Yesterday was shopping day at Fleet Farm, Cub Foods, and Walmart. There were a few items we needed from Fleet Farm, so I went on-line to see if they had the items in stock. There was a banner across their site stating that there was a 12 percent discount for all merchandise ordered on-line and picked up at their curbside pickup. So I ordered the items (plus a few more because of the discount 👦). That's a pretty hefty discount, so I'm wondering if they are experimenting with trying to lure more people into on-line shopping and curbside pickup. Their policy is:, they verify your order by email & they email when the order is ready for pickup. You just drive thru their outside entrance, the gate guard asks what your name is, he's radios into the store and tells them we are there for a pickup, we drive to the pickup area, the door goes up, I hit the back door van button, door goes up, he loads material, he says "thank you for the order", I hit the button again, van door goes down, and we drive back out, as we drive out the gate guard gives us a "thumbs up" and away we go.. They already have my credit card information so all I have to do at order time is enter the csv number. Pretty slick operation and really pretty secure as far as payment is concerned.
At Walmart Sherry just walks in with her mask on, tells them who the prescription is for and they hand Sherry the bag. No transaction information or signing needed any more. We could also have the prescription delivered to the van, but going in is faster. From the time Sherry leaves the van until she is back in, probably takes all of five minutes. Real "hardship" for having to wear a mask and protect other people...
Cub Foods we have been ordering our groceries on-line since last March, cost per order is $1.99. We were also ordering Sherry's moms groceries at the same time and that got to be kind of a hassle, so we set up another account and got her groceries on different days. She now goes to a little neighborhood grocery store and gets her groceries, but she already has it set up that when the weather gets bad, they will deliver her groceries to her. Good deal..
So the process at Cub foods is, we go on-line and either search for the item, or go to the "your items listing" and just scroll thru the list which is all the items that we have purchased in the past. We can "shop" from either of our computers, so if there is an item we need, we just enter it and it will show up on our shopping list with a running total cost. We can also list a substitute or just put a note "do not substitute". Once we are done adding to the cart, we select a pickup time (either that day or the next day) and we are done. Transaction information is also in Cub's data base. When the employee starts "shopping" our order we get a text on my smartphone as the items are picked or substituted or removed from list. In some cases, if an item is going to be substituted, they text us a picture of the substitute item. When the order is completed they text us that order is completed. We go into the store and text them "we are here" and they bring our groceries out to the van. All items are kept in a temperature controlled area, so the milk is cold and the frozen items are frozen.
Walmart's service is free for "any" item in the store. When we go by their pickup area there is normally cars waiting. Hy-Vee also has a similar service, but their cost is $9.99 a month or $99.00 per year with unlimited number of pickups. I'm not sure what the minimum order is.
These curbside pickups eliminates "contact time" with other people. I would imagine families with smaller children this would also be very handy. No trying to keep track of them, and no dress up they can go in their PJ's.. 👍
So that was our day of shopping. Will we go back to the "old days" of shopping, when the pandemic is over with, probably so. Sherry and I had a system for grocery shopping and we could be in and out of Cub foods in less than 30 minutes, unless they were busy. There are also times that you just have to go into the store, as an example, we needed a new battery for the older van, and you need to take in the old battery for exchange. They probably have a way for handling that situation, but it's just easier to go in. The battery area is almost a "contact-less" area anyway.
So as you can probably surmise, Sherry and I pretty much live in our own little bubble. When we do go some place where there are other people we wear our masks out of respect for other people and reduce the risk somewhat of us getting the virus. In closing, I spent 4 years in the military and I DID NOT spend that time away from my family so people could go around saying it's my "right" not to wear a mask... What ever happened to the compassion for fellow human beings?
Stay Healthy.. Jim
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