Groceries online

Trying to avoid all those germs at the grocery store, so I ordered from Safeway, which is owned by some big chain, Harrelsons? I've done that before. at least twice and here in Baltimore they're very reliable in their delivery. Iiuc once the rules said someone had to be home, and I was home, but they just left it which was fine with me. I don't order ice cream.

But this time they sent me a text with a link to track my order. And it brings up an Olympse map with a pushpin for my house and a big red S for what's got to be the truck. It was southwest a little of Ellicott City, and then went north and a little west to ----chards.

It also says at the top, in red that it will be at my place in 1 hr 42 min, PLUS there's a clock and a numbers that says 1:14 PM, which is the time if you add 1:42 to the time when I brought up the page.

It give the drivers name, too, but that I wont' tell you.

This is fun. They ruined Amazon tracking, which was like watching a horse race, by having Amazon delivery where they give only start and end. This is, or I hope it is, like watching a cross-country race. I say hope because the truck hasn't moved for 5 minutes. Maybe he's unloading a really big order.

Ah, he's moving again. This map is strange. It has a button that shows two cars side by side. When the button is red, all the xways are red and most have green outlines on either side. When the button is tapped and it's white, the green goes away, and the red stays. I looked over the whole west side. I'm sure there is not heavy traffic or traffic jams at more than a couple places, but all the xways are red. In other maps the red is heavy traffic, but he seems to be zooming along an Xway now. (actually, it shows motion periodically, every minute or so.)

Now he's at the Beltway and he's heading away from me. No, no, turn around. But he still has an hour and 16 minutes. I'm sure he'll be close.

One "problem" is that the online store doesn't have everything the real store has, and even the real stores, despite how big they are, are missing a bunch of things. No nestles chocolate syrup even at the store. I'll have to check if other Nestle's stuff is there. I know no supermarket is big enough to sell everything that is for sale, but I wonder about th e syrup.

What about mini-bags of microwave popcorn. They dont' have that at the store, but I think I tried to find them online. Has everyone stopped selling those?

I look forward to when the solid-liquid modems are affordable, and we can dispense with using a truck for delivery.

Reply to
micky
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Thanks for disclosing your location. I will be in touch soon.

Reply to
Rod

I've thought about that, but most of what I buy is fresh produce and I want to be able to choose my own.

Cindy Hamilton

Reply to
angelica...

I prefer to avoid the Baltimore area myself. Now I understand Mickey's problems better knowing he lives there.

Reply to
invalid unparseable

They suddenly lowered this to to arrival at 12:35, in 30 minutes, but then the truck didn't move for 10 minutes, and they changed it to 12:51 in 12 minutes.

All of these times where within the window they had offered for $6, noon to 2PM. They have 2 hour windows all day long, and 4 hour windows for $2 less, like noon to 4. And for more, they sometimes have 1 hour windows done not by them but by partners. I think you can often get that-day delivery but next day is easy.

All the map showed for the truck's location was a white S in a red square with rounded sides and rounded corners. T hat's safeway's location. In a transparent red circle to show it's the truck.

But When it was about 15 minutes away, it changed from the S to outline of a panel truck (with the S on top), so you coudl see , presumably, which way he was headed.

Except that some of the time it kept spinning around, Left, right, left, all around to the right, all around twice to the left, on and on for 3 or 4 minutes. Then again later. Then at a red light. Then on Liberty Road. I asked the ddriver about it, but of course he didn't know. He suggested turning around in a driveway but it was far more than that, and one area I know t here are no driveways. So you computer guys out there, what's going on?

The truck was impressive. It was bigger than the average panel trukc. It has a big regular section, a refrigerated section, and aa freezer section. The driver, who wore a mask, as did I, told me it was okay to order ice cream. Before they sent an email when it was delivered, but with the real-time map on the phone, I might actually do that.

They forgot one item this time, the first time out of 3 or 4 deliveries $2. I'm sure they'll believe me and give me credit.

Hey, they also didn't send the Drake's cupcakes, but those never made the invoice. I had t hought I successfully ordered them, but the webpage could work better. Aha, the can of corn I thought I'd ordered didn't get listed, or charged, either.

They also hide the rules. There is probably a minimum order, but they don't say. Oh, finally, when you've chose some thigns and look at the shopping cart, it says how much more you need. But there should be one page where things are explained. The minimum is $30, but they often don't have things. What if that drops below the minimum? What if conceivably it makes my order so small I don't want to pay $6 for delivery. They don't say anywhere. If otoh, you only want a small amount, I think there are some fresh items they rarely have. You could order that to go over 30, if they don't cancel your order. You don't get to know what they don't have until the next morning when they're picking it.

"$20 Off + FREE Delivery on your first orderwhen you spend $75 or more*" But something went wrong the first time and I didn't get either The only offered remedy was for me to make another $75 order, not easy when you live alone. .

Watching the map he seemed to go to 3, conceivably 4 places in the hour before me. So my $6 won't even pay his salary, let alone the gas, maintenance, cost of the truck,and the salary of the pickers. I don't live in the sticks, but I suppose there are more dense areas where he'd get to 6 places in an hour, maybe more. But even that, Ithink they would lose money. He drove 3 miles from where I started watching to his first stop, then

The webpage could also be better. it shows what I ordered last time, to make it easy to order them again, but it should show everything I've ever ordered. How hard would that be?

And it has featured items which are pretty silly. They're nothing special, they're not marked down, so why would I want to eat t hose things compared to the thousands of things they sell.

Then they have "coupons and deals" . That's what reminded me I didn't get my corn. But what's the deal? 10 cents off. Better than another store that sold some things for 4 cents off. " Personalized Deal Unlimited use Expires: 10/06/20 " Unlimited but expires in 7 days. I'd better hurry if I want my dime.

They had a bigger selection of eggs than they do in the store. In the Giant, the egg section is 10 feet wide. At Safeway it's 3 feet wide, despite the store being enormous 20% bigger than the Giant I go to. Online they had lots of different eggs, including jumbo which I think they don't sell at the store. .

safeway.com

What about mini-bags of microwave popcorn. They dont' have that at the store, but I think I tried to find them online. Has everyone stopped selling those?

Reply to
micky

Cindy prefers large cucumbers.

Reply to
Rod

It may vary by region. I ordered something to be delivered to a friend in MA. First surprise, it was being delivered a day earlier than stated when I ordered.

I later got a delivery notice showing it was 10 stops away on a map. Once delivered, I got an email with a photo showing where the package was left.

Ten minutes later I got a text from my friends thanking me.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

prefers large cucumbers.

Two nuns are in the supermarket. They see the price sign for cucumbers,

3 for $1. They just stand there a moment and one says to the other "we could always eat one"
Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

My bad, misjudged the map 9, nine, miles from where I started watching until the first stop, 13 miles to the next stop. 31 minutes of driving for these first two stops. 7 miles and 10 minutes to the next stop. 4 miles and 11 minutes until my house.

It doesn't show me where he went next, but 33 miles and 53 minutes of driving for 4, maybe 5 stops has got to eat at their profits, even if they got 4 or 5 delivery charges 24 or 30 dollars. Maybe they're trying to build a customer base, or afraid of losing customers.

To remind me so I won't forget things like I did with one thing last night.

They do have minibags, just not at the store (I've looked thoroughly twice)

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Reply to
micky

As I said, they charged me for but didn't deliver a $2 item.

My question to you all is, Should I just forget it?

It's not good to let businesses take advantage of you or they do it even more, and in more ways, and to everyone else too. But this is the first discrepancy in 3 orders. Surely it must be a mistake.

And if I complain they'll yell at the pickers, or maybe they'll find the one for my order and they'll yell at him. They may even put something in his Permanent Record.

They'll probably take my word for it... what else can they do, search my house? And I already put it in the shopping cart for the next order. And they probably have a simple way to refund or put a credit in my account. Not counting the time they spend yelling at the pickers, less than 5 minutes So it wont' take them much time, why shouldn't I complain?

Unlike UPS, which has neither**, Safeway has phone number and a webform but I'd be just as happy using their webform, if I do anything.

Or should I just skip it.

**WRT the UPS problem, I called a UPS store and he gave me their 800 number, which I saw nowhere on their webpages,, but it offered only 4 choices, Track, Send, nnnnn, and Order Supplies. I tried dialing 0 and saying Operator and eventually it said, You can speak to an agent but only after you put in your tracking number. So I did, and then I said Agent some more, but it gave me the tracking information and hung up on me. Something happened in the middle, don't remember what, but maybe I'll try again
Reply to
micky

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