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I haven't had a car for years and using local taxi services I've found there are a lot of people from all walks of life who don't have a car most or all of the time, for various reasons.
In the two small cities I've lived in the past few years, I didn't have any luck getting the large grocery stores to deliver or finding a shopping service.
But there are other options. I suggest once you get to know your community and where you like to shop, see if there's a local store that will put together an order for you and ask what the payment options are.
Then you can have a taxi service pick it up and deliver it to you. I was surprised to find it's much more economical to have a cab pick up an order as part of their package delivery service than to drive around town picking things up and paying the cab for waiting time.
Most stores have a charge for the service but it's usually not more than what you'd pay for a grocery delivery service, probably less. And sometimes if you email the order a day or two in advance they'll give you a break on the charge since they'll have more time to shop it.
Doesn't always work out, just depends on the store. But I think more places are becoming open to this even if they don't advertise the service. Also, it helps to be flexible if you get them at a busy time.
Ocala has a service that will pick up and deliver your groceries to you. It's $25.00 per trip.
As far as being able to ride a golf cart or tricycle to the store, the subdivision here called On Top of the World is directly connected by paths to the Publix grocery store and has designated golf cart parking. Unfortunately, the HOA fees for OTOW are over $400 a month.
There's a town in Florida called The Villages where everybody drives a golf cart. Some of them cost over $20K and look like miniature '57 Chevies, etc. The Villages has golf cart paths everywhere. It's the fastest growing city in Florida.
In Las Vegas, we have 4 Mexican grocery chains (which I love!) which also offer non-Mexican, mainstream products as well, and with La Bonita, down the street from me, it's free delivery with a $100 purchase.
Also, consider, getting a big stand-up freezer, perhaps an extra smaller refrigerator, and just shop every 3 weeks, and if you still have a license, rent a car from Enterprise for that one day, who will come to your house, pick you up, and drop you off after you're done with the car.
Also use that day to make other heavier purchases.
If you can't get out due to a health problem, you may qualify for In Home Health Services, where your health insurance pays for someone to come and help you in your home. This can include going grocery shopping for you.
I have several senior neighbors in my senior apt bldg who have these workers, and it's covered by Medi-Cal and I think Medicare. Anyway, depending on the severity of a person's needs, they are approved for more or less hours. There's a blind man in our building and his IHHS worker is here all the time. Others have just a few hours a week where someone comes to clean or does laundry or goes shopping.
Anyway, this might be an option for you, too. And it's completely free, from my understanding. You might want to call your health insurance provider and ask if there is any such service available in case you need it, and what would the cost, if any, be to you.
I think that SimplyGroceries option the OP mentioned is a great deal for $10. Probably cost most people $5 in gas to do their own shopping.
I wish that more grocery chains would offer this service or a pick up service, where you would order online and then drive up to the store and your order is loaded into your vehicle. That may keep people from impulse buying, but it could bring more customers to your store.
Most retirees can drive, but its harder for some to walk around. This service (pick up) would help them as well.
I'm very well short of retirement age (for my generation, retirement will probably never be possible) and want to remind people that it's not just the elderly who can't drive; it's anyone with epilepsy, or eyesight under about 20-40, or any number of other medical reasons.
I'd like to see it become a legal requirement that all grocery stores that have parking lots also make deliveries. It wouldn't have to be an on-demand thing; they could do deliveries on certain weekdays at certain times.
It may sound outrageous, but it's a reasonable-enough idea. They offer free parking to people who arrive at the store by car. The least they can do is offer something similar to people who can't take advantage of the services that are built into the store's prices. Such discrimination in favor of one race or religion would be illegal, but discrimination in favor of automobile drivers ia A-OK>
No, the idea is not reasonable. A little common sense applied to the economics of the situation should tell us that the cost of providing a parking space is miniscule compared to the cost of having a vehicle (gas, insurance, maintenance) and an employee (wages, benefits) drive to a given address to deliver groceries.
Look how many cars use a supermarket parking lot in a given day - it would be hundreds and hundreds, probably thousands. Each customer is using a single space for a period of time normally not exceeding 20 or 30 minutes. So the pro-rata share for that customer's use of parking is very, very small.
I happen to live at about a 5-minute (one way) walking distance from a large supermarket. I walk to buy groceries about 90% of the time because I enjoy walking. Sure, I end up making more frequent trips because I can only carry so many bags home, but that's fine with me. It would never occur to me to feel discriminated against every time I walk there and do not use one of the parking spaces.
Much ado about nothing. It would be like a blind person getting upset over the cost of providing signs over the aisles indicating which products are in which aisles. In addition the electricity to provide interior lighting of the store is not helping the blind person.
I'm in North Carolina and our Harris Teeter has an express lane service where you can place an order online and go through an express lane to pick it up. I think the fee is $5.00 one time or $17 a month or $100 a year for unlimited orders. They do offer home delivery in some areas, but not mine. It would save a lot of time for busy parents or elderly, you might even organize with friends to do a group trip to pick-up.
My mom says when she was a girl all the shops and department stores did deliveries in urban areas (she lived in Pittsburgh). You did your shopping, made your selections, paid for them and asked for delivery. It was practical when few people had cars; they took the streetcars downtown to shop. The stores expected it and were making deliveries to everyone else in your neighborhood as well.
Last edited by Johanna25; 05-01-2014 at 03:41 PM..
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Apples and oranges
