Getting Groceries While Trying Not to Catch a Disease (Covid-19)

My wife and I started reducing our interaction with the outside world in February. One of the ongoing issues for us is what to do about continuously supplying food for a family of 5 without taking unnecessary risks. High traffic = high risk, so we knew we didn’t want to go into a food store if we could help it. Even though we cannot completely escape the risk associated with goods and employees coming from a high traffic zone, we feel it is much easier to control exposure risks through this one point of contact, so we ordered groceries from several sources to be delivered to our home. Disclaimer: I am not sponsored by any of the grocery outlets mentioned in this article.

Walmart, Kroger, and Amazon each offer customers the option of home delivery of groceries if you’re living in supported areas. We’ve gone with all three, but our experience with all three was not equal. This was our first time trying home delivery of perishables from a grocery department, and I’ve got to say I was extremely surprised with how it turned out. Just so you know where I stand, we typically shop Aldi for the savings. On an average trip to Aldi, we typically spend at least $100 less than we would at Kroger. We can’t always find what we want at Aldi, so we tend to supplement by shopping at either Kroger or the Dekalb Farmers Market. We would only go to Walmart for very specific things or because my Boomer parents insist on it when we buy for them. Frankly, I detest Walmart business practices, but I also think the experience of shopping in their stores is a lot like dining at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Let’s just leave it at that. You can think all that through for yourself. Amazon was the furthest from our minds because of cost and uncertainty about where the food is coming from (but then, where does any of it come from?).

So, since we are creatures of habit, we tried Kroger first. We found the store app/pages to be frustratingly difficult to use, lacking in basic features such as clear labeling of cost per ounce, but also lacking in variety of goods available for home delivery. We were able to purchase some fresh produce (celery stalks), but it’s sometimes confusingly difficult for me to keep the ship-from-warehouse and deliver-from-store items separate, so if you want something delivered quickly rather than waiting for a few days, that’s something to note. A lot of the items available online seemed to cost more than we could get by going into the store, but I did not track the prices and compare them. I’m sharing my general impressions on the matter. Some things for long-term storage had to be ordered to ship from warehouse, and this was the worst of our experience with Kroger. At least 5 cans were partially crushed, even though the boxes and their other contents arrived in perfectly fine shape, and the damage was so bad we had to carefully inspect for any punctures. Also, several items which should have at least a one year shelf life were nearly expired. One bag of rice was covered with dirt or mud splatter and looked like it had been sitting on the floor of the warehouse for quite a long time. Somebody could’ve wiped that off before sticking it in a box.

Going by our (albeit limited) experience, I would guess that Kroger will not be in the home delivery grocery supply business for long. They shipped $250 worth of groceries to us in 9 separate shipments. Eight went by Fedex. The ninth went by USPS, and when it arrived, we opened it to find a single regular-sized can of food, something that could easily have been tossed in among the other boxes. How much this had to cost them, I cannot even begin to guess, but it was free shipping, so there’s that. As for time total for goods to arrive, the delivery-from-store option has usually been next day, while the ship-to-home option took a few days to arrive.

Now, Kroger didn’t send everything we bought. They give you the option of whether or not to allow substitutions, but I refuse to do that since our experience with Kroger has taught us that if something isn’t marked in store, it’s going to cost a lot more than you think. I cannot imagine how much our order might have cost us if we’d allowed them to replace items they were out of. They might place blame with us since we didn’t allow them to fulfill the order in the manner available to them, but I would say that their failure to accurately track their own inventory is not my problem. If they don’t know they have it in stock, they shouldn’t be offering it online, not that I want their already paltry variety of goods available to be lessened. I just want them to ship or deliver what they say they have available to ship or deliver.

Now, about our experience with Walmart. One of the things Kroger failed to deliver is a necessity for us, so we turned to Walmart next. It should come as no surprise, since Walmart has been selling goods online for some years now, their app/store page was much easier to use (and they offer a price per ounce breakdown). I was not that pleased with variety of goods available, and in some cases it seemed that they just didn’t sell their store brand versions online. We ended up spending well more than we wanted, but that’s not the worst of it. The worst of it, after waiting 2 days for something (after having waited a couple of days already for Kroger to end up not delivering it), we were running out of it, and when it arrived IT WAS 2 MONTHS PAST EXPIRATION. This was an item that has a one year shelf life typically, but they made us wait 2 days to receive goods that had expired 2 months prior to purchase. Never again. Also, my parents complained that they delivered stale bread (but then again, they said Kroger had done the same).

So, why not Amazon? What worse could they do than make us wait days and days to not deliver something or send it crushed or already expired? Actually, I found shopping with them a breeze. Not only was the app/store page easy to use (it always is for whatever else we’ve bought), the goods the other stores, the actual grocery stores, couldn’t deliver in edible condition after waiting days? Those same goods arrived from Amazon in great condition, unexpired, and not only that, they arrived that evening, less than six hours after purchase. We’ve also been impressed with all of the produce they’ve sent. I couldn’t have picked better if I’d done the shopping myself. Grocery shopping at Amazon is now a thing for us while we try to ride this thing out with as much social distance (isolation) as we can manage. At the very least, of the three companies we bought from, Amazon was the only one which seemed not to be trying to palm off goods that customers would never buy were they to see it for themselves in the store. For all they are doing wrong, at least Amazon seems to be getting the basics in online grocery shopping right.

God bless!

P.S. Given the latest evidence of how long Covid-19 can survive in the air and on surfaces, strongly consider having an area apart where delivered groceries can be kept in isolation up to three days. Wash your hands after handling anything new coming into your home. After going out in public, change your clothes and take a shower or bath before interacting with anyone who stays at home. Pray. A lot. Remember that God is generous and patient, slow to anger, but quick to forgive. And He’s never very far from any one of us, waiting, waiting, patiently waiting for us to turn to Him for help. If you don’t want Him in your life, He rarely will go against such feelings. But if you want Him there, there He will be, willing to work with each of us where we are, urging us toward the life He wants for us. Until the time when He says, “Enough. It is finished.” Whether that statement is for one person, a house, a whole people, or the entire world, only God can say.

P.P.S. Update 3/19/20: It has become impossible to get things as quickly from Amazon now that many people are doing the same. And their bread selection is horrible. Amazon, if you’re listening, where are the reasonably priced whole wheat loaves? Looks like we’ll be making our own. God bless!