Are we really too busy to shop for groceries??

[Valerie]

I love Walmart curbside pick up. It's not because I don't have enough time to go grocery shopping, it's because I hate going into Walmart and have few other options in my small town.

When I lived in Germany, the corner grocery store was very much still a thing and my mother went almost every day. The difference from the US is that Europeans have small refrigerators and not as many cars. My town used to have small grocery stores within walking distance in each of the neighborhoods. The car and the ability to drive a distance to a Walmart or other "big box" store killed off the small, independent grocery store.

Our entire society is structured towards efficiency at the cost of other priorities. Grocery curbside pickup and home delivery is more efficient for many of us than going to a store everyday. I think changing this trend means making intentional choices to live differently as much as possible.

Don't you think it also helps you spend less? We storekeepers design our stores to attract impulse buying. With curbside pickup, or delivery, you obviously miss our cool seasonal displays and other lovely customer traps.

Haha, you're telling on yourself!
I hear that all day long Mike- as a customer unloads an overloaded handbasket- OR large shopping cart- most of them say something like "can you believe I only came in for 2 things?" (of course I can, I hear it all day!)
One thing I console that comment with is by pointing out that nothing they are buying looks like 'luxury' and it may save them a trip later, it will be eaten/used, etc-
It's kind of fun to tease them when they say these things as if they came in for example band aids, and they're getting ice cream, I can tease that they're no where near each other-"how did you end up over there? "

Yes- the stores are designed (and many realize it) for you to throw many things into your cart that you would have never considered-A customer pointed out the 'genius' in the way our store is layed out for that reason
Curbside pick up may be a solution for those who are weak in this area- when I served in a addiction type ministry for a few years, one of the couples was in there because the husband was weak in the area of 'spending/shopping'.

There's just a myriad of reasons this service can help people-

As temp points out- NOT having them forces people to do things the hard way, the better way-
A farmer would say- why don't you grow/raise it all yourself then? A store in itself was an easier way

[Ken]

Order online. Curbside pickup. Now delivery??

Are we really that busy with life we can't shop for groceries anymore?

First it was Walmart offering curbside pickup. Then Giant Foods. Then Weiss Markets. Now even our local Dutchway is offering curbside pick up. Giant Foods will deliver in our area as well.

Think back a generation or two. You went to the local butcher for meats, the mill for flour, maybe a local market for fruits and vegetables. Depending on the area, you may have visited a market every day for that day's worth of food.

What is this world coming to?

You are probably judging this question based on your suburban/rural life with roads that are mostly traffic free and stores that have plenty of parking. In more densely populated urban areas grocery shopping can be quite the hassle. Many people don't have cars, or live in apartments without parking so have cars that aren't conveniently parked nearby. Parking in many urban groceries can be pretty difficult and inconvenient, or even nonexistent. I lived for a year in Washington DC when I was younger and grocery shopping was quite the hassle. I had to walk about 6 blocks to the nearest grocery that didn't actually have reliable parking and lug my groceries back in cloth bags or with a folding cart. A lot of people are also elderly or disabled and just find it difficult to navigate this sort of shopping. So for them, grocery delivery is a blessing.

[Szdfan]

In France, baguette vending machines are replacing rural bakeries.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/10/worl ... sures.html

Two years ago, the 650 residents of La Chapelle-en-Juger lost their bakery, the last local business where they could meet one another, chitchat and gossip while waiting in line for their daily baguette or their weekend éclairs. For the community, the closing of the bakery was “un drame,” as one newspaper put it, or a tragedy, one that is being repeated in countless French villages.

Young people are no longer drawn to the long hours of the traditional bakers who live above their store. Shopping malls have taken root on the periphery of rural areas, drawing in people who are content to buy at supermarkets or chains. Customers, especially the young, are not eating as much bread.

Vending machines have sometimes popped up in towns where bakeries have closed. In Gratot, a red machine sat in a quiet parking lot on a recent morning.

A few miles away, on the side of a busy country road in La Vendelée, Vincent Lenoir’s daughter hopped out of their minivan to get a premade baguette from a machine that resembled a telephone booth.

Without a bakery, La Chapelle-en-Juger was turning into a lifeless bedroom town, some residents said.

“Our little village is dying,” said Hélène Collard, whose family has lived in the village for four generations. “We’re no longer in contact with the other inhabitants. It was the only meeting point left.”

Sounds familiar.

I’m struck whenever I see old men sitting in a small town gas station, drinking their cheap coffee and shooting the breeze because there aren’t any cafes or restaurants nearby for them to meet.

[Szdfan]

As temp points out- NOT having them forces people to do things the hard way, the better way-
A farmer would say- why don't you grow/raise it all yourself then? A store in itself was an easier way

Most farmers and ranchers I know prefer that you buy your food and not grow it yourself so that they can make a living.

[steve-in-kville]

Anyone find this thread ironic under current circumstances?

[mike]

Anyone find this thread ironic under current circumstances?

I noticed an independent supermarket which just launched online ordering with curbside pickup over the weekend has temporarily suspended orders until they catch up later today. It's a time-involved process for stores, and unless they begin charging an extra fee for the service, it is not sustainable. If we got more than 20 curbside orders in a day, we would be overwhelmed quickly. My guess is that most reasonably busy grocery stores have between 300 and 1000 customers on a weekday with more on weekends. Imagine what would happen if even a fraction of them ordered online with outside pickup.

[ken_sylvania]

Anyone find this thread ironic under current circumstances?

I noticed an independent supermarket which just launched online ordering with curbside pickup over the weekend has temporarily suspended orders until they catch up later today. It's a time-involved process for stores, and unless they begin charging an extra fee for the service, it is not sustainable. If we got more than 20 curbside orders in a day, we would be overwhelmed quickly. My guess is that most reasonably busy grocery stores have between 300 and 1000 customers on a weekday with more on weekends. Imagine what would happen if even a fraction of them ordered online with outside pickup.

Something about this all reminds me of how years ago, a person would go to the store and tell the storekeeper what they wanted. The storekeeper would go in back, get it off the shelf, and bring it front to the counter. Does life go in cycles or what?

[steve-in-kville]

Anyone find this thread ironic under current circumstances?

I noticed an independent supermarket which just launched online ordering with curbside pickup over the weekend has temporarily suspended orders until they catch up later today. It's a time-involved process for stores, and unless they begin charging an extra fee for the service, it is not sustainable. If we got more than 20 curbside orders in a day, we would be overwhelmed quickly. My guess is that most reasonably busy grocery stores have between 300 and 1000 customers on a weekday with more on weekends. Imagine what would happen if even a fraction of them ordered online with outside pickup.

Something about this all reminds me of how years ago, a person would go to the store and tell the storekeeper what they wanted. The storekeeper would go in back, get it off the shelf, and bring it front to the counter. Does life go in cycles or what?

Little House on the Prairie comes to mind.

[ken_sylvania]

I noticed an independent supermarket which just launched online ordering with curbside pickup over the weekend has temporarily suspended orders until they catch up later today. It's a time-involved process for stores, and unless they begin charging an extra fee for the service, it is not sustainable. If we got more than 20 curbside orders in a day, we would be overwhelmed quickly. My guess is that most reasonably busy grocery stores have between 300 and 1000 customers on a weekday with more on weekends. Imagine what would happen if even a fraction of them ordered online with outside pickup.

Something about this all reminds me of how years ago, a person would go to the store and tell the storekeeper what they wanted. The storekeeper would go in back, get it off the shelf, and bring it front to the counter. Does life go in cycles or what?

Little House on the Prairie comes to mind.

The "store" scene that first comes to mind is the one where Pa goes back to the storekeepers living quarters and helps himself...

[mike]

Little House on the Prairie comes to mind.The "store" scene that first comes to mind is the one where Pa goes back to the storekeepers living quarters and helps himself...

Another store scene is where Pa and the other townsmen corner the storekeeper and convince him not to price gouge them during the long winter.