tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4055690688282230469.post1996980543523985184..comments2024-03-28T18:58:47.880-07:00Comments on creative savv: How Shopping In-Person Skews Your Perception of What Your Store Carries (and what you can do to change that)Lilihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13292553654219380455noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4055690688282230469.post-69332538968872267532021-01-13T14:12:36.581-08:002021-01-13T14:12:36.581-08:00Hi Kris,
services like Shipt and Insta-cart do add...Hi Kris,<br />services like Shipt and Insta-cart do add extra cost, but most stores are doing free curbside pick-ups at no extra charge. Pre-pandemic, the curbside did have a fee. Our local Kroger affiliate offered the first 3 pick-ups for free, then about a $5 fee each time afterward. With Walmart, their store staff does the shopping for you, so you get random store personnel doing your shopping. What I can say with store personnel doing the shopping is that they know the store and the products really well. With Shipt and Insta-cart, contractors do the shopping and may not know to look on end caps for additional stock *if regular shelves are bare), etc. And I agree, the few times we used Shipt (with a free 30-day trial), we had varying experiences. Some shoppers were more helpful than others.<br /><br />I'm very grateful to our local Walmart. I've been so impressed with their kind and professional manner. As long as pick-up remains free, I'll likely use it, at least part of the time.<br /><br />I still believe that even if someone plans to shop in-person that they should use the store's website to help in making their list, especially if they're on a budget. It would save in-store time as you would make brand choices at home, instead trying to decide on products in the store. And one could see the less expensive options, again from home.<br /><br />Have a good afternoon and evening, Kris.Lilihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13292553654219380455noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4055690688282230469.post-63257697957954778032021-01-13T13:44:05.053-08:002021-01-13T13:44:05.053-08:00Very interesting information, Lili. My pre-covid ...Very interesting information, Lili. My pre-covid thoughts were that these services would cost you more money. Now, I'm seeing how they could be cost savers.<br /><br />I have a friend who lives near me. Her mother lives alone in her own home on the other side of the state. My friend uses Shipt to do the grocery shopping for her mom and mentions that the different shoppers can make or break the experience. It sounds like you can't request the same shopper all the time--is that true with Walmart as well?Krisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4055690688282230469.post-19075856387428558362021-01-13T12:55:06.223-08:002021-01-13T12:55:06.223-08:00Live and Learn,
Good luck with this. It sounds lik...Live and Learn,<br />Good luck with this. It sounds like a difficult situation. That's a shame that his local Walmart doesn't offer pick-up groceries. I think they're doing an excellent job and seem to be flexible with varying degrees of customer's technology access. Hopefully Zoom will help him in other ways.Lilihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13292553654219380455noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4055690688282230469.post-58861313978446082622021-01-13T10:21:21.004-08:002021-01-13T10:21:21.004-08:00Unfortunately, his local Walmart doesn't have ...Unfortunately, his local Walmart doesn't have a pickup service or I think that he would try it. He does pick up his meds at Walmart that way. Right now he is using Amazon grocery delivery. He happens to live in one of the cities that has a large, warehouse, Amazon grocery story--different than what you can get on the regular site or Whole Foods. It is working pretty well, but doesn't carry everything he likes. We could help him get a couple of more options, but right now we have a different focus. We're trying to get him set up with Zoom for more family communication and tele doctors appointments. He is a very intelligent man and at 87 still has excellent reasoning abilities. However, his whole life he has studied something for a very long time before he tries it and that is a stumbling block for us as we try to help him. That combined with the distancing or no visiting for safety reasons makes the process a bit more difficult than it might have been in the past. But it's all good.Live and Learnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13493777474885053903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4055690688282230469.post-61208268822710680802021-01-13T09:17:19.654-08:002021-01-13T09:17:19.654-08:00Hi Live and Learn,
We've tried a couple of typ...Hi Live and Learn,<br />We've tried a couple of types of online services. We tried the kind where someone is your personal shopper then delivers it to your home (Insta-cart and Shipt). With Insta-cart, I had the option to approve substitutions on my laptop, via a chat window. With Shipt (what Target uses), substitutions could be made by text or phone call. <br /><br />The other type of online shopping is store pick-up. I've done this with 2 different stores. Walmart has you tick a box saying it's okay for them to make a substitution for you. You can opt out of substitutions for one item or all. I've found that almost all of the substitutions have been better than what I'd have chosen. Only once was it something sort of odd, but a better value. (I put in for frozen butternut squash chunks and they substituted whole, fresh butternut squash -- but they charged me far, far less than I would have paid if I had ordered the fresh squash.) With Walmart, if they have to substitute, they promise it will be a better deal for the customer -- like a larger package or a more premium brand. In the hour before a pick-up, I get an email showing me what they've chosen for subs and I have the option at that point to turn down any substitutions. The policy at the other store may have changed, this was a couple of years ago. But they make substitutions for you and allow you to turn them down at pick-up. It required more interaction with the employee. But as I said, this was a couple of years ago and they have likely updated how they handle subs.<br /><br />Some orders, I get several substitutions. But others, like my pick-up last week, nothing was substituted, they had everything I ordered. With your father-in-law, I can see how some of this may be problematic, especially if he doesn't text and that's the mode of communication by the employees. Plus, I've observed that many older folks have a more difficult time with unplanned changes, so a substitution might be unsettling. <br /><br />Another kind of shopping that might work for your father-in-law for part of his groceries is a dairy delivery service. It's not cheap, but there's an abundance of items that can be ordered and placed on a routine reorder schedule. This is what my grandmother used in her later years. She was able to get milk, cheese, butter, bread, cottage cheese, eggs, and pre-made jello salads (and maybe a couple of other pre-made salads, I can't remember all) from dairy delivery service. If she didn't feel like going to the grocery store in person, she would have enough food to get through several days.I've noticed that a lot more of my neighbors now have those dairy delivery boxes on their front porches, as compared to before the pandemic.<br /><br />Does Aldi have an online ordering or pick-up option? It sounds like a good grocery option for value.<br /><br />Enjoy your day, Live and Learn!Lilihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13292553654219380455noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4055690688282230469.post-12465687963619003852021-01-13T05:15:06.278-08:002021-01-13T05:15:06.278-08:00An interesting, useful summary, Lili, with your ty...An interesting, useful summary, Lili, with your typical thorough analysis. We have only done online grocery shopping a couple of times and that was to make sure we understood the process before we helped my father-in-law learn how to do it. One of the stumbling blocks for him was the substitution process if the store was out of what he ordered because he doesn't text. Do you get many substitutions? Do they contact you and ask you what you want?<br /><br />We do most of our shopping at Aldi's which has overall good prices on their store brands--which is most of the store. They do carry name brand things here and there that are big sellers, like Coke, that they most people want. The prices on those are usually just okay, so you have to be mindful. While they have a decent selection, they don't have a huge selection which helps. In fact, that's one of the reasons I like them--they're not so big and I can get in and out much faster than some of the more typical stores. However, they don't carry everything and we do visit the local Food Lion for a few things. Live and Learnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13493777474885053903noreply@blogger.com