The girls always enjoy having a purposeful trip to the store. Coincidentally, I always have trips to the store…not necessarily enjoyable.
Over the past decades we learned to head inside with a deep breath and a prayer. I know that the girls will want to assist with the task. They will want to find certain items to add to the cart. Subsequently, I can guarantee they’ll go rogue when it comes to the list. Next they’ll get distracted in the aisles and take out a few people with their wheelchairs when they lose focus. As a result, I have ten extra gray hairs when we leave. But we do it anyway. Life skills. Entertainment.
The Pandemic of 2020 changed how we do our grocery shopping.
For a few months I was the only one, the designated shopper, who went into grocery store. Thankfully, the girls understood the fears and stopped asking to join. By early summer I realized that my attitude towards getting groceries had changed and I dreaded the whole ordeal.
Although a little late to the game, I finally tried ordering groceries online for curbside pickup. I love it.
Somehow browsing the virtual aisles still brings me a sense of calm and accomplishment. I really don’t miss masking up. Additionally, I appreciate the ease to match my selections to the weekly sales. For the most part I have been pleased by the produce and meat selections. What I really love is that someone else brings the bags outside and loads them up in my hatch with a simple wave good-bye. The extra fee for the service is $3.00.
An added benefit is that I am not tempted by the “extras” to throw in my cart for late night snacking.
My husband noticed THAT pretty quickly. I am still convincing him that it is an added benefit. I think the reason it pleased me is because I have started a nutrition program with the NOOM app that encourages a lot of psychology tricks. Avoiding the routine of grabbing impulsive snacks definitely helps! (Want to join me? 20% off HERE)
But recently the routine changed. This isn’t a post about shopping online…exactly. My daughters want to do the shopping with the assistance of their caregivers.
They have gotten bored. However, I was slow to jump on that bandwagon seeing how I enjoy my new ritual. Recently I checked my developing online list to see if they could do any of the shopping. That’s when I discovered something exciting: the list includes corresponding product pictures. I had never noticed that. Not only that, but it is organized by aisle/category. After a few quick moments of further research, I discovered I could print the entire thing!
Because you don’t actually need to purchase anything, it seems you could use ANY online grocery site and just hit PRINT instead of going to check out.
You may want to do a quick trial run before you get too far into your list to check if your store prints the list with actual pictures of the products.
Our home area is surrounded by Giant supermarkets. So I used the Giant online shop. You could use that too. Find it HERE. Or you may want to check out your local grocer online so the sales and items match your location.
I have been shopping online enough times that it has a tab of past purchases which help me add items I tend to pick up often, lickety split! When I want multiple quantities of an item I trace over the amount with a highlighter so they notice what we need. You may also want to note if you’d like them to substitute items should they be out of stock. Finally, if they were accurate, the total should be very similar after coupons at check-out!
This turned into a win-win situation for all!
I am still able to browse the online aisles at my leisure. Then, I add things to my cart in preparation for pick-up. But if the girls decide to do the shopping instead, I simply print a couple copies for them to study and follow at the store. Finally, I delete my online cart to clear it for they next order. They have an easy pictorial list to follow, I have a completed chore and, best of all, I can still avoid the creepy clean-up robot lurking in the aisles. blech.
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The creepy robot cleanup guy lurking in the aisles. Ha!