E-SHOPPING: GROCERIES, ETC.

So the whole “brick and mortar” shopping experience is to be undone by e-commerce?  The stock price of companies owning such stores are being devestated right now.

Grocery store shopping experience is to be undone by ordering your groceries over the internet.  Curiously, 70 yrs ago I worked for a grocery company whose prime business was delivering groceries.  Yes, you could come to the store and pick out what you wanted, but most of the business involved people calling in and getting their groceries delivered.

Let me tell you something, that way you got the worst produce, the beat up cans, and fattest, oldest meat, if that is what there was.  The good stuff was saved for the walk-in customers.

I know because one summer I was a grocery delivery boy It was the toughest job physically that I ever had.  It was tough because most people that ordered groceries lived on the second or third floor walk-up apartments.  And they would wait until they had a full box or two to be delivered.  So there were lots of canned goods and milk, and a box was H-E-A-V-Y.  Also back in the store I had to haul sacks of potatoes and bags of sugar and flour bags, maybe up to 70 pounds each so I had to do them one at a time.  But here in, I want to impress you that when you order groceries on the internet, you get what someone else picks out for you.

Personally, I am unimpressed even with ordering clothes on the internet.  If you don’t like what you get, then you may be holding the bag or return it.  I find returning things to be a great trial.  I wanted a white short-sleeved shirt and finally got one that fit on the third try.  In the meantime I had to wait to get a shirt to try on and then return it.  As I recall, I also had to pay to return the item.  I’m surprised so many people are happy to live that way, say order three dresses and maybe keep one and return the others.

I’ve had good luck with shoes, but I pretty much know my size and haven’t had to return a pair yet.  But I wanted a small date book for 2017 that I could put in my breast pocket.  I used to be able to buy small date books in the store say something like 2.5 in. By 4 in.  Ordering it the first time I got one the size I wanted , but it was for 2016, not 2017!  Are their really people that order year-old date books?  The second attempt resulted in my getting two (2) little notebooks.  On the third try I got a 2017 date book that is 2.5 in. by nearly 6 in.  Exhausted, I decided to go with it.

I’m not surprised that Amazon wants to get into the “brick and mortar” stores.  There many be fewer stores but, folks, they ain’t goin’ away any more than TV destroyed movie theaters.