Sunday, January 31, 2016

I'm about to blow your mind

I posted several times on my other blog about how much I dreaded grocery shopping.

Who's with me??

First you have to come up with a menu. Then you have to make a grocery list. Then you have to go do the actual grocery shopping, either with several very bored children or in the evening when The Bachelor is on. Then you have to lug everything inside. Then you have to put it all away.

What if I told you that I have not set foot in the grocery store since Halloween?

Yet we are still eating :)

Did you know that Walmart offers a free grocery pickup service?!?

Here's how it works: you log on to Walmart's grocery website and select your store and a two hour pickup window. Then you fill your cart--you can search for products or browse departments. They don't carry everything that they have in stores, but nearly, and they add more products all the time. 


When you're done, you check out and receive a confirmation email. 
You can pick up any time during your selected two hour window. Once you get to Walmart, you just follow the signs in the parking lot for "Grocery Pickup" (mine is on one side of the store towards the back) and then call the pickup number to let them know you're ready for pickup. They'll bring your groceries right out and even load them up for you!

Let me tell you all the reasons I LOVE this:
1: First, the obvious. I do my grocery shopping from my couch, usually while watching epsidoes of Portlandia, and don't have to drag my children into the store.
2. It's so fast! If you click on the little hearts on the upper right hand corner of each item, it saves it to your favorites list. So when I'm making my grocery list, it's super easy to just scroll through my favorites and add whatever I'm out of. It only takes about 15 minutes to add everything I need to my cart.
3. There's a running total, so I can see when I get close to my budget and add/delete things as needed. Also, since I'm not wandering around the stores, I'm not tempted by all the random things on the shelves.
4. The produce is SO GOOD. I know some people are skeeved out by grocery shopping at Walmart--I've done my shopping there for years and had better luck with their produce than other grocery stores. But the produce when I do pickup service is amazing! I am pretty sure that they pull all the produce from the warehouse instead of rummaging around in the bins like all the other shoppers. Everything I've gotten is so fresh and good. The manager told me that the produce is inspected three times as it's being selected for each order and that if I'm ever unhappy with what I get, I can bring it back and exchange it. So far, it's all been great!
5. Occasionally after you select something, they will run out and have to substitute items (you can unclick a box for any items that you don't want substitutions for). The manager told me that they only ever substitute up in quality--but they always charge you the lowest price! That means that I often end up with name brand items, but still only have to pay the store brand price.

Trust me, this is a life changer. If you're interested in trying it, click here to get $10 off your first order!