I think at this point supermarkets should go full on online ordering and pickup. No need to stock shelves or man registers, everyone employed is just filling orders and passing them out. Hell you could even have a drive through setup. Point is, if the whole store is focused on filling orders, it would be much easier and faster to use online shopping.
Yes people who aren’t internet savvy will suffer but those folks are pretty much ready to move into the rest home anyway and the 99% of us will be much better off.
Only downside is not being able to pick your own produce. Not sure how to work that out.
Yeah, this isn't an insignificant hurdle to overcome - just ask my wife. She did Fred Meyer's curbside or whatever it's called once. ONCE. She was furious at their produce selection, to the point she complained. Can't remember why she did this - Covid maybe? I don't know, but she was livid.
You can't have Cletus from the Simpsons picking out avocados for housewives.
I'm guessing it depends on the store you are shopping from. We've been using HEB delivery for about seven years now. (I was an early adapter.) We rarely get incorrect stuff. Three times in seven years seems like a good record. And the error is easily corrected by calling the help line. An actual human takes care of the issue. Even the produse has been good.
I like shopping online.
I can browse all the stuff without dealing with anyone. And I can shop at one in the morning. It's like being back in college.
The only problem I have is that I have no idea how to get green bananas. The ripe ones are not my thing.
Do people at stores really bother you that much? I mean, sure, sometimes someone is blocking the aisle, but I'd say 9 out of 10 times I go grocery shopping it is a completely painless process. Yeah it might take a bit to check out, but I'm usually not in some hurry.
For me, the apps are a pain. Sorry, log in again. Ooops, wrong password. Do a search, and it comes up with a million things that are somewhat-related to what you're looking for but not the exact thing. Ooops, app crashed. Start over. Please re-input your credit card number. Oh, and then it's like playing inventory roulette with getting exactly what you want dropped into your trunk or delivered.
Rather just go spend 30 minutes at a store and get what I need *AND* impulse buy.