Here are some of the things I love:
- I don't have to go into the store at all and do the Covid-avoidance-tango with other shoppers. This was more of an issue before the mandatory mask mandate came into effect.
- ordering via the PC Express app is pretty seamless and effortless - it keeps a list of a my regularly ordered items and I just have to scroll and tap and... voila, instant list
- they often have promos - buy $100 of groceries and get $20 worth of PC Optimum Points - what's not to love?!
Here are some of the things I hate:
- not everything is listed on the PC Express app - particularly things down the Asian/International aisle. For instance, I want Ground Ginger (ginger powder) - all it shows me is the small 150 g bags of NoName ginger and yet... I know that there are bigger (cheaper) bags of ground ginger down the international aisle... and yet I can't order them
- hiccups with the ordering process - for the last two weeks, I have put an item into my virtual shopping cart (a package of mixed organic greens) and... for two weeks in a row, that item has magically vanished from the cart... unbeknownst to me... I only notice when I get home and there is no package of mixed greens. I go back to the online order and... it's not there either. I'm going to have to pay extra special attention to my ordering process to see at what point it disappears
- getting the wrong price/weight - one week, we ordered Lo Bok (daikon radish) and it was rung through at a ridiculous price - 600 g of daikon was incorrectly weighed at over 1 kg. So, a $1 chunk of daikon ended up costing us $17. Yes, I phoned it in and they refunded the money in full but...
- I have to hound them for getting refunds. With the incorrectly weighed daikon, I phoned it in the same day and was told it would be a couple of weeks. Nothing. I phoned again. They had no record of my earlier call. I was told it would be a couple of weeks. Nothing. I phoned again and finally got someone who made sure that the refund was processed.
- getting the wrong thing - there was one week, we had ordered Lo Bok and received Bok Choy. Clearly the picker just saw "Bok" and ran with it. After the fiasco with the incorrectly weighted daikon, we just sucked up our ire and cooked the Bok Choy in some stir fry. I now have an added note to our Lo Bok item that describes it as a big long white root, not Bok Choy!
- getting more expensive substitutions - there was one week, we had ordered a 4 kg jug of epsom salts for $8. They substituted with two 2 kg jugs of shea butter epsom salts for $20. Ummm... not what we wanted AND more than double the cost! I now have a bunch of my items marked with "do not substitute".
- the waiting... Superstore has designated parking stalls for picking up PC Express orders. Pull into a stall, dial the number and tell them your stall number. The other week, I dialed in at 9 am for my order (my time window for pick-up was 9 am to 10 am). The lady told me there were several people ahead of me. I waited 45 minutes for my order to be brought out. I coulda been in and out twice if I had gone inside to do my own shopping! That was the worst wait. The fastest was 10 minutes and it generally averages around 20 minutes. Which means, again, I could do my own shopping in the same amount of time.
- the plastic bags - naturally, when they bring out my order, it's all in plastic grocery bags and oftentimes, only one or two heavier items per bag. I'm not sure how they're going to manage this when plastic bags are banned but... I feel a twinge of guilt over all of these plastic bags.
- items not available - If an item isn't available, and I'm doing the shopping, I can check out other items and decide if I want something else. With online shopping, I can't do that and so often, I say "no substitutions" because I have no idea what we'll be getting or how much more expensive it will be. Which means we often have gaps in our order. It's usually not the end of the world but... it often means I have to run to another store to get something.
- forgetting an item - sigh... This usually means I have to run into Superstore to get the missing item which feels kind of counter-productive given I'm also there picking up my online order!
Hmm... the cons clearly outweight the pros by a lot. The question becomes are all those cons worth the convenience that comes with online shopping? If they delivered, it would be a different matter maybe. That whole 20-45 minute waiting thing would be gone, and that is one of my biggest peeves.
Our behind-neighbour has been using Instacart (which services Superstore) but... some quirk in the Instacart system means our postal code is not included in their database. I enter our postal code and it tells me Instacart is not in our area. Our behind-neighbour whose postal code is one digit off from ours can order... but we can't. All the surrounding postal codes can order... but we can't. I've been back and forth with Instacart several times and while they have finallyacknowledged that there is a glitch, we still can't order from them.
And so... this week (early December), I'll be doing an in-person shopping run to Superstore. We have some odd, infrequently bought items on the list and it just seems like an in-person visit might be a good idea.
Have you tried online grocery shopping? Love it? Hate it?
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