aborted grocery shopping rant...

[TorontoBuilder]

I just came back from possibly the 4th or 5th venture into a grocery store in the past 3 years.

Let me just say the experience sucks much worse than I remember. I think I can safely say that store staff seem ruder and callous.

On top of everything else, somehow the pain killers I was charged for didn't end up in a bag to come home with me. They were all I frikken wanted... I'll take this as a sign to call my pharmacy and order my prescription meds instead of over the counter.

 

[JustaDB]

Any grocery run requires a stop at a liquor store, too.

 

[Doggggboy]

Any grocery run requires a stop at a liquor store, too.

Before or after?

 

[trlvn]

Before or after?

Or?

 

[TorontoBuilder]

Before or after?

In my hood it seems everyone stops at the liquor store before the grocery store...

 

[Doggggboy]

Grocery shopping is like most things, You get better with practice.
I was in Regina nearly every morning for 20 years and most days I would stop at the local Superstore and pick up the one or two things that we needed.
Never took more than 5 minutes or so and the dogs were in the van for only that long so I never had any crazy ladies smashing the windows to let them out.
Because I was there so often we never ended up with the massive list that took forever to collect.
That doesn't happen now that we are retired but I can still go in, with a bigger list , and get everything in short order.
It's also handy having the Superstore sell liquor.
But that's not why I was going everyday.
NO IT'S NOT!

 

[PaulL]

I'm ridiculously lucky. I have three good grocers, 2 liquor stores, and a butcher, fish monger, and charcutier within 400 meters. I get to walk out every day or two and top up. So much more pleasant.

 

[DavidR8]

I do a weekly shop on Saturday am. Takes one hour and is completely painless. Two stops; one for fruits and veg, second for everything else.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

I'm ridiculously lucky. I have three good grocers, 2 liquor stores, and a butcher, fish monger, and charcutier within 400 meters. I get to walk out every day or two and top up. So much more pleasant.

I had the same type neighbourhood when I lived in DT Toronto... we even had a specialty store that only sold meat pies.

The downside though was streetcar passing by that shook entire loft, and living with in under 1100 ft2

 

[phaxtris]

The stores near me are all crazy busy... I only go off hours, early before 10, or late after 6 or 7, you pretty much have the place to yourself at those times of day

Otherwise it's a gong show of inconsiderate/space cadets, no thanks

 

[Xyphota]

Have any of you guys considered the grocery pick-up options if it is available in your area? My partner and I use the online grocery order for superstore every week and I am a big fan. You place your order, pick an available time slot for when you'd like to pick them up (usually has to be at least 1 day in advance, although if you order in the morning, there may be evening pickup slots available), show up during your window and park in one of the designated "online order pick-up" stalls, text or call the store to let them know you've arrived, and then someone will come out and load the groceries into your trunk. With superstore, this service costs literally $1 extra dollar. We usually pick a 5:30 to 6:00pm time slot so I an just pick groceries up on the way home from work. My grocery trip during peak hours is usually less than 10 minutes LOL.

You also have the option to allow substitutions in your order (like if your specific can of beans happens to be out of stock while they fulfil your order, they will call you and ask if you'd be ok with this other can of beans etc.), and if you are like me and would benefit from having less snacks in the house, there is no temptation to just start throwing random crap into your cart, so it actually ends up being cheaper too.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

The stores near me are all crazy busy... I only go off hours, early before 10, or late after 6 or 7, you pretty much have the place to yourself at those times of day

Otherwise it's a gong show of inconsiderate/space cadets, no thanks

we dont have "off hours" near me. It is always a zoo.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

Have any of you guys considered the grocery pick-up options if it is available in your area? My partner and I use the online grocery order for superstore every week and I am a big fan. You place your order, pick an available time slot for when you'd like to pick them up (usually has to be at least 1 day in advance, although if you order in the morning, there may be evening pickup slots available), show up during your window and park in one of the designated "online order pick-up" stalls, text or call the store to let them know you've arrived, and then someone will come out and load the groceries into your trunk. With superstore, this service costs literally $1 extra dollar. We usually pick a 5:30 to 6:00pm time slot so I an just pick groceries up on the way home from work. My grocery trip during peak hours is usually less than 10 minutes LOL.

You also have the option to allow substitutions in your order (like if your specific can of beans happens to be out of stock while they fulfil your order, they will call you and ask if you'd be ok with this other can of beans etc.), and if you are like me and would benefit from having less snacks in the house, there is no temptation to just start throwing random crap into your cart, so it actually ends up being cheaper too.

I've used grocery pick-up for the last 3 years, mostly at 3 different grocery stores, and a couple a specialty stores. It has literally saved my life.

When I don't order on usualy schedule, they all tend to email me a coupon to come back...

 

[Doggggboy]

Have any of you guys considered the grocery pick-up options if it is available in your area? My partner and I use the online grocery order for superstore every week and I am a big fan. You place your order, pick an available time slot for when you'd like to pick them up (usually has to be at least 1 day in advance, although if you order in the morning, there may be evening pickup slots available), show up during your window and park in one of the designated "online order pick-up" stalls, text or call the store to let them know you've arrived, and then someone will come out and load the groceries into your trunk. With superstore, this service costs literally $1 extra dollar. We usually pick a 5:30 to 6:00pm time slot so I an just pick groceries up on the way home from work. My grocery trip during peak hours is usually less than 10 minutes LOL.

You also have the option to allow substitutions in your order (like if your specific can of beans happens to be out of stock while they fulfil your order, they will call you and ask if you'd be ok with this other can of beans etc.), and if you are like me and would benefit from having less snacks in the house, there is no temptation to just start throwing random crap into your cart, so it actually ends up being cheaper too.

We used this almost exclusively for the first 2 years of Covid19.
Works almost perfectly and if there is an issue they would fix it and usually give you a bonus item as well.
The only issue was the produce offerings were a bit sketchy. There is an excellent selection of fresh produce in our store but the online pickers tend to pick the ripest things they can find. If you didn't have the oven already warmed up to make banana bread, you were too late.
Ahh, impulse shopping. That's the reason you have to walk past the potato chips to get to the meat counter and the milk is in the back left hand corner of the store. The popular items will be prominently displayed on their respective shelves in that area because the wholesalers pay for the prominent placing. We're talking tens of thousands of dollars per foot of shelf space. People are lazy and would rather reach for the middle shelf than the bottom one.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

People are lazy and would rather reach for the middle shelf than the bottom one.

Or they have a disability. I don't buy many items from the bottom shelf...

An interesting social experiment is to ask for lost and found at your local grocery store and ask if they found a cane recently. IF I was unscrupulous I could have a thriving used cane business.

 

[Tecnico]

Have any of you guys considered the grocery pick-up options if it is available in your area?

We have done the same thing at SS since the start of Covid for the same reasons even though we have a Sobeys 5 minutes away. The up side is we're not stopping in for 10 minutes every couple of days so time is actually saved.

We have enlarged our pantry and do informal inventory control so we don't usually run out of things. Same comment about produce quality as @Doggggboy though. We've had positive discussions with the manager about that too.

D

 

[Xyphota]

Our experience with produce has been pretty good, so maybe it has to do with what the store managers are instructing

 

[Doggggboy]

Our experience with produce has been pretty good, so maybe it has to do with what the store managers are instructing

It could be. I think it is possibly personal preference as well.
I would never buy ripe bananas, only pretty green.
OTOH I would never buy unripe pineapple.
Sadly the online shopping doesn't let you express a preference for produce.
On another note, have any of you the Flash Food app?
It lets you online purchase items that are near their expiry date for 1/2 price or less from participating stores including Loblaws and pick it up in the next day or so.
Everything including meat, dairy, produce and bakery. For produce they fill up a box of whatever is getting due and put it in a box roughly the size of a mandarin orange box. A picture of it is posted online and it is sold for 5 bucks, no matter what is in it. We've gotten boxes with 8 large avocados, a pineapple, 3 eggplants and lots of tomatoes in the same box. While some of the produce may be iffy, most of it is easily good for at least a week.

 

[slow-poke]

My wife does most of the grocery shopping, sometimes I tag along. Inflation combined with gouging is on full display. For better or worse I still remember prices from when I use to shop for groceries, bread was $1 loaf now its $4.50 and the loafs have shrunk so much I can put two slices in each slot of the toaster. My wife like to shop at Farm Boy, great service, great food, but you pay for it.

I must have read the same BS line in the paper a hundred times the supermarkets work on razor thin margins. Complete and total BS propaganda, I don't believe it for a second, common to see and identical item priced for $2 at one store and $3.99 at another. I'm sure they are making profit at $2

Things must be tough for the Westons.

 

[phaxtris]

That's the reason you have to walk past the potato chips

People actually just walk past the potato chips? Blasphemy!