LONDON (AP) — A pandemic forcing everyone to stay home could be the perfect moment for online grocery services. In practice, they’ve been struggling to keep up with a surge in orders, highlighting their limited ability to respond to an unprecedented onslaught of demand.
I’ve been eating lentils and brown rice almost daily for three weeks, augmented with whatever I can get my hands on. Pasta sauce? forgetaboutit!
Online services?
A. In my area, you never know what’s out of stock
B. I am concerned the deliverers lack basic protection, for their sake not mine
2 of the vendors normally supply produce to restaurants and are now doing curbside pickup.
In the US…
Also in the US, there are malicious actions from some people in grocery store(s) such a coughing into produce section…
Locally HEB (Texas) has been doing delivery and curbside service. So finally we tried curb side and it was not a bad experience at all. That was a toe in the water trip for us.
So I went to schedule another run for next week. Suddenly, they have zero slots open anywhere in town for any time in the future. From what I could find, they are saying they need to add personnel. Delivery is also the same. When I looked at points in the past recently, there were usually slots available a week out or so. I have to wonder if someone is gaming the system suddenly, like travel agencies that used to book up the best flights before you had a chance to make a reservation.
All the pick-up slots at my local Shop-Rite are filled up forever, so I’ve been forced to the evil Walmart.
Two day wait for a slot and not everything is available.
The pick-up process has been very smooth.
We have a local delivery service that gets their products from local growers. They have been doing this for several years but they have gotten slammed and had to stop taking new subscribers for now. We were lucky and subscribed before it got too bad. Whole Foods does deliveries and you can usually get your order within a couple of days. They are predicting NC to peak soon, which will let things cool down for a while but I worry about another outbreak when people relax, particularly because we are in a hot tourist spot.
Gee, one could not have anticipated that ESSENTIAL workers in grocery stores were going to get sick, could one? One could not have anticipated that they needed TESTS. God almighty, every day I get so fucking mad, I can’t stand it. Good thing our NBA players and oil executives got tested. Whew.
Maybe, but I think more likely they just don’t have the people. I was in store last week and saw several employees picking groceries for curbside or delivery. They looked a bit stressed.
HEB is trying hard to do the right thing. They had monitored/metered entry to limit the number of people in the store, and had tape on the ground so people waiting in line to enter were 6’ apart. They wiped down the carts and set them out for each customer. They asked everyone to use hand sanitizer at entry and exit. At checkout, they again had tape on the floor to keep people apart and had plastic screens up between the checkers and customers. It was very well organized.
Dal Bhat. There are entire countries that survive on the stuff!
Looked into the local Kroger-branded store pickup. Order online, pickup is free, but the earliest pickup date/time available was at least 6 days out.
(and they still don’t have any toilet paper)
The only reason I wondered about someone scooping up blocks of time was the change in availability was fairly immediate. After completing our pick up Sunday and we were pleased, we discussed the next run. My wife worked on her shopping list and I poked around at times. When we sat to do the order last night, suddenly nothing available. I was aware it might a week or so for a slot, but blank surprised me.
I change the add-ins and spices with each batch. The current one is more French than Asian. I got sliced pepperoni from a neighbor, so the next batch will lean toward the Italian.
Had a peach mango pie from Jolli Bee for dessert last evening. Such a treat 
Holy crap. British grocery stores have Patisseries? LUXURY. I grew up living in a shoebox in the middle of the road! We’d wake up at 3AM and have to lick the road clean with our tongues!*
We’ve been using Costco delivery and a local chain supermarket’s delivery as well. Delivery dates are 2-3 days out, but we live in a (so far) lightly-hit state, in suburban sprawl surrounded by farmland. I do not intend to go out into the plaguelands for at least 4 more weeks, if I can help it.
C’mon Josh, the problem isn’t completely empty store shelves. The problem is no one wants to work for instacart or any of the store picker operations. No mention of their strike?
Putting that pic showing shelves completely devoid of anything is just panic spreading clickbait. Unless of course that is reality in NYC.
I went to my local dollar store Saturday in a strip mall 2 hours after opening and they had a big display of toilet paper as you walked in and big set ups at the end of each register.
I’ve been to local grocery stores here in suburban Chicago over the last month and except for the day after Pritzker announced the stay home order (3-18) when ppl stocked up they were well supplied with about everything but TP.
Agreed. When I have gone in, excluding paper goods, things have improved steadily from the initial hit. My impression is I am just not there early enough before the Paper Goods are wiped out but they are being stocked. Images like that as statement of a blanket condition will create more panic buying.
One of our local chains has one-way aisles marked with yellow tape, which I think is brilliant. Hey, you there, no tailgating!!!
Just a PSA…
Although it beats starvation(!), the arsenic level in rice is a real problem – in all 60 varieties tested:
https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/01/how-much-arsenic-is-in-your-rice/index.htm
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about!
Likely, we would purchase, for years, via an online subscription fruit and vegs, got our delivery every week. All of a sudden 95% of selection is “sold out” about 5 minutes after we receive an email notice that the next weeks selection is available. My daughter called the place and they state, no they are not giving advance notice, and no just because business has picked up we should still have a wide selection. She then asked why they have not given long time customers preference or an advance email a few hours before newer customers. Silence was all she got back. About 2 days later we got an email from the firms president asking for patience, etc in this time of uncertainly. He asked for suggestions on how to service customers better. My daughter replied and asked same question as on the phone. Silence again was the response. Next selection day, the only products available were collard greens and kale. She cancelled her subscription. Of course a couple of days later another email from president. Our response, since you give a shit, actually used that word, about customers that had been with you from the 1st month, we don’t give a shit if you survive as a business.
My local Kroger was fully stocked with TP, actually had sales going on, no limits.