Re: First world problems
Sorry, but it's 2017.
And I don't have two hours to drive to a "local" Sainsbury's, run around with all the idiots that can't park or drive a trolley, fight over the last bagel, spend an hour wandering around looking for whatever soup it was, queue up, unpack it all onto a belt, repack it all onto a trolley, unpack it all and repack it all into the car, drive home, repack it onto the kitchen floor, then repack it all into the cupboards.
And having to do it peak hours if you want to have dinner after work, or fight with re-stocking staff if you want to do it late, or not at all if you can only do it on a Sunday evening, etc. etc.
And the point of doing it online is not because I'm a cripple (though my ex basically was, as are about 1 million other people in this country), but because I don't have the time in between work and sleep to piss away two hours and a lot of physical effort when someone will do it all, just as good, for a fiver. And I don't want to waste that time getting rammed in the ankles and having my car scratched either.
Also, they PACK IT ALL without the unnecessary packing/repacking, oh, I forgot the bags, oh I have to throw the bags away, oh it's all fallen out of the bag, I should buy "proper" ones...
They PRICE IT ALL, not messing about with ten minutes of beep, beep, GERRTTT, "Sorry, John, can you get me a price? Sorry about this"
They DELIVER IT ALL (I order bottles of Coke, water, etc. and make them bring it to me rather than me lug it around everywhere in an unsteerable trolley). And they will do so WHEN WE NEED (i.e. I need it to arrive by 8, because I don't have the time to shop and we'll only be in between 8 and 8:30, or the party stuff arrives tomorrow morning so we don't have to run around while we're trying to get everything else organised).
They will even take it into your kitchen and - sshh - if you are elderly or struggling or you slip them a few quid, they sometimes will even help you unpack.
You don't have to be in a wheelchair to appreciate all that, for £5 extra on the price of the shop. I would pay a Boy Scout a tenner just to do it all for me, so I could go and do something else for two hours - and I don't even have kids! - but there's no way they would ever think it worth the effort for such a pittance. Hell, even an hour of my time is worth many times more than that. In fact, just sending granny down to the corner shop for a loaf of bread is cruel in comparison even if she's able-bodied but a bit slow and it takes her 20 minutes to get out of the house.
And, literally, rather than spend half an hour running around the cupboards finding out what I need, I can see what I ordered, when I ordered, and then just re-order without forgetting anything as it's all on there already from last week. Even the CHOOSING is quicker. No impulse buys, no pressure sales, no remembering where the soap is, no "we rejigged the store to keep you on your toes", nothing. I can order the shopping in my lunch hour to be delivered as I get home if I just suddenly remembered the cupboards are bare.
"Do the shopping, love."
"Click, click, click, done. It'll be here in an hour."
And I don't even have to work out which of the seven billion varieties of bread we normally order, it's all just there.
Welcome to the 21st Century. I'm not saying we'd die without it, but if you DON'T take advantage of it but whine about the five minute queues in a bank, you need to reprioritise.
Now, if we can just scrap the stupid Sunday trading laws, we might actually consider ourselves a modern country.