Tuesday, March 14, 2006

The internet contributes to the softening of the brain

In previous entries, I have sung the praises of using Safeway.com for grocery purchases. One of the nice features is that if you place your order prior to 9:30 they have same day delivery available. Actually, if you place your order prior to 9:30 and if they have available delivery slots, you can get same day delivery.

Well, this morning, I got up early, planned menus for the week and got the order in. When I went to check out, not only were all of the Tuesday slots taken, but all of the Wednesday slots too! I've never seen it booked that far in advance - though the $10 coupon they emailed me probably triggered a lot of people to order this week.

I was at a loss - I really didn't have time to go shopping, but we needed food. We had less than a cup of milk and no bread - cereal and peanut butter and banana sandwiches are pretty popular amongst the under 5 foot crowd in my house. Plus, I really like cooking and cooking with my kids, which I can't do with out food.

This evening, after eating dinner (yes, we went out to Panera, since Chipotle wasn't open yet), I went to Safeway. This is the first time in probably two months that I've been to a grocery store to buy a full week's worth of food. Yeah, I've been in for a block of cheese or chips and soda before a kid party, but shopping for a week's worth of food takes organization.

You buy the canned food first, then the produce (so it isn't smashed by the cans) and then the refrigerated and frozen foods (so they don't get temperature abused). You need to have a list that is organized the way you think about the shopping trip. I had my print out from the online shopping - it was organized alphabetically, not the way I think about shopping (hard stuff first, then smashables, then cold stuff).

I found the shopping trip difficult. I couldn't find anything and had to wander all over the store. I think the kids were being rambunctious, but I also attribute a lot to the fact that I'm out of practice shopping. I've gotten used to the weekly shopping trip being a 15 minute sit down in front of the computer - not wandering through the store for an hour...

This is one of the negative side affects of the internet - I'm losing my grocery shopping skills!

1 comment:

Mark said...

I have that experience every time I set foot in a Safeway, even if it's only to buy bread or cheese. I think the disorientation has something to do with the displays of newly invented foods "Yogurty-Fruity Oreos anyone?" that crowd the entrance to the store. They throw off my whole gameplan.