Grocery Shopping Online-Delivery

Last night I was eagerly awaiting the delivery of my groceries. My window for delivery was 6:30-9:30pm and I answered the knock on the door at 6:28. The delivery lady was very nice and offered to bring everything inside and unload the boxes for me. Nice service!

My main concerns were that the fresh items (milk, meat, juice etc) would be close to their used-by dates. They weren't. I was also worried that the fruit and vegies might not be the ones I'd chose; they might be bruised or over ripe. They weren't.
I was really happy with the whole experience, the only thing I found disappointing was the excessive use of plastic bags. At a time when the shops (and the community) seem much more environmentally conscious, I would have expected some other form of bagging the groceries.
As much as I dislike grocery shopping, I am looking forward to my next online shopping experience, just a little.

Gorcery Shopping Online

Yesterday morning I went grocery shopping dressed in my pajamas, without having brushed my teeth and wearing no shoes. In fact, I was even sitting down the whole time! I shopped online from the comfort of my couch.
My frustration and dislike of grocery has been developing slowly over the last 12 months and I am now at the stage where I have decided to do something significant about it. I read a news paper article a few weeks ago outlining the pros and cons of online grocery shopping and had done a little research of my own before yesterday's trial.
Farmers Direct has much cheaper (free) delivery than the major supermarkets but it didn't seem like I could pick my own combination of fruit and vegies. I would have to buy a box of what they had selected for me. This didn't really suit me, plus they only sell fresh foods and I needed to buy rice and other pantry items.
From what I could recall, Woolworths offer cheaper delivery than Coles so I thought that might be the way to go. However, when I attempted to do some shopping in the fruit and vegetables section I found that didn't suit me either. Woolworths showed the price of buying items individually, for example buying 1 capsicum. It didn't show the price per kilo or the average weight for one item. This was no good I decided, I wanted to compare the price per kilo.
Coles Online was where I ended up ordering from. They showed the price per kilo of fruit and veg, the average weight of one item and the price per individual item. Perfect.
It took me a while to do my shopping, this was my first visit to the online supermarket after all. But as with any trip to a new store, I will get used to it and find my way around much faster the more I visit. Plus, my previous shopping trip is remembered so it will save me lots of time next trip because as T said, 80% of what I buy each time is probably the same.

Of course online shopping has its disadvantages, for example:

• Not picking out your own vegies that look to be the freshest ones there
• Not being able to pick the items with the longest time before the used-by date
• Not being able to compare or even read the nutritional content on the labels
• Not being able to spot the discounted items reduced for quick sale
• Having to pay a delivery fee ($11 for me this time)
• No delivery of groceries on the weekends

But there are also plenty of advantages to shopping online:

• Not having to leave home; you don't have to find a carpark, battle any crowds or even get dressed!
• Not being tempted by things you don't really need
• Being able to check in the cupboard or a recipe book instantly to see if you do or don't need to purchase something
• It will absolutely save time when I am used to the process
• You can see how much you are spending as you go

All in all, I was pretty happy with the experience and will definitely try it again a few times before making a final judgement. Now I'm just looking forward to Monday evening when I'll get all my groceries delivered. Hopefully they are gentle with the eggs!