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Old 04-25-2018, 07:29 PM
 
Location: South Tampa, Maui, Paris
4,443 posts, read 3,756,434 times
Reputation: 5198

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Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielAvery View Post
I may sound like a old coot, but I see this whole online grocery ordering and delivery in your home, etc. as a fad people will swear by for a while, then most will stop participating once the problems you mention creep in. Once the "new" wears off these concepts (and reality sets in), a lot of people abandon them. The mass-produced (and uniform quality) items like cereal, canned goods, and packaged foods seems easy enough to order online and have a satisfactory experience, but the problems of picking "perishables" (produce, meats, dairy products and baked goods) seem to make it better to choose and purchase these items in person in a store. A few disappointing experiences with limp produce, spoiled meats or dried-out breads delivered to your home will make you think twice, and the more companies out there who try to do online ordering/delivery, the more people will be out there screwing it up.

Employees at the store will likely not care about picking out the "very best" items for you more than you will, and many people have different ideas of what "the best" is (as others have stated). Unless the person picking your produce somehow knows your exact wishes WRT ripeness, size, and all that, you're occasionally going to be disappointed. The more orders these employees have to fill, the less they will "examine" individual pieces in the process of filling orders. The items needing to be examined and critiqued (meats, produce) will end up being treated just like the ones that don't (soup cans, bottles of ketchup) and the result will be unhappy consumers, who will have to decide whether the trade-off for convenience (uneven quality) is worth it.
I think you give Americans too much credit.

Let's just use the lawyers Ubering Taco Bell (in my previous post) as an example.
They have received the wrong item, or cold food. But they keep ordering.
The process of clicking a button on your phone and someone magically appearing with food (or other items) can be addictive. There is research on this.

In addition, I don't think Americans are as picky as I am, or you are. I think most Americans are not going to lose their minds over dry bread or limp produce. My Dallas friend who orders online. If they don't have the product she ordered (let's say Oscar Meyer hot dogs), the store will substitute it with another product (Hebrew National hot dogs). And she doesn't even care. Me? I would have a fit if I ordered Oscar Meyer dogs and got Hebrew National. And I would demand a refund. But most Americans are not like me.

I think most Americans are willing to tolerate the occasional rotten apple or stale bread or wrong product if it means pushing just 1 button on their phone will have food magically arrive at their home.

Look at all the late and wrong orders people get from Amazon. It's not making any kind of dent in Amazon's reputation or bottom line. Amazon just keeps winning more and more customers.
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Old 04-26-2018, 07:23 AM
 
26,826 posts, read 43,300,897 times
Reputation: 31449
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielAvery View Post
I may sound like a old coot, but I see this whole online grocery ordering and delivery in your home, etc. as a fad people will swear by for a while, then most will stop participating once the problems you mention creep in. Once the "new" wears off these concepts (and reality sets in), a lot of people abandon them.
Not to mention the opting out of societal involvement. Going to the grocery store or grabbing something to eat at a restaurant whether fast food or sit-down involves talking to/interacting with other humans which while alright for those with less developed social skills, as such probably not a long term solution for those who actually like people and have the desire to talk to others outside their own little bubbles. Trends come and go leaving a permanent reminder in some instances which I'm sure is the case with most on-line shopping, however highly doubt it's the new normal for the general public due to some of the issues you point out...as well as the anti-social aspects.
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Old 04-26-2018, 08:13 AM
 
Location: South Tampa, Maui, Paris
4,443 posts, read 3,756,434 times
Reputation: 5198
Quote:
Originally Posted by kyle19125 View Post
Not to mention the opting out of societal involvement. Going to the grocery store or grabbing something to eat at a restaurant whether fast food or sit-down involves talking to/interacting with other humans which while alright for those with less developed social skills, as such probably not a long term solution for those who actually like people and have the desire to talk to others outside their own little bubbles. Trends come and go leaving a permanent reminder in some instances which I'm sure is the case with most on-line shopping, however highly doubt it's the new normal for the general public due to some of the issues you point out...as well as the anti-social aspects.


If it is not the new normal, then why are brick/mortar retail stores disappearing by the hundreds?

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/18/the-...ak-record.html
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Old 04-26-2018, 09:07 AM
 
17,455 posts, read 38,845,424 times
Reputation: 24078
Quote:
Originally Posted by kyle19125 View Post
Not to mention the opting out of societal involvement. Going to the grocery store or grabbing something to eat at a restaurant whether fast food or sit-down involves talking to/interacting with other humans which while alright for those with less developed social skills, as such probably not a long term solution for those who actually like people and have the desire to talk to others outside their own little bubbles. Trends come and go leaving a permanent reminder in some instances which I'm sure is the case with most on-line shopping, however highly doubt it's the new normal for the general public due to some of the issues you point out...as well as the anti-social aspects.
Yes, I agree, Kyle. There is a social aspect to it besides people like myself and others here who are picky about their food. Now, I think online shopping is GREAT for almost anything else. I don't like malls, traffic or searching store to store for something. But when it comes to grocery shopping or eating out, I want to go in person and that will never change. I think the majority feel as I do. Sure, I know there are those who will get into the delivery, but I don't ever see that as the majority. Where I live, stores and restaurants are absolutely thriving, and in fact many restaurants have live entertainment, even very casual places. Humans need social interaction.
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Old 04-26-2018, 09:08 AM
 
Location: South Tampa, Maui, Paris
4,443 posts, read 3,756,434 times
Reputation: 5198
Quote:
Originally Posted by FKLfan View Post
Sounds like a few are getting paid to promote (here and on other websites - same posters almost every day) a certain point of view online, and advocating a certain business model especially affecting Retail.

Pretty transparent to anyone who is reading closely.


Oh hello! You keep creating new fake accounts, but we know it's you!
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Old 04-26-2018, 09:18 AM
 
Location: SW Florida
1,217 posts, read 1,214,787 times
Reputation: 2027
Quote:
Originally Posted by FKLfan View Post
Sounds like a few are getting paid to promote (here and on other websites - same posters almost every day) a certain point of view online, and advocating a certain business model especially affecting Retail.

Pretty transparent to anyone who is reading closely.
You described yourself to a T on all points except you left off the paranoid schizophrenic part.
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Old 04-26-2018, 09:20 AM
 
Location: SW Florida
1,217 posts, read 1,214,787 times
Reputation: 2027
Quote:
Originally Posted by sinatras View Post
Oh hello! You keep creating new fake accounts, but we know it's you!
I'm still enjoying getting all his member names de-activated but he's making it too easy lately.
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Old 04-26-2018, 09:32 AM
 
3,972 posts, read 8,106,823 times
Reputation: 4055
Quote:
Originally Posted by sinatras View Post
I also do not like anyone picking out my foods, nor am I going to give Amazon the keys to my house or car, NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!

But the wave of people going for this kind of shopping is getting bigger and bigger, and I feel like you and I will be the "old fashioned" ones still going to the store and dodging Instacart shoppers.

All of my friends and family are ordering their groceries online. I went to visit my friend in Dallas recently.
I watched as she ordered her groceries online and had it delivered. I have to admit to you that her eggs were not cracked, her bananas were exactly as she wanted them to be, she wanted a ripe avocado and she got a ripe avocado, her frozen stuff was still frozen, etc. Nothing was amiss.

I mean, people are even Ubering frozen yogurt fron Yogurtology and ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery!
I do order things on line, just not food. I also work at a big box store part time so know people like the convenience of shopping on line. We fill so many pick up in the store deliveries and ship from our store orders every day, we have a hard time keeping up. As for pick up in the stores I think I use it because that way I know they actually have the exact item I want on hand........but then once in the store.......guess what most people do.......look at the clothes and home goods and buy more. I can also attest to the fact that with on line ordering we also get one *ell of a lot of returns from unhappy customers when the item didn't fit right, wasn't the color they expected it to be, or just wasn't the quality they wanted. I hate returning things and find returning things more inconvenient than shopping for myself.

Here's an interesting tid bit from my past......Way back in the 1950s my mom ordered and had all our groceries delivered to the house from a local supermarket. There were 11 kids in my family and dad had the car for work. When I started school (next to youngest and must have been the most spoiled) my mom decided I would not be walking to school like all the rest of my sibs did we became a 2 car family. We still had groceries delivered so it is not a new trend for me. There were times though when she sent stuff back or ended up walking to the grocery 6 blocks away to bring stuff back. I guess the trend today is using the internet instead of the telephone to do what my mom did 60+ years ago.
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Old 04-26-2018, 09:35 AM
 
26,826 posts, read 43,300,897 times
Reputation: 31449
Quote:
Originally Posted by sinatras View Post
If it is not the new normal, then why are brick/mortar retail stores disappearing by the hundreds?

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/18/the-...ak-record.html
It's been proven it's a market correction, there's too many retailers in a society that hasn't seen any effective cost of living salary increase measures in twenty years and as such like in any industry from time to time there's a shakeout when disposable income suffers. I realize the doom and gloom aspect is what sells, but isn't the reality.
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Old 04-26-2018, 09:47 AM
 
Location: South Tampa, Maui, Paris
4,443 posts, read 3,756,434 times
Reputation: 5198
Quote:
Originally Posted by kyle19125 View Post
It's been proven it's a market correction, there's too many retailers in a society that hasn't seen any effective cost of living salary increase measures in twenty years and as such like in any industry from time to time there's a shakeout when disposable income suffers. I realize the doom and gloom aspect is what sells, but isn't the reality.
So you are saying that the rise of e-commerce has nothing to do with retail store closures?
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