Ellsass

Home delivered groceries

I love shopping online. I don’t find much appeal in trekking to a traditional brick-and-mortar shop during whatever their hours happen to be, forcing a smile when the cashier mentions the weather, and waiting in endless lines. So it was with great excitement that I discovered that finally, in 2011, I can have groceries delivered to my suburban home for a reasonable price. Specifically, ShopRite in Niskayuna offers both in-store pickup (free) and at-home delivery at least as far as Latham (free until Thanksgiving for $50+ orders, otherwise a very fair $6.95 fee).

So how did it go? The ride was a little bumpy, likely due to ShopRite being very new in the area, but it all worked out well.

It starts with the web site. ShopRite.com doesn’t make a big deal about it, but the link is there offering the ability to shop online. I was brought to a 2002-style third-party site. Nothing to look at, but functional. It’s designed for browsing — very few featured items are suggested up front, and instead you’re left to browse or search for items you have in mind. Which is great for me, because that’s how I shop in person.

The prices are the same as in the store. All of the sales and specials are represented. No hidden fees, no BS, just food. You can be specific about amounts, for example choose meat items in quarter-pound increments and produce per unit or pound.

I picked my items and checked out. There was a disclaimer that some items could be substituted but that I would be notified first. I was given the opportunity to enter the number on my obligatory shopper’s “saving” card. I’m not sure about coupons; I didn’t have any to use, and I didn’t look around for where I could enter one.

The delivery options were decent. I was shown a calendar with available dates for both in-store pickup and home delivery. It was Monday evening and the first available days were Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. After choosing a day I was asked which time slot I wanted. Fortunately the options were not too cable company-esque — I had the choice of three different 2-hour windows in the late morning, afternoon, and evening. I chose 19:00-21:00 (that’s 7pm to 9pm, of course).

I got an email receipt detailing each item and the amount which was convenient because I needed to run to the store in the meantime (how barbaric!) and didn’t want to buy any duplicates.

The day of reckoning arrived. This is where ShopRite stumbled. About an hour before my window opened, I received a phone call but missed it. I called ShopRite back and could only call customer service who tried to connect me to the delivery department. I ended up on hold for 18 minutes listening to some pleasant golden oldies (no muzak!) before I gave up and tried later. During the second attempt the call routing system failed miserably, constantly directing me back to the main menu after a few rings. Finally I got through to a person and she suggested (but couldn’t verify) that my missed phone call was probably about a substitute item.

I got the sense that this whole delivery thing was very new to the employees there. Although there were other deliveries being made the same evening by the store’s two drivers, as soon as I gave my name I could practically hear the woman on the phone nodding knowingly and the words she chose suggested there weren’t more than a couple deliveries that evening.

Nevertheless, my delivery was late. Very late. I got a call at 21:45, 45 minutes after the delivery window closed, politely and apologetically informing me of the delay and asking if I’d like to wait another hour. I didn’t mind since there were no ‘emergency’ groceries and it wasn’t a school night. The driver finally arrived at 22:35, an hour and a half after the close of my chosen time slot.

My groceries were intact and in good condition.  It all came in double-packed plastic and paper bags with just a few items per bag; not too green, but relatively fail-safe.

The groceries appeared as if someone walked around the store and filled up a cart on my behalf — and actually, that’s exactly what ShopRite’s web site says they do. Produce was dropped into plastic produce bags, and meat was measured and metered and tagged. I didn’t order anything overly fragile like eggs or tomatoes, but my broccoli and meat was not smashed or damaged in any way. One package of ground beef was leaking slightly from the bottom, but meat is sometimes like that in the store, so I don’t blame it on the delivery process.

It turned out that one item (by-the-pound pork liver) was not available, and therefore not delivered or charged. Several others claimed to be substitutions, but I got the same items that I ordered. I was given a very detailed listing of my items and it looks like the “substitutions” were either a change in SKU or a different weight (eg, I got three-quarters of a pound of Parmesan cheese instead of a quarter).

All in all I’m happy with the experience. In the future, the $6.95 delivery fee means I’ll probably only use the service when I am planning to make a pretty big purchase and don’t feel like wading through the crowded aisles. For anything time sensitive (i.e., specific items for a planned dinner party or barbecue) I recommend padding your delivery time by a day since my delivery could very well have been moved to the next day. But overall I found the experience acceptable and would recommend it for the occasional restocking of the fridge and pantry.