As I was riding the T on the way back to work I saw an advertisement for www.peapod.com, which is an online grocery store connected to Stop & Shop. I was instantly intrigued. Could grocery shopping, one of the banes of my domestic life, really be made simpler through the Internet? Getting groceries has always been an ordeal, because besides having to create a list of things to buy, I have to arrange a time when I can have the car, since Taylor and I share a vehicle and he usually has it. Then there's the actual trip to the store, which takes at least two hours because I can never find some obscure but necessary item on my list.
"Okay, where the heck are the slivered almonds?"
Plus, inevitably I always come home and realize that I forgotten some item that's so important I can't understand how I possibly forgot it in the first place.
"Oh, toilet paper! I knew I was forgetting something important. I wonder how long we can stretch the kleenex until I get back to the store?"
When I got home I looked up this service online, and indeed, it appeared to be the solution to my dilemma. I excitedly told my husband about my new discovery, but he failed to share my enthusiasm. He raised up all these rational objections to purchasing groceries online, and effectively killed my own interest.
"Fine," I said. "I won't order groceries online. But we have to go tomorrow morning so I can have the car."
"That's fine," he said.
Until the next morning, that is.
"Are you ready to go grocery shopping?" I asked.
He stretched and yawned. "You know, I think we should give ordering online a chance."
Oh really?
So, Taylor lay on the couch and watched TV while I happily perused the online aisles. It was quite enchanting to be able to type in whatever I needed in the search box and, with one click of a mouse, add it to my shopping cart. Better still I was able to do this in my pajamas (Now, in theory I could have gone to the grocery store in my pajamas anyway, but for some reason one always seems to run into beautiful and well-dressed female friends when one does this, which is why I always dress up before going to the store. But that's another topic altogether).
Before I knew it, all my grocery shopping was done, and I never had to get up out of my chair(And we wonder why America is getting fat?).
The next day, my groceries arrived, and that's when I discovered that though convenient, online groceries shopping does have it's pitfalls. Several items were smaller than I thought they'd be, such as the 14 ounce jar of peanut butter I only paid a dollar for. Believe me, 14 ounces isn't as much as you'd think. And then there was the question of whether I should tip the delivery guy, but he didn't hold out his palm at anytime, so I decided to err on the side of stinginess. After all, I did pay a whole $6.95 delivery fee, so that should cover it, right? I bet he's with his coworkers right now saying "That Quarry Street chick is such a tightwad. We should spit in her bagels next time." Eww.
But I would have to say that the risks of delivery guy spit is definitely worth the convenience. It also made me marvel at what a cool place I live in, that I could have my groceries delivered to me! Definitely didn't have that amenity down South. I mean, back in Arkansas, we couldn't even get Chinese delivered. Now if that isn't the definition of backwardness, I don't know what is.
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2 comments:
Backwards - adj. where Chinese food is not available by order-in, as in, "Arkansas, where Chinese food is not available by order-in, sure is backwards!"
Amazing. Yet another reason why it's nice to be out of Arkansas--they just keep popping up.
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