I have just placed my first curbside grocery shopping order. You will not be surprised to hear that I was a big mess about it, and have already edited it twice, and will certainly edit it at least once more before my pick-up time near the end of this week (the earliest I could get; I will not panic about that or about what it might indicate). And I feel like I’m forgetting so many things: there are a lot of things I remember to buy only by Walking Past Them. The nearest grocery store (other than W@lmart) that does curbside is about half an hour away, so I am worried about my frozen things; I do have an insulated bag, but…well, I will bring it with me, and then I suppose I will pull into another part of the parking lot and see if I can find the frozen things? I don’t know at all how this is going to work. I feel so uncomfortable with new ways of doing things. BUT: that is why I am doing this NOW. Because I think pretty soon this is going to be the only way I feel safe grocery shopping, so best to get used to it earlier rather than later.
One of my biggest frets is the whole issue of SUBSTITUTION. The grocery store I’m using has a thing where you can check a little box if you’re okay with a substitution or not, but, I mean, IT DEPENDS. And the thing is, my guess is that employees vary WIDELY as to whether they are GOOD AT substitution or not. And my guess is that “good at” is PARTLY a subjective thing (because it can be just a matter of whether their idea of a substitution is aligned with mine, which is not anyone’s fault if it isn’t), but partly it’s a real actual objective thing (because it can be a matter of food/cooking knowledge, and of CARING about trying to make a reasonable substitution rather than choosing whatever from the same shelf area). Happily for me, there is also a little field for comments! (Please spare a moment to pity my poor shopper.) And that little field is nice for things like “okay to substitute flavor but not brand.” But it does not serve for lengthier and more complicated frets, or for situations where if I couldn’t find a certain ingredient I would have to re-think a meal. OR FOR THINGS LIKE CLAIMING TO BE ENTIRELY SOLD OUT OF GROUND BEEF OF ANY KIND. Well! Well. This will be a good mental exercise in Letting Go! And gradually I will learn which substitutions need to be clarified.
I hesitate to even ask this question, because tipping can be such an unexpectedly heated topic, but ARE we tipping for curbside grocery pick-up? My GUESS would be no, because the store employees are being paid a certain amount whether they’re at the register or whether they’re stocking shelves or whether they’re doing curbside, and because they would be in the store EITHER WAY, and customers staying outside makes employees safer too. (My GUESS would be that we DO tip if we are going through one of those services where a person who would NOT otherwise be inside the store has gone inside the store on our behalf, and that we also tip for grocery DELIVERY, because we tip for delivery anyway.) I had hoped this would be in the FAQ on the grocery site, but it was not.
I am soothing myself for this whole new thing by telling myself this is just an experiment, just a way to try out this system. But I also feel like I did on March 13th, re-shelving books at the library and thinking, a little hysterically, “I don’t think I’m coming back to work after today!! I don’t think we’re sending the kids back to school!!” I’m feeling, perhaps a little hysterically but time will tell, like I might not be doing a regular in-store grocery store trip for awhile.
I’ve been doing curb-side pickups since before the pandemic and for the first time ever I saw a guy get out and tip the worker. But I don’t think that is common and the guy had to get out of the car to do so which made the worker a bit uncomfortable. I’m not sure if the worker accepted or declined the tip (many stores have rules about whether or not they can accept tips and I thought my grocery was a no-tip store.)
I’ve been curbside shopping for months—here’s my experience (yours might be different, because different stores, different parts of the country, etc). First, I always tip, and quite generously. I just put the cash in the back of the van and tell the nice person who is loading the groceries that it’s there. They’re usually college-aged, and I figure right now, anyone who works in a grocery store can use extra cash, and deserves it for working in a grocery store. And right now, I can afford it, so I do it. Second, at my store, frozen stuff is packed separately in a paper bag (my biggest issue with curbside shopping is the number of plastic bags. They often put 1 item per bag, which makes me crazy. But, I’ll do what I can to recycle those as I can), so it’s easy to find and pop into a freezer bag. Finally, the substitution thing. My store has an option where I can receive texts to approve or reject substitutions. It’s about 50/50 whether they follow my choice, but at least it’s an option.
There are things I don’t love about the process, but there we are. Hope your experience is easy and goes well!
All of this is how things have been working for my curbside pickup too. And I do the same thing with a tip–envelope in the trunk, and I let them know when they come to my window to check my name.
I’ve been tipping the crap out of everyone remotely tippable. I would put an envelope in the trunk with $10 (or whatever), with a label of “TIP FOR CURBISDE DELIVERY” on it. Let them decide to take it or not.
I love this idea and it never occurred to me to handle it that way.
I’ve been getting my groceries curbside since March. I don’t know how your store does it, but here’s how mine (Fred Meyer/Kroger) handles substitutions: a couple hours before my pickup time, I get a text letting me know something is unavailable in my order. I follow the link in the text, and it shows me my unavailable item, and what they’ve chosen as a substitute. I can choose whether to accept the sub or say no thanks. Sometimes their choices are good, sometimes they’re way off, but I appreciate knowing what’s happening before I pick up my stuff.
I’ve never tipped. I tip on instacart if it’s a delivery, but I rarely do delivery anymore. I do curbside a lot.
If you do instacart (which I do not recommend because the markup is unclear, and pretty hefty in some instances, which I only know bc I know the prices of things), you can text with the shopper while they’re looking, which I love. I’ve done W@lmrt curbside too, and there you can’t text. A lot of times if they can’t find the exact thing, you just don’t get it. That’s not my favorite (nor is shopping at W@lMrt, but there the prices are the same as in-store so there’s no guessing). However, if I do curbside and I still need to swing into the grocery for like three things, that’s better than doing the whole shop inside. I always manage to cobble it together.
I’ve never had a substitution I didn’t want. I have often had something just not substituted or available.
I was about to leave the same comment as Mariah regarding approving and rejecting substitutions. My store texts me an hour or two before pickup to approve substitutions. You can also do this in the parking lot, but that requires a lot more interaction.
I have been using pick up consistently for at least 2 years and I don’t tip for the same reasons you mentioned. I do try to give feedback using the All Done! email the store sends me and I think if I mention the employee by name it goes toward a bonus for them of some kind.
I have observed an employee turn down a tip in the meijer parking lot saying they can’t accept it. I totally agree that deliveries should add a tip and also if you use a different company like Shipt or something.
I love that the website/app saves my typical choices so it’s very easy to add my exact milk, bread, yogurt flavor, coffee creamer etc to my cart without searching extensively. You’ll get better at comments and substitutions over time.
Good for you for trying something new and planning ahead!
When I use Instacart for Aldi curbside pickup, I tip. When I do curbside at Kroger, I do not, as I have been told employees cannot accept tips. In those cases I DO make sure to always get their names and fill out the satisfaction survey for the curbside pickup and I give them top ratings on absolutely everything. Even when they tried substituting my beef roast with chicken breasts- TOP SCORES FOR ALL. I also always make a comment that they should all be receiving hazard pay because they definitely DO NOT make enough money, and they are truly saving lives by keeping folks out of the store.
Excellent idea – I always take the survey so I can make a shout out to my person, but I never thought about adding the commentary on hazard pay. I shall now incorporate this.
Interesting—I shop at Kroger, too, and have yet to have someone say they can’t accept a tip. Maybe it depends on the store.
My Kroger has in the FAQ that the curbside people are not allowed to accept tips. I wondered if that’s because the person bringing it out is not the person picking out your groceries.
I love curbside pick-up, and use it for grocery staples. Our local Fry’s is good at doing the basics, but once you get into more “exotic” items like frozen puff pastry dough they go off the rails. Yes, frozen puff pastry dough is an issue for my shoppers for some reason. It’s easy to find in the store, but they constantly tell me it’s out of stock- only for me to go into the store and find the freezer spot where it’s supposed to be, fully stocked. My Fry’s won’t do deli meats or cheeses, or rotisserie chickens as part of curbside. I don’t get it, but whatever. If I go to the less convenient Fry’s, a few miles west, they don’t have issues with deli meats or rotisseries as part of curbside, so it’s an equal trade off IMO. Substitutions are texted to me ahead of time- and yes, substituting 3 packs of 12 eggs is OK instead of the 2 packs of 18 eggs. Land-O-Lakes butter instead of store brand, that’s OK too. But Pepsi instead of Coke? NOPE.
I’ve been a curbside shopper for ages, and the substitutions are usually fine. What bugs me is when I order something and they cancel it, saying they don’t have it in the store. During March and April, I was not surprised when they didn’t have flour or tp, but sometimes they will cancel things that I KNOW they have multiple brands of, but maybe the shopper didn’t see my brand. I hadn’t thought of leaving comments saying I am okay with this brand or that, but maybe I will try it.
So I *just* got into some curbside pickup orders in the past 2 months and I can tell you what has been my experience. My favorite local store that offers this charges a $5 fee on any size curbside order, and their groceries are more expensive than Kroger or Walmart, BUT has been the best experience by FAAAAAARRR. Their produce is always great and is why I can justify the higher cost – I don’t have the frets I would about how I pick over bananas or peppers if I was shopping in person in Kroger. This store will call or text (you choose) while they do the shopping to ask any clarification. I type LOTS of notes in many items and have just dealt with the knowledge they may think I am neurotic. (I would like 3 green bananas and 4 yellow to yellow-green bananas, but if you only have green bananas I would like 5 green and if you only have very yellow or spotty I would only like 3, etc. I am ridiculous and I have accepted this.) To be fair they also have stupid quantity selections for some items. Like sausage. I don’t know how much to the quarter pound of link sausage I want from the meat counter, I want a set number of sausages. I also explain my substitutions in excruciating detail. Such as if they do not have hot italians, please substitute regular italians or specific brand from prepackaged, but do not substitute chicken sausage. I try to frame it in my mind if I was doing the shopping for a neighbor I did not know well, what would I want to know. I also have the option to save all my items in my list and the comments will carry over. This is tedious to have to review the comments in case a different substitution would be fine at a different time or if my quantities change, etc, but it is far less tedious than having to type everything out each time.
I have to say I my favorite part of doing groceries this way and has allowed me to justify the $5 fee is to not having to stand at the deli counter. My lunchmeat and Jesse’s pasta salad stuff just magically appears in a bag. Also I like not having to load items into the cart, then onto the belt, then into my car, etc all before getting home and having to carry in the house and put away. That repetitive moving of each item is the worst part of shopping for me. The groceries have always been divided with produce, dairy, frozen in separate bags so it is really easy to pull out the frozen. (This store is about a 30 minute drive for me). There has never been a spot to tip on the order. When I get there I park in a designated spot and call and they ask me what kind of car I am in. They load into the trunk of my sedan and I do not interact with them at all. I thought it was really awkward at first, but I appreciate the true no contact system and it would be extra awkward to shout out flag them down to TRY to tip in cash (and I have a feeling they are not supposed to accept tips.)
I’ve done curbside at Walmart and Target and I think they have both been pretty good experiences so far. Sometimes the substitutions I’ve gotten from Walmart don’t work, but I go with them anyway because I like to try new things. I have had them substitute milk that is the complete OPPOSITE of what I asked for. That happened twice and after that I started selecting things that I didn’t want substituted because in those cases, the surprise wasn’t great. If I don’t get something that is important to a recipe, I will follow up with a Shipt delivery at home because they can deliver same-day and often have what Walmart didn’t. My one complaint about Walmart curbside in my area is that it can often be a day or two before I can get a pickup time. I haven’t had that same problem with Target.
I like getting stuff curbside first because then when/if I have to get a Shipt delivery I don’t have to tip as much—a 20% tip on $200 worth of groceries is a big deal! But I can do a good sized tip on a smaller order with no trouble.
I have done pickup a few times, and did not tip as the worker just loaded the stuff into my car, no contact. Also, the grocery workers where I live are union, and paid a good wage, to my knowledge, plus I’m not sure if the union allows them to accept tips or not. In any case, my thought is the same as yours: they are paid to be there and that’s their assigned duty. I might consider if it the day was very wet and/or very cold, I guess.
But also… do you normally put frozen things in a freezer bag on a regular grocery trip? I only do this at Aldi when I’m bagging myself. If I go to the regular grocery, I just take things home in the bags from the store. Am I missing out? My store is only maybe 10 mins away so it never occurred to me to rebag things.
I normally shop at a store 5 minutes away, so I don’t worry about frozen stuff; this store is 30 minutes away, so I’m worried.
Ah, I see you mentioned that. I think they store things slated for pickup in a freezer/refrig, so I would think that frozen things would be bagged/grouped together? Surely they don’t put non-cold items into the cold storage while waiting for you to pick it up.
In other fretful news, my child’s school just called for all virtual beginning TOMORROW so I will be placing another grocery order in addition to the one I placed today! I only got basics because I thought they would be at school!
I live in the country, and the nearest grocery is 40 min away. I have never had a problem with frozen foods. Just make sure you put them away prior to your regular groceries .
I also live more than 30 mins from my grocery store and usually just keep frozen stuff in reg grocery bags for trip home and it’s fine.
If there is a way for us to tip online when we pay, then I take that to mean they are allowed to accept tips and we do. Our grocery store does not have a tip option for curbside but they do for delivery, for example.
This is about delivery: My shopper used to text me about substitutions but I got tired of the frequent texts when I was working, so now I use the “choose for me” option. I’ve received a few “creative” substitutions, but they’ve mostly been fine, I’ve found a few new items to enjoy too. I just work with what shows up. I’m grateful not to have to go into the store. For curbside: same deal, the substitutions have been acceptable. Once they forgot an important item (large bag of dog food) and I noticed before I left so they ran in to get it. When all of this is “over” I will
Continue to use these services. I LOVE not having to go grocery shopping. It feels like a treat.
Let us know how it goes! I was an occasional curbside pickup-er before the pandemic and a dedicated one since March. I don’t tip because I am pretty sure it isn’t allowed at my store. I have been really happy with the substitutions. It was hard to give up control, but the approval process works pretty well, and usually they substitute good things. At my store, they can charge you less but won’t charge you more for a substitution, so sometimes I get better/more stuff for less money (a bigger package of something or name brand instead of store brand, etc). I have even gotten one or two substitutions that introduced me to a new thing I liked but wouldn’t have tried otherwise (looking at you, weird Southern-style pinto beans).
My store packs the frozen stuff separately in a weird bag because they store the fridge/freezer/shelf stuff in separate containers in the appropriate temperatures after they finish shopping and before your pickup window. So it will probably be easy to find the cold stuff and re-pack it, although I assume all the cold things can keep each other cold for the time it takes me to drive home. The USDA says you have two hours to get your food home, which seems… overly generous? But it makes me think a half hour is completely fine: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-delivery
I have decided I probably won’t go back to doing my own grocery shopping again because it saves so much time to just pick it up. I have also found that the suggestion algorithm at my store gets better the more I use it, so now it reminds me when I am forgetting something important that I usually buy. You may not give up grocery shopping altogether, but I bet you will get used to pickup pretty quickly.
I have been using Walmart grocery pickup since March. They clearly state no tipping, so that has not been an issue. I do try to remember their name and give good feedback for them . As far as substitutions they do let you know ahead of time and you can decline them, also you can decline them at pickup. The good thing about Walmart is their substitutions never cost more. So for example I always order the store brand 12 grain bread, and they often substitute with Pepperidge Farm or another brand for the same price as the store brand. Or I order 8oz fiesta cheese and they substitute 16oz for the same price as the 8. Occasionally they are out of stock for something and I may have to run into a different store to pick up a couple things, but I feel much more comfortable running in for 10 minutes than doing a full grocery shop.
I’d say YES on the tipping, with the understanding that some stores prohibit tipping (and some people at those stores will accept the tip or not). I use a grocery bag holder in my trunk, and use a chip clip to attach a small baggie with the tip in it. (It would be easy enough to just… put a baggie in the trunk.) At first, I put a note inside that said THANK YOU! but then I got lazy and now I just tell the staff person when they open the trunk. Most people are appreciative, some will not accept the tip.
The substitutions thing is my least favorite part about curbside grocery shopping. It seems to have gotten better, but it’s inconsistent. Like, one time, I got an actual phone call from my Shopper and was able to add a few items I’d forgotten about and clarify possible substitutions. But that only happened once.
Once, I got a HUGE tub of sour cream instead of the smaller containers I’d asked for. Once, I got several cans of collard greens and chili that I hadn’t ordered. Overall, it has been more amusing than frustrating.
In my experience, the first time was the worst/most stressful and it WILL get better. I am looking forward to your report.
Whole Foods pickup has honestly been great for us. I don’t usually do curbside, but only because the nearby store only has instore pickup – the benefit is that I’m in the store for <5 min and don't have to go through any aisles or the checkout.
I actually have had fewer issues with substitutions than with produce quantities. "One bunch of kale" and it's like three leaves, "four onions" and they are the biggest onions I have seen in my life. As I write this, it occurs to me that I could/should get in the habit of clarifying weights instead of number for these things, it would be easy enough to check some weights on the kitchen scale before I order…
Re: freezer stuff and perishables: don't worry! At every grocery store I've done delivery or pickup from, they bag the freezer stuff (and the refrigerated stuff) separately so it's easy to pick out!
My mom and I both do curbside a lot, with varying success. I’m pretty particular and never liked the substitutions they chose for me, so I just click “No Substitutions,” but my store doesn’t have much room for comments. If they allowed more space I could elaborate more about what I want.
The other issue we’ve both had is with produce–it seems like the veggies and fruits we get with curbside are always the smallest, most pitiful versions possible. That’s super-frustrating, and it’s the reason I don’t do curbside more often. Maybe specify “largest possible” in the comments?
Whenever we get something that we didn’t order, we calculate the cost of the items and donate that amount to our local Food Bank. And we’ve discovered a few things we’d never bought before but do now. I’ve done curbside at Walmart, Whole Foods and our local grocery. Whole Foods is 30 minutes away and I’m in south Texas, but my frozen stuff has come through OK. If I were worried (or it were 100 degrees out), I’d take an insulated bag or a cooler with a cold pack and redo that part of the order.
I’m sure they will pack your frozen items together. Take a cooler to put those items in if you are worried. In the Midwest employees aren’t allowed to accept tips.
I’ve been doing a lot of curbside pickup lately, mostly at Walmart and Aldi. Other grocery stores near me are just doing delivery or in store shopping. I don’t tip for curbside, but I do for delivery. Substitutions have been a mixed bag. If they have way of communicating while they are shopping for your order that helps. Instacart notifies you through their app when they start, then will chat you through the app asking if a substitute is ok. When I haven’t specifically approved the substitutes, I have gotten some weird ones like paper towels instead of toilet paper.
We’ve got Immune Problems thing going on here, plus an area that is… lax… about public health (Fast food restaurant front-counter employee: “oh, the fish was supposed to be with that other order?” Reaches into bag with ungloved hand that has been taking currency, etc., picks up piece of fried fish from one customer’s bag, puts it in other customer’s bag), so we’ve been doing grocery delivery exclusively since March, and it’s basically fine.
The quality of substitutions has varied (the low point was receiving a bottle of witch hazel instead of a bottle of rubbing alcohol), and the degree to which either the store is not keeping its online list up to date as to what’s out of stock or the employees are not able to find things within the store has also varied, but honestly it’s mostly good and we’ve learned to work around things for the most part (largely by staying ahead of things on our regular supplies such that if one order’s refill of something falls through, it’s fine for us to wait until the next order; this dovetailed in nicely, for the most part, with our “keep extra food as emergency supply” inclinations).
We’ve communicated with our delivery people via envelopes + pens left outside – they can use their own pen or not – we wanted to make sure, with online tipping, that they actually *get* most/all of the tip, but you could probably communicate similarly with your curbside pickup people via paper in your trunk, if you wanted. Also, I would bet that even if your store does not allow tipping, a piece of scratch paper with “Thank you!” on it in the trunk would be appreciated. (also: if you have really nice employees and if they’re budgeted enough time per pickup order, they may be willing to put the “freezer item” bags into your insulated bags; it sounds like this varies? But our freezer items arrive with bright “FREEZER” stickers on the handles of the bags, with a different color for “REFRIGERATION” and “FRAGILE” and “SUBSTITUTION” so there is that – it may be really easy to figure it out anyway.
The first time is the worst. At this point, it’s pretty straightforward and non-stressful, although annoying (the website interface is really not set up for ease of use, and search is… glitchy. Search for “water chestnuts”? Nothing relevant. Search for “chestnuts”? There is the can of water chestnuts like you have purchased before, labeled water chestnuts, as the first search result.).
I would also note that we end up with so many bags this way – they do not bag efficiently, although things have improved since March – but then we found out that our local food bank wants bags (along with empty egg cartons), so if you also end up with *so many bags* then maybe you also have a local food bank that would like bags? (And they also may gleefully accept substitution items that you do not want?)
I hope it all goes well for you! :-)
We now give the plastic bags to our food pantry too.
I never do curbside delivery on the weekends. I don’t know if they’re overwhelmed or what, but I have much better luck during the week.
I will have to do curbside pickup at least once just before Christmas and I am FRETTING, so maybe I should try a trial run like Swistle. In addition to my desire to pick out my own fresh fruits and veggies because I fear everything they’d give me would be mouldy or bruised, my son is allergic to eggs and half our household is lactose intolerant so I am picky about getting exactly what works for us.
We’re isolating for the 2 weeks running up to Christmas so we can see parents who are currently fighting cancer though, so there will be no grocery shopping trips for me after December 11th until we see them, which could be anywhere from Dec. 25th to Jan. 2nd. I can lay in a lot of supplies for pantry and freezer items before the 11th, but don’t see any way around doing at least one curbside no-contact pickup for fridge stuff and produce.
My issue with produce for curb side or delivery is that items like bananas or avocados are always super green, even if I’ve requested ripe. I’ve just been going with it because getting groceries this way generally makes my life easier. We too are doing a 2 week “quarantine” after the kids are done school mid December. We’ve resigned ourselves to missing Xmas with my family and will settle for New Years.
Agree that the first time is the worst time. Once you are over the hurdle you can decide if pickup is for you. Maybe it will solve your problem of needing two carts? I think at my local grocery chain (HEB) there is a limited number of items you can order for pickup (but it’s a high limit. Ok, I just checked and it’s max 85 items or $600). There is also a limited number of times you can change your order. But every chain does it differently. Looking forward a report of how it goes down!
I’ve been doing either curbside pick up or grocery delivery ever since I started having babies (my children are now 8, 6, and 2 and they so rarely set foot in a grocery store that they are astonished into behaving well on the rare occasions I have to take one of them shopping). I don’t tip if I do curbside pick up (my store actually doesn’t allow it). I do tip if I do delivery (I just add the tip on my card).
I have pretty much just let go of meal planning since the pandemic started. I used to spend time planning meals each week and order what I needed. But so much was unavailable back in the spring (sometimes only half of what I ordered would be delivered!) and then that eventually improved but we also started getting free produce and canned food boxes from my kids’ school weekly and I never know what will be in those. So now I’ve pivoted to just ordering a bunch of stuff that can be used many different ways (“pantry staples”, if you will) and then meal planning after my groceries are delivered and I see what actually comes and what’s in our produce box. It doesn’t really make my life harder in terms of work (just shifting the meal planning task from pre- to post-shopping) but it does make it hard to be as frugal as I like to be. In the past I’d be like “I have eggs to use up, so I will buy X to make an egg dish” and now I can’t count on that and just have to hope something gets delivered that will help me use up what I have on hand.
Sigh. Some day we will be able to get groceries like normal again, right?
Our chosen curbside grocery store has a policy that says not to tip, so we don’t. Our alternative is wallllmart, so we don’t.
Definitely the first time is the worst. I think it took me longer to make my first order then it would’ve to just go to the store! But it gets better. Sometimes the substitutions are so great, like wow this person really thought about it, thanks! Other times they are so off that there’s nothing to do but laugh. I get text updates so I can accept or deny the subs. Walmart doesn’t do thos texts but my kroger store does.
I agree the first time and building a list is the hardest part. Once you get some “frequently bought items” it makes the whole thing a little easier. I started doing curbside pickup back in April during first lockdown and then got a little lax about it over the summer because it was easier to just run in for what I needed. I’m back to trying to get everything I can without going inside. I don’t usually tip because 1) store employee, 2) the person bringing them out to my car is not usually the shopper. At least at my store. Yes in a perfect world they would give it to the shopper? Or at least split it? It’s too much for me to worry about so like others said, I just give glowing reviews. 90% of the time, the substitutions are fine. Usually just a different brand or size. Once I ordered ground pork – and got spicy pork sausage instead. I figured I could try to find a way to use it- but so far it’s still in the freezer.
I also get a little anxious/ fretful about the order and if I am remembering everything – but it saves my “cart” so I just take a few days to make sure I’ve thought of most things before I submit it. I’ve also found that it helps to be a shop ahead of what we are using- so I buy staples when we open them, rather then when we are running out. Just opened a peanut butter? add it to the list! That way even if the pickup date is a week out, we will have one ready to go before it runs out.
If I were asked to do word association re: curbside delivery, top of the list would be gratitude! Is it perfect? Oh heck no. But it feels so much safer to my old codger, immune compromised self. My store doesn’t allow for comments, but I can refuse any substitutions that wouldn’t work for me. Usually the substitutions have been to my benefit. And the times that I have gotten home with subpar produce a call to the 800# has resulted in a refund. My store doesn’t allow the employees to accept tips. I’m over half an hour away, so I keep a cooler in the trunk, although I probably wouldn’t need to. The whole procedure is definitely on my list of blessings and I hope it will be for you too.
Re: Substitution. I had an order for 1 x 250g Perfect Italiano Grated Perfect Bakes Cheese.
I was notified that I had a substitution on the order.
1 x 125g. ONE x 125g. I could only imagine what TWO x 125g would total?!
Yesterday i went to pick up my order and the Instacart app just would.not.work. I couldn’t tell them I was on my way, couldn’t tell them I was there, couldn’t even find that I had ordered anything. Luckily my store has designated parking and a phone number on the sign, so I called the store, they paged an Instacart person who was in the store, and she brought my items out. It was a slightly irritating blip, but I think many people are getting nervous about another lockdown starting, and started panic buying. I had no trouble placing my order early in the day, but then they started calling for school closures and I think the app got overwhelmed, probably.
I started getting instacart grocery delivery in April, and I really didn’t want to, and now I love it. It took some trial and error to find the grocery store that has most of what I want at the least mark up (here in San Diego it’s a store called Sprouts). If your curbside has the option to receive texts about substitutions I love that feature! I have also figured out which items I would rather go without rather than substitute, if that is an option in your service.
For a while I never ever set foot in a store but now there are a few items I go in to get that aren’t available at my delivery place (Diet Coke for one). It feels much better just to zip in and out rather than take a big shopping trip and it helps fill in little gaps in my order.
Good luck!
I have been doing curbside pickup since the beginning of the pandemic — the kind where a grocery store worker fulfills the order, not an Instacart worker that I’m sending the store on my behalf — and in spite of its flaws, I’m totally on board with it. Not everything in the store is available online, and the substitution system at my store is slightly less helpful than it used to be. When adding an item to my cart, I used to be able to see what they would substitute if my first choice wasn’t available, but now I can only say yes or no for substitutions for that item. But even that’s pretty useful. If I do opt for substitution for an item, it’s never anything crazy — just a different brand or, for produce, the organic or conventional version, whichever one I didn’t pick. And if I MUST have that particular brand or flavor, I uncheck the box. Sometimes I do have to rethink a meal if something’s unavailable, but I would much rather be rethinking that meal in the privacy of my own home, where I have pantry staples and cookbooks at my disposal to aid in my rethinking, rather than in the grocery store where my fellow shoppers can breathe on me.
Re: tipping: I have followed the lead of the grocery store I order from, which has a line for a tip when you select delivery and none when you select pickup.
I’ve been doing grocery pick-up for a long time – so before the pandemic started. When the pandemic hit I did have to branch out from my usual Walmart and also try ALDI and Festival. ALDI was through instacart, I think, and I was trying to figure out how to tip through that app, because I saw it was an option one time. But then when I really wanted to do it, I couldn’t find it again. :( It was one day in spring when I got to stay in my car and this very pregnant lady had to load all my groceries into the back of my van. Walmart specifically says not to tip.
Walmart recently gave me a weird substitute – I ordered one box of filled donuts and they didn’t have them, so they substituted 2 boxes of glazed donuts, but then also charged me for 2 boxes. I would have said no on that one because I didn’t want to spend $6 on donuts. There was the time where I ordered a small mesh bag to wash masks in – a delicates bag. They substituted a giant mesh bag, like you would use at college to store all your dirty laundry in. It is frustrating when they are out of one type of meat and they don’t even try to substitute anything so then you are out of a dinner meal.
Back in spring, I was staying up until midnight to get a slot or checking at 3am. Back in the day I would just order the night before and my time would be there. Even now I need to remember to grab a spot a few days ahead of time.
I’ve been doing curbside for quite some time at a King Soopers (Kroger). We also did delivery one time in the spring when my daughter’s asthma-cough had us briefly worried about the virus– we thought it was likely asthma, but were waiting for a doctor’s appointment to confirm before allowing ourselves to be out in the world. Here are my thoughts:
Curbside is vastly better than delivery was for us–our King Soopers outsources delivery to Instacart, and the Instacart substitutions and mistakes were a bit of a mess. Think of curbside as the same as sending in your teen without you– you can count on them to get the things on your list, you can can count on them to be very literal, you can’t count on them to have the same eye for quality/ripeness that you’d have. And you can’t count on them to pivot if an ingredient in something you were planning is an odd size or isn’t available. It’ll be mostly fine, but expect a couple of things to not be what you planned on every trip.
My own personal thought is that even if the store is 30 min away, you probably don’t need special freezer bags or to plan a trip inside to get frozen goods. They keep frozen stuff in a freezer until they bring it out to you. If you were shopping in the 5-min-away store and you added up the time from when you pick something up, finish shopping, stand in line, get out the door, load it up, and drive home, it would likely be an equivalent time out of the freezer.
I haven’t been tipping, mainly because the store has overtly said not to do so. I’m feeling badly about saying it here, which is perhaps a sign that I ought to try to tip under the radar via envelope in trunk. It’s just that curbside is an inconvenience I’m dealing with as part of trying to prevent community spread, not some lovely privilege I’m choosing to make my own life better or more enjoyable.
I read something where an in-store shop per said they really appreciate specific comments about substitutions because it removes the guesswork for them. So I often specify how I want various produce, and also whether I would be okay with a different brand, different cut of meat, etc. And for things where I don’t want them picking, I uncheck the substitution box entirely and then I just won’t get it if it’s not there. We’ve been stocking our freezer slowly so that when the store is out of stock in something, we can usually get creative and pull from the freezer, or stop by a small local grocery store on the way home and be in/out in 5 minutes (I am still nervous about the astronomical numbers in my area, but am guessing that no more than 5 min in the store is a smaller risk than if I had in-person shopped at the big store where I’m doing curbside.