Very difficult or impossible to schedule grocery deliveries

[HDFan]

Cross posted from

How Will You Spend The Stimulus Money?

This thread is directed for folks in the US. Wondering how you plan on spending the upcoming stimulus funds. As of now, it looks like it will be between $1000 and $200 per adult. For my wife and I, we'll just save it. Other thoughts?

forums.macrumors.com

Not on groceries, at least for online delivery. Before you could pick and choose a time and order anything no problem but for weeks now there is simply no delivery available at any time on any day from the likes of Amazon fresh, Safeway, etc where I live (SF bay). Obviously unprepared and maybe that’s understandable but there’s nothing in terms of any public update as to when deliveries will resume. Visiting their websites to order is currently a big waste of time. And the response so far is just the typical corporate nonsense about all the great things there are doing responding to the Coronavirus, but as always actions speak louder than words.

On the other hand, Grubhub, which I never thought was particularly great for restaurant deliveries, has really stepped up their game and service from them in my area is actually markedly better now than it was before. But the big players like Amazon of all places seem stymied. Go figure.

Off the subject, although it is impossible to get a Whole Foods delivery via Amazon, I have been able to see delivery times for Safeway via Instacart, although haven't used:

I’ve used them. Scheduling and delivery seems to be fine but the problem is that at least so far they don’t/can’t deliver about half of what you order through them so apparently they don’t update inventory often or often enough.

Inventory is a problem everywhere. By the time the shopper gets to the shelf the item may have been taken by a shopper in the store or another shopping service. Can't blame them for that.

Local television station KPIX in their 6 pm news promo said that they would be having a segment on the problem getting deliveries. When the segment was going to be shown they said that there would be a delay and it will shown tomorrow (Wednesday 2020.03.25) night. Things are messed up everywhere.

 

[HDFan]

In terms of availability, my Whole Foods/Amazon list originally had about 32 items. Every time I try to checkout and can't get a delivery time it removes items that are no longer in inventory. From 32, to 25, to 20, etc. items were left in cart when I couldn't schedule a delivery. Count today: 5!

Instacart now has a 4 day waiting period in my area. Whole Foods actually has a slot tomorrow evening!

 

[Thomas Veil]

I have tried to use my grocery chain's pickup service for a week now. They show delivery slots for the four or five upcoming days, and every day every slot is filled. I've tried other stores and had the same problem.

Luckily when my kids shop for themselves, they shop for us as well.

 

[44267547]

In terms of availability, my Whole Foods/Amazon list originally had about 32 items. Every time I try to checkout and can't get a delivery time it removes items that are no longer in inventory. From 32, to 25, to 20, etc. items were left in cart when I couldn't schedule a delivery. Count today: 5!

Instacart now has a 4 day waiting period in my area. Whole Foods actually has a slot tomorrow evening!

It seems Instacart might be ceasing services within a week, as employees are allegedly forming a ‘strike’ against the company for not looking out for their best interest. I read a brief article on it, I don’t know how accurate it is, but that could seriously pose a problem for those who want to use/need that specific service.

Truth be told, I give Instacart employees a lot of credit, because they have to venture into grocery stores, [which is one of the last places I would want to be in personally], and they’re doing what they need to on the front lines to assist those who want the service.

 

[HDFan]

As bad as the situation is now we are coasting, using our fat reserves. For some people it is an inconvenience, for others it is a disaster. If it continues on for a long period of time we'll have used up all the fat and start eating into muscle.

As an example, say all of your appliances are still working. But as time goes on and, say, your refrigerator fails you have a problem. Best Buy will only deliver to your door - no more installations.

Millions of people are working in stores, distribution centers, food plants to keep us fed. What happens when they all start getting ill? With basically all planes grounded except for some airfreight flights, we are using up stocks of supplies which can't immediately be replaced. And that is if the product is even being produced, with all of the world-wide shutdowns.

There are the lupus patients who are dependent on a drug where demand has gone up 3000% due to a certain individuals misstatement. What happens when all supplies are gone and we don't have the supplies to manufacture more?

The longer this goes the more millions will be out of work. Even those who aren't experiencing serious problems now may be in trouble in the future.

 

[jeyf]

this reads like a script from Schitts Creek.

 

[Gutwrench]

I haven’t used curbside delivery and won’t unless I get sick.

Minnesota went on lockdown Friday at 11:59 pm. I went to the store at 5 pm expecting a crowd but nope. The crowd was at 7 am. 😆 I still got what I came for and more (just like normal). There was plenty of everything...well I don’t know about paper products because don’t buy them at a grocery store.

 

[Huntn]

I haven’t used curbside delivery and won’t unless I get sick.

Minnesota went on lockdown Friday at 11:59 pm. I went to the store at 5 pm expecting a crowd but nope. The crowd was at 7 am. 😆 I still got what I came for and more (just like normal). There was plenty of everything...well I don’t know about paper products because don’t buy them at a grocery store.
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Thank you for editing your post because that was not said. Politics don’t belong here anyway.

Yesterday, (Saturday) I visited the local Walmart around lunch time to buy some synthetic oil for my Fiat 500 oil change. Yes, they had it, but despite cars in the parking lot, my section of the store was empty. They must have all been down in the grocery section. There was plenty of oil on the shelves.

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[Gutwrench]

Yesterday, (Saturday) I visited the local Walmart around lunch time to buy some synthetic oil for my Fiat 500 oil change. Yes, they had it, but despite cars in the parking lot, my section of the store was empty. They must have all been down in the grocery section. There was plenty of oil on the shelves.

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I went to CVS yesterday for my crazy pills and it was fully stocked and empty. No wait at the pharmacy and maybe two other shoppers in the store. Oh, not fully stocked I guess. There was some limited paper products. I was looking for Perfect Fit tissues but those were MIA. 😞

 

[HDFan]

I just saw the first scarcity for an item that is not on the priority list. When I search Amazon for a common digestive aid I usually get pages and pages of sellers. Yesterday there were just 3, one offering the 8 dollar product for $21. Same thing on google products, just a couple of listings. Tried one of those and it was sold out.

The Amazon scarcity is expected due to their freeze on non-critical items in their warehouses until April 5. Very interesting video about the thousands of sellers they have had to remove due to price gouging and other covid 19 issues.

 

[jeyf]

amazon, wholeFoods whatever
with or without the pandemic; remember to completely wash the items u buy

 

[Tomorrow]

We've been ordering our groceries from Walmart for years. Now that they've cut back their hours, it's very difficult (comparatively) to schedule a pickup time, and certain items aren't even listed as available for pickup - even though they're on the shelves.

I tried making an Instacart order from Costco, and it was a cluster; most of our items were "out of stock," so our shopper selected items that were either nowhere near what we wanted, or were about double the price of what we ordered. I won't be doing that again (although I fault Instacart for that, not Costco).

Aldi did an okay job the first time we used them, but their selection is very limited.

 

[44267547]

I got to say, I really give credit to these ‘InstaCart‘ shoppers or any of these delivery employees that are making grocery runs for families. We all know grocery stores are a zoo right now, and many of them in my area are hiring three times With staff they had before to keep up with restocking, sanitization and logistics.

if it wasn’t for these delivery company/employees, it would only create a larger swath of people flocking to grocery stores to find what they need, and that’s the last thing we want, as the goal is to keep large crowds forming in places like grocery stores. I admit, there’s no way I would want to be an Instacart shopper, but they deserve everything they earn and more.

 

[0388631]

While I don't like them, I relish for the day I see a stupid Buzzfeed article reflecting back on this mess and how the world moved on and bettered ourselves.

 

[jeyf]

amazon Instacart going on strike
whatever

 

[LizKat]

amazon Instacart going on strike
whatever

Sounds to me like their complaints are justified, I hope they are looked after better. I certainly have appreciated their work all along, and doubly so during the pandemic... and my tips to the Instacart workers have reflected that. I'd hope that people receiving a stimulus payment and using Instacart would bump up their tips too if they can. I think Instacart should bump up the default tip once stimulus checks go out. There are some thoughtless people out there and they didn't become thoughtful just because of covid_19.

 

[Thomas Veil]

I went to CVS yesterday for my crazy pills...

You too, huh? 😄

Yesterday I tried giving grocery pickup another go, this time with a family-owned grocery chain. Their message said their pickup dates are filled for the next two weeks--which, it added, is the longest period its software can accept.

Yeesh.