Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Monday, June 27, 2016

Success

The Safeway grocery home delivery was a splendid success! Could not have gone smoother. I will definitely be doing this again.

There was no delivery fee since it was my first order. Drivers are not allowed to accept tips.

I made a mistake but it was quickly and happily resolved when I called the customer service number on my receipt. Now I know, and won't do that again.

My window of time was to be between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. I began to tense up when I saw Bob head to the patio with a cup of coffee a few minutes before 10:00. I figured he was going out to watch for the Safeway truck and would be a very unhappy camper if it didn't come until 1:45.

Fortunately at 10:15 a.m. he saw the truck pass and he was on the move to get out to the parking lot to meet the driver and direct him to our door. I breathed a big sigh of relief.
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I learned a lot about grocery home delivery services, or at least about Safeway's system. We live less than a mile from a Safeway store but the delivery did not come from that store.

There's apparently a central location for Portland and surrounding areas. The driver told us the downtown Portland Safeway is in a multistoried apartment building with an elevator at the store's door and he says they do home deliveries in that building. He told us he has 26 deliveries today. Wonder how many drivers they employ?

I can see where it would be extremely popular for working people, people living in downtown high rise apartment buildings, and old people. It's a wonderful service.

I'm not real sure if this is a huge money maker for Safeway or just a way for them to remain competitive and stay in business.  Their delivery fees are certainly reasonable so I don't see how they would be making a lot of money there, plus they have to provide trucks, gas and delivery people. I don't see that a lot of that is passed on to me. It's good I'm not in the business world because I don't understand how all that works. I just know I liked the experience I had today.

22 comments:

  1. Very cool! I'm glad Bob accepted the idea.

    I wish we had that service here.

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    1. I didn't say Bob has accepted it, he just knows when to remain quiet. He's still ready to pounce at the slightest thing he finds wrong, if he can find anything wrong. He would like to criticize saying there are some brand names he's not familiar with but he knows it's best not to bring that up either. This old gal reached her breaking point and he knows it. I so wish everyone had this kind of shopping available. What on earth made us think there would be extra stars waiting for us at the Pearly Gates if we'd done our own grocery shopping?

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  2. It makes good business sense. The store sells to you rather than the big box store or wherever. It's keeping your grocery dollar in its pocket. The store is community minded and employs the guys who deliver. If I owned a grocery store, I would offer this service if I didn't make a penny over my costs. Sometimes, keeping the customer happy is the way to keep a business afloat in this dog est dog world. I don't recall you ever sounding so delighted about shopping at Wal Mart or Costco ...

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    1. You are so right! After it was all over and everything put away I thought about how much easier it was than when we went to the store and walked up and down aisles, loading goods into the basket, then putting them on the check out counter, then loading the bags in the back of the car, then unloading them to bring them inside, and they still had to be put away. This is definitely the way to go.

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  3. So glad to hear the Safeway delivery went smoothly!

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    1. It's fabulous. If I were young, and did not work I would still use this service. There's nothing noble or glamorous about grocery shopping.

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  4. That was impressive all around. I really would have loved that during my working years and like S. J. Qualls said, it keeps your dollar in their store. So glad it has made your life easier.

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    1. I cannot begin to tell you what a relief it is to me. Absolutely wonderful.

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  5. Oh good! It worked! And well!. This is good news.

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    1. Only two other times have I gone against Bob's wishes that were this successful, our move to Oregon, and when I started paying bills online. Took me a long time to work up the courage to do those things as well. I'm very relieved this worked out. It was a major problem in this house.

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  6. That's great! I assume that you order on line. Were any mistakes made with your grocery list?

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    1. There were 3 substitutions that they were clear about offering to return if I wanted them to but I didn't, the substitutions were okay.

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  7. Sure sounds good to me. Glad it worked. Like you, I would especially like not having to load all the groceries in the car and then unload them all at home. That is a job!

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    1. Why do all that if you don't enjoy it and don't have to? Bob is still adjusting but he takes a while to adjust to anything new.

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  8. I'm glad your grocery episode worked out well for you.

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    1. I cannot tell you what a relief it is to me. Bob is not at peace with it all yet but he will be in time. It takes a while for him to adjust to new things.

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  9. Replies
    1. I feel like a new woman with this battle out of our lives.

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  10. I can so imagine what a relief having that service would have been when I was working and raising a family, loading up a grocery cart at 10 p.m. cause it was the only time I had to do it. I can still remember that defeated feeling as I watched things loaded into the cart that I knew where going to be unloaded by me before I could fall into bed.
    Tell Bob that your readers so admire his ability to embrace change!
    And good for you for taking the steps to care for your needs -- most important now.

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    1. Perhaps there are people in the world besides Bob who actually enjoy shopping for groceries. I am not one of them. I suspect we're going to see more of this model, grocery stores online that deliver. It's obviously a very popular service.

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  11. Glad to hear it was a success. I've tried other ways of ordering but this sounds like something I would really like. I'm sure someone must do it here. I'll just have to check around.

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    1. I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I am to have found this service. Now I'm on the hunt for other such services. Even if I still go out at times I like the ideal of not having packages to lug home.

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