I think this phenomenon was just beginning to occur before COVID, but it has grown apace ever since then.
There are two employees choosing produce in the above photo although only one is very visible: the young lady with the bag who is approaching the cart.
But these is a fellow in that yellow, caution outfit also choosing produce, who perhaps wears the outfit to avoid frantic shoppers running over him. His cart is somewhat out of sight, but it was there. (I was trying to take the picture surreptitiously and didn't do a very good job.)
We also shopped like this in the early days of the pandemic, but once masks were ubiquitously mandated and we also understood more about the transmission of the disease, I re-commenced doing my own shopping.
Mind you, they did do a very good job of filling my orders back then, but I rather like being able to make my own choices and to be able to pick up other items ad hoc as well. And since one doesn't get out as much these days, especially in winter, I rather appreciate, a weekly outing in a warm environment. Thirdly, I don't feel that in person shopping takes much more time than faffing about with scrolling through an app to make my choices.
I assume that this newfangled phenomenon is occurring everywhere. Is it thriving in your area? Do you use such a service?
13 comments:
We have never not shopped for ourselves, but have seen the personal grocery shopping at one supermarket we use. The other one apparently does not offer it. Friends we know in VA had been using it, but unsure if they still do. We also never took advantage of senior shopping hours which were earlier than we would be out and about.
We have never availed of the service but see at least two people filling orders when either of us is at the store. It may come to that however, if the virus becomes rampant here. Our daughter picks up things for us on occasion which reduces the times we need to go to the store. I hate going now!
We used it a couple of times. Especially, when JB was sick.
He just arrived home, and I shall have to go unpack.
Good photo work. I was stopped from taking photos in the drug store one day.
It's available at all grocery stores around here, but I never use it, since I can go shop during senior hours and feel quite safe. Everyone distances and wears masks. The entire back part of our local store is used for takeout orders now.
I have not seen any sign of it occurring here but we live in a rural area and these things typically are really delayed getting to us. Up until about three years ago, the gas station nearest the farm didn't have pay at the pump gas pumps.
I have seen them advertise home delivery service but they must do the selection and bagging of those orders outside of typical shopping hours because I never see employees picking out things. I just see the car going around town now and then. They have a minimum order and charge I think $5 for delivery so that might be some of the reason it isn't so popular.
My routine has always been to do my grocery shopping on Monday morning after this kids are dropped off for school. Most people I guess are still stocked up from the weekend so there is rarely but a handful of us in the grocery store shopping, even during the worst of the pandemic. I just make sure not to touch my face until I've dosed my hands in sanitizer back at my car.
David shops in person, but there is curbside pick up.
Available in Perth but I prefer to mask and pick up my own choices.
I've gone to pick up exclusively as the cases rise. Even though most people are masked, they are sometimes wearing the masks under their noses. I doubt that there's much risk, but the jury is still out on that.
I prefer doing it myself.
I've never used the service and wonder if I ever will. I cannot imagine anyone else selecting a cabbage, a squash, a bag of greens for me.
There seems to be a lot of store shoppers. I don't use them .Like you I like picking my own stuff. Sometimes more is needed than a list of items.
Our local grocery store has the drive-up pick-up but Costco doesn't. Leah (DIL) is our designated shopper for her family, me, her brother, and her grandparents. Bless her! I haven't been inside a store this entire year. I think it is a great service and hope they keep it up forever. :)
Doing my own grocery shopping is rare enough to be a treat nowadays; usually I phone in the morning and pick up my order at the back door near the end of the day. That's how long it takes them to fill it; I'm told they're very busy filling orders this way and that the employees hate it because they're run off their feet between that and all the sanitizing they now have to do. This pickup method seems safer, to me; and we wash everything too, even the boxes, if we let anything in further than the porch for the first three days after getting it home. Thursday night shopping is not at all crowded so if I do want to go in, that's when it will be. What I notice with some surprise is how many items we don't really need now that it's not handy to shop for them, and how much more simply we eat.
I guess we can only do what we can do, and not do, within reason, and hope for the best. So far life is going on; I hear people making travel plans, visiting plans, Christmas shopping plans, etc., in spite of all the news about numbers rising and the hospital staff begging people to stay home, trying to make us see how bad things are getting. Looks to me like we'll all pay in the end, even those who have curbed their usual activities a lot.
It seems like many are pretty sure it will be someone else spreading it around, not US!
Kate
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