Wednesday, November 5, 2008

On Why I Won't Use Just Any Grocery Service

I joked when we moved here that the first thing I mastered was ordering groceries online. "Mastering" may have been an overstatement, as I may have forgotten to add some things to the list, and completely missed the fact that I could get toilet paper and other toiletries for a few weeks. Otherwise, ordering groceries online has been so much easier than I imagined, and I haven't even tapped into the plethora of prepared foods available on the site.
Until this past weekend, I never realized that the reason online shopping for groceries was so easy was that Fresh Direct has such a friendly site. We received a pack of coupons in the mail, and we couldn't resist one that offered $30 off a $75 order. Their site was horrible. Searching for items didn't bring up the most exhaustive list of possibilities in the world. It asked for specific weights on the meat, not how many of something I wanted. There were also items that I needed, but wasn't sure if they were what I wanted, like a meatball/meatloaf mix (is that pork and beef or does it have seasoning?).
I finally put together the order, and set it up for delivery the same night (which was nice). They called a short while before it was delivered to check on some things that they "didn't have." The first was the meatball mix, she said they had turkey or beef, which I assumed to mean ground turkey or meat, but actually meant frozen, pre-cooked meatballs, yuck. They were also out of the frozen edamame I needed for a recipe. When we finally got the groceries, I pulled out the bag of oranges and realized that there were additives in the oranges, specifically a coloring additive (for an orange?). Needless to say, I will not be using that service again. Back to the tried and true for me.

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