do know that some grocery stores in the next biggest town deliver your groceries. I think it is Albertsons.

Good concept and looks like it fit this lady in the email very well.

[JustJoy]

DH and I used Peapod alot when we were both working F/T. I really liked it. My MIL just had hip replacement surgery and is recooping at home, but can't get out to the grocery store yet so she has been using Peapod weekly. I believe the delivery charge in my area is $9.95 now, but for my MIL it's well worth it.