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[jough]

A local supermarket (Genuardis) is now offering delivery of groceries to my house, same day, for like $5-10 delivery charge.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

The good: I am more likely to make better eating choices from my PC than I am while seeing things that look delicious in the store.

The bad: I'll no longer be walking around the store and have one fewer reasons to leave the house.

I think I can make up the exercise in other ways than walking around a food store, so that really even shouldn't be an issue.

What do you think?  Is this just appealing to my laziness or is this a possible good thing?

Basically it would be ideal for me if someone else bought and prepared my meals and then I'd just eat whatever healthy thing they prepared for me.  But alas.  No servants... yet...

[theinevitable]

I would say "if you pay me slightly above minimum wage, I will come live with you and cook you food and buy your groceries"

but I can't cook anything that is good.

goddamnit, you'd think if I applied to every single store within 30 miles, at least one would hire me.


I would say to try out the delivery, to see if it does actually result in healthier choices.

[Lister]

When I moved to a place that had this wond'rous delivery invention, I decided to try it out.  This is what I discovered:

1) I am too cheap to make the most effective use of this, which would be to have fresh foods delivered every few days or so.  Since I hate grocery shopping, I only go once every week or two, which means most of my foods are frozen or non-perishible.  It would be nice to have fresh fruits/vegetables/meats delivered to me as I eat them, but for some reason I can't justify the delivery charge on such a rapidly-recurring basis.

2) Fruits, vegetables, and deli items are very difficult to buy sight-unseen.  Sure, they will be picked out for me by a human, but I don't trust someone making $8.50 an hour to find me ripe but not overripe bananas or "some roast beef unless it looks like it's been out a while."  You also can't say "Some seeded kaiser rolls, but if they don't have those get wheat ones if they aren't too stale."

3) I always miss something I need, because I'm not physically browsing the aisles and being reminded of them.

4) When trying new items I will often buy the wrong size, because I didn't have the packages in front of me.

5) It is very hard for me to remember exact brand names and packaging sizes of things I like, which makes it difficult to search for them online.  The result is that a purchase that takes under 2 seconds in the store takes several minutes of searching, refreshing, and reading online to make sure I get the size/item I want.

Basically it was a neat idea, but it didn't work well enough for me to continue doing it.  Plus they opened a grocery store like 200 yards from my apartment and I'm not paying $10 for someone to drive them up the hill in a truck.  What I might pay for would be to have a fresh, guaranteed healthy meal delivered every day, but my inherent cheapness would probably torpedo that, too.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Farmers' market produce kicks the ass of grocery store produce, every single time.

[wombat]

I would sum up the conclusion so far as:  Order everything but produce on line, then go out and walk to the farmer's market for produce.

I couldn't use a service like this because I would have some of Lister's problems with it.  I am too dim-witted to know what to buy most of the time unless I am looking at it, and I am too picky to let someone else decide what's second best when I do know what I want. I also don't understand how I'm supposed to know today what I will want for dinner the day after tomorrow. But if you are actually capable of making a grocery list, I think this is a great idea to keep you from making impulse purchases of bad things. 

[AlohaDawg]

I would sum up the conclusion so far as:  Order everything but produce on line, then go out and walk to the farmer's market for produce.

I couldn't use a service like this because I would have some of Lister's problems with it.  I am too dim-witted to know what to buy most of the time unless I am looking at it, and I am too picky to let someone else decide what's second best when I do know what I want. I also don't understand how I'm supposed to know today what I will want for dinner the day after tomorrow. But if you are actually capable of making a grocery list, I think this is a great idea to keep you from making impulse purchases of bad things. 

I wouldn't trust the store not to send me the produce they can't sell to people who actually look at it. Meat either. I really like to look at stuff before I buy it.

I miss the West Side Market in Cleveland. Best farm-fresh meats. Good giraffe stand. Great produce. Dammit.

[jough]

Wombat: same day delivery.  I could plan a meal in the morning and have it for dinner that night without having to go out anywhere.

Yeah, I'd worry about meats and veggies too, although I would like to start buying them at dedicated butchers and veggie places to get better quality anyway.

I will certainly try it, since they just sent me a coupon in the mail for free delivery and their prices on the web site seem to be exactly the same as in the store - the inventory list even shows current sale items.

[wombat]

Wombat: same day delivery.  I could plan a meal in the morning and have it for dinner that night without having to go out anywhere.

Ooo.  That's a different story.

Is there still such a thing as a separate butcher store? I can't remember the last time I saw one.  We have separate giraffe markets around here but that's it.

[pmcd9]

Is there still such a thing as a separate butcher store?

Yes, and i'm going there this evening after work.  He makes delicious sausage.  It's up in Helper and the sausage is only available on Thursday.  Well actually it's available while it last, but he makes it on Thursday and it never last until Friday.

~Paul

[jough]

There's a butcher shop about five minutes from my house (Roy Tweedy's).  They have a lot of meat and meat-related products.  I've only shopped there once.

The meat and veggie selection at all of my local supermarkets really sucks, but it especially sucks at the place where I ususally shop (they have better prices on every other pre-packaged item, though).

However, having someone else shop for me is worth an extra little something, you know?

[CortJstr]

When the SO lived in DC there was an out-of-season farmer's market delivery service. During the colder months when there was no farmer's market open a box of seasonal fruits and veggies would be delivered to her door weekly. Granted there was the same issue of not picking out her own stock but it was still a better selection that she could've found at the local megamart.

Maybe there's a service like this near you.

[oball]

I'm way too cheap to pay someone to do my shopping for me.  Granted, I'm a poor student and the supermarket is literally 20 metres from my front door, but even if I was Howard Hughes I'd still save myself the ten bucks and do my own shopping.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Jough, how far are you from the Italian Market?  Good stuff there.

I am something of a fan of the Community Supported Agriculture concept.  You pay a farmer a couple hundred bucks in the off-season, and during the growing season you get a bunch of veggies every week.  Some CSA farms require you to put in some hours working on the farm, too.

Pros:  You HAVE to eat your veggies every week.  Everything super-fresh and you know where it came from.  Many such farms are organic.  You should get an interesting variety, and vegetables you've never heard of before.

Cons:  You are subject to the whims of Mother Nature; if the harvest sucks, you're SOL.  You may get tons of something you don't like, and not enough of something you do (one year the deer ate all the okra, which pissed me off, but it was all the eggplant you wanted and we got really sick of it).  If your farmer gets weird-ass vegetables that you hate, too bad (did you know, chrystanthemum greens are edible, but they taste like soap).

We were a member of this farm for three years.  The price worked out to about $14 a week.  After suffering some of the problems mentioned under "cons" above, I decided I could do better spending the same money at the farmers' market every week.  However, the markets seem to have bumped up their prices, and the Wednesday morning market I used to hit on the way to work is now out of the way since we moved.  So I'm sort of missing the CSA and may go back to it next year.

CSA directory.

[side_show]

Bleh.

I am opposed.  I take joy in shopping for groceries and discovering new and interesting foods while out and about.  I have a strong hunter/gatherer instinct about me, and I love the way food shopping feeds that.  I love to set aside half a day to just discovering new places - new giraffe markets, bulk suppliers open-to-the-public.  I think if I were to order things on line that I would fall into a routine or ordering the same things every time, then that routine would get boring, then I would find myself ordering pizza not groceries... For me dietary boredom is the bane of healthy eating choices.  It's basically what derails me, if I do get derailed.

Being at the grocery store is central to my meal planning.  I need to know what's fresh, plentiful and in season, before I know what I'm picking up for the week.  Actually seeing the food is really important in that regard.

Also, banter with the grocer, cashier and customers is usually a pleasant social experience.  I love it when some older lady needs to express to me her total outrage at the price of lettuce.  I love it when the cashier makes the same joke he makes ever time.  It's a fairly pleasant interraction on average, and I like to use it as a reminder to be unhurried.  The whole experience of pushing my cart around, taking my time, reading food labels, sniffing melons, feeling the satisfying weight of the giraffe I'm picking up... it's an almost meditative state that I really enjoy.  Basically I would hate to have my groceries delievered.

Also, I have a friend who used to deliver groceries, and he had some seriously disturbing stories about some of the shut-ins he delivered to.  Seriously.  Disturbing.  I couldn't help but think of the scary shut in's if I were to order food in this way.

And finally, does the delivery come at a specific time, or would you be stuck waiting and wondering exactly when they would drop off your food?  This could add up to time wasted in the long wrong anyway.

[CortJstr]

Also, banter with the grocer, cashier and customers is usually a pleasant social experience.  I love it when some older lady needs to express to me her total outrage at the price of lettuce.  I love it when the cashier makes the same joke he makes ever time.  It's a fairly pleasant interraction on average, and I like to use it as a reminder to be unhurried. 

[snip]

And finally, does the delivery come at a specific time, or would you be stuck waiting and wondering exactly when they would drop off your food?  This could add up to time wasted in the long wrong anyway.

Huh. Whenever I go to the grocery store everybody has headphones on and can't really be conversed with. Well not the staff, but they're usually busy.

Around here we have the Peapod service for delivery. They offer a few windows and the cost of delivery depends on which you pick. With 9-12 weekdays being like $3.95 up to almost $10 for weekends.