Vacationers, Owners, Groceries BEFORE you arrive! (Myrtle Beach: sale, rental, condo)

[Summering]

I have come across this information and it has been a complete pleasure to use it. I knew our daughter was enrolled in the online shopping program back in NJ but it took me awhile to find it here. Now I have. This is terriffic!
Do you know that you can order your groceries and have them waiting to just driveby and pick up outside of the store? Also, for vacationers are you aware that in Myrtle Beach you can have your foods delivered right to your condo or rental home? They will put the perishables away in your refridgerator too.
What a great saving in time for beach goers. Order from your home before you leave. Punch in your pick up time and swing by, park in the designated area, and get your groceries loaded by your personal shopper. Your card gets read outside on a hand held device.
If there is access to your rental for the price of the delivery fee your foods will be put inside.
The pick up fee at my grocery store here in the Surfside area ( Lowes foods) is just $4.95.
The rate for a home delivery is about $25.
I am not a vacationer any longer here in Myrtle Beach but I use the service for my major shopping and then just have to stop in for odds and ends during the month.
I know there are two Lowes food stores in our area that do this. I am not sure if other grocery stores are set up but you can check.
This is such a time saver. I don't know about you but I'd rather be holiday shopping and not spending time with groceries.
I am not advertizing for this one store, as I am quite sure others are doing the service also.
You get a "personal shopper" who will call you with questions and suggestions, just awesome.
He might suggest another type of bread if the one you wanted was not in yet. You can give him something you forgot to add on. Today I added on some sponges. I said anywhere from 2 to 4 of the yellow with green scrubber. I got three! That gave me a giggle as it sure was what I requested.
I added additions from my last months order. My mistake was to not look back over my bread list and I have quite a ton in the freezer now. However, my suggestion to give us crispy crust loafs worked well. That is what we got.
It is great to see on line the cost of the groceries as you shop. You can spend exactly what you want. Add or subtract as you go along.
The first time is a little more time consuming as you have to get use to the aisles and departments as you roll along. But, on your second shop you can add or subtract from your origional list. I deleted things and added others. It was fun to get all the Halloween candy online without having to go back and forth on it.
I just love having a personal shopper as grocery shopping is not my favorite place to be.
For the cost of it, you can't go wrong.
You can swing by after you've done the other chores that surround you.
You choose the time you'd like for pickup. If you do it the day before you have plenty of times to choose from.
I just wanted to pass this on for vacationers especially. I use to have to spend my first day at the beach shopping for food. Oh boy, if this were available to us then I would have been first in line.
I hope this gives you more time at the beach, more time with your family, and more time for fun.

[vrexy]

This sounds great and thanks for sharing! But how do you sign up? Is there a link to the website or something? Do you go to Lowe's store website or some place else?

Amazon has something similar, but not for all regular groceries. I recently signed up for a "subscription" to have my favorite brands of toilet paper and paper towels to be delivered to my home on a regular basis. The prices are actually cheaper than they are in the local stores and I love the idea of not having to worry about running out of those items. Also, they aren't heavy, but they are bulky, so that saves a lot of room in the car and not so much to carry in and out from the stores. I was hoping to sign up to have my favorite coffee delivered from them, too, but the prices for that were prohibitive and not worth it.

[tmozer]

Yeah, but for we old retirees, shopping becomes a hobby. I just came back from wondering around Walmart for the third day in a row. (I really should not be admitting this......).

[Summering]

LOL...tmozer!

Ok, but I was going in the grocery store way too many times a week. It was a constant. Now, I am much happier going to Home Goods, Michaels, Ross or the fun and exciting consignment shops with all those unique things.

A few days in a row of Inlet Queens ( a fantastic consign shop, or should I say two of them!) now that suits me fine.

I don't get too excited over looking or buying the way over priced foods lately. Now all I do is put them away.....

But, don't you think that this is a marvelous thing for vacationers. I would have died for this!

[Summering]

Originally Posted by vrexy

This sounds great and thanks for sharing! But how do you sign up? Is there a link to the website or something? Do you go to Lowe's store website or some place else?

Amazon has something similar, but not for all regular groceries. I recently signed up for a "subscription" to have my favorite brands of toilet paper and paper towels to be delivered to my home on a regular basis. The prices are actually cheaper than they are in the local stores and I love the idea of not having to worry about running out of those items. Also, they aren't heavy, but they are bulky, so that saves a lot of room in the car and not so much to carry in and out from the stores. I was hoping to sign up to have my favorite coffee delivered from them, too, but the prices for that were prohibitive and not worth it.

Vrexy....Just go online at Lowesfoods.com and then it is a very simple sign up. Nothing much to do at all. I may have had to put in that code I have from the back of my Lowes food card.

Just be careful when your done to recheck your items. Combining mine from the last time to this list was easy enough but I had to take off ( and that is just a simple check) some things I no longer needed. I missed a few things. I needed to keep a few others.

When your done you get a full list in front of you. You can make changes, add or subtract. When the personal shopper called me I added things I forgot.

What is nice is all the sale things come up in red print. So you don't miss a sale at all. I am getting things cheaper then when I go there because the sale price is right in front of me.

The parking spots are across from Scatoris actually and there is a buzzer there. They bring it out and load it. On the paper I got from Lowes it says not to tip them, but we have anyway. It only feels right.

The fee for delivery to your home is $25 and I think that is great if someone is either sick or has no car. Plus vacationers have it made with this feature even if they have it come upon their arrival.

If I sign up for the year for pick ups its just $16 something for the full year of picking up the food.
I was trying this and seeing how I liked it first. I really like it!

I think you'd love it. I need to buy my fruit outside of the store anyhow. The fruit I got inside this summer was really no good. Only the grapes were good and that goes for most of the grocery stores not just this one.

Try it......

[myrc60]

I used "Peapod" in Chicago to do just this. Only one of the local stores were involved and it was a bit more expensive than the other stores in the area but well worth the price in the winter, which is when I used it most. I am happy to see this concept offered in MB. When on vacation you are trying to maximize the time you have to play and shopping for groceries takes some of the fun out of vacation. I think the delivery fee is too high; I don't remember what I paid in Chicago but know it wasn't over $20!

[vrexy]

Thanks again, Sum! I did look at the Lowes website and saw what you meant. I'm signing up and making a list now, which is well before I need to shop again. (Actually, I hardly ever grocery shop these days thanks to my wonderful husband.) The 5 dollar price is well worth his time! Not to mention the hassle of walking around inside a store when he would much rather be walking on the beach.......

Ted, I agree with you about the hobby part, but my husband is still working full time and would much rather use his hobby time on the beach and I'm awful with grocery shopping. I buy WAY too many things and end up giving food away because with just the 2 of us, we can't eat all of it. Also, when I shop, I just buy whatever I want that looks good and then I get home and don't feel like cooking, so we go to the beach instead and end up ordering dinner from a restaurant.

myrc60 ~ We used to live in NJ where they also had Peapod and I agree with you that their prices are too high. I do think that if I was on vacation somewhere, as Sum mentioned, this would be a wonderful thing to use and I would be very willing to pay a bit extra for groceries as opposed to spending precious vacation time stocking up on food for the week or two.

I never knew that there was an option to have them come to your vacation rental and put the food in the cupboards and fridge. What a wonderful way to start your vacation!

[Summering]

Isn't this great? I have kept this to myself for far to long I decided. The more I realized that this was such a time saver, the more I knew I had to make a thread.
I'm with you. Hubby did most of the grocery shopping. Ah....They should have met long ago and did the trip together. LOL...
I too work on my list ahead of time. I got this one done early as I have company coming for a half a month and it will be a busy time. She is a lover of Dr. Pepper and I won't touch it, so now I have some here for her and her diet coke. I went over her list of needs and ordered some of it.

Funny because I got too much Halloween candy and I am telling the kids to "please take more, take more!"

The don't feel like cookin' is also a biggie at our house. We went to the beach and then Surfside Pizza just this week after the storm. ( thank goodness we had hardly a storm)

I love that they mention what is on sale in red at this online Lowes shopping.

I also told my personal shopper that I wanted the rolls that are chosen singlely and crusty. We so hate that soggy top bread.
He called me on a white bread replacement as the one I had checked was out.

Ok so the first time is the most time-consuming online. Just make sure the second time that you check OFF the things you don't want if you "combine" your past list with your "new" list.
I left on way too much bread, but I froze it. I put a "2" on something I only wanted one of and I somehow deleted some products I wanted to again order. I will get the swing of it yet! I remembered to take off the mayonaise, condiments, and cookies from the time before. ( of couse cookies were replaced with other choices...)

Don't you think that is the most wonderful idea. They will come and put all the food away, or at least the perishables.
No more waste of the first day on vacation. I hope people become aware they can do this. Plus there is no minimum of what you can order so even a small list will work. Then....Yahoo...You still get gas rewards. Can't beat it.

[Summering]

Originally Posted by myrc60

I used "Peapod" in Chicago to do just this. Only one of the local stores were involved and it was a bit more expensive than the other stores in the area but well worth the price in the winter, which is when I used it most. I am happy to see this concept offered in MB. When on vacation you are trying to maximize the time you have to play and shopping for groceries takes some of the fun out of vacation. I think the delivery fee is too high; I don't remember what I paid in Chicago but know it wasn't over $20!

But the weather being great here you could swing buy and stay in your car for just $5 and pick it up...For all that shopping time, its cheap.
NJ is up to $35 for a grocery delivery....Now that is high.

[myrc60]

Originally Posted by Summering

But the weather being great here you could swing buy and stay in your car for just $5 and pick it up...For all that shopping time, its cheap.
NJ is up to $35 for a grocery delivery....Now that is high.

$35? I wonder what the usage rates are! I have never seen a grocery delivery in our area of SC and am quite surprised to see it anywhere in the state. Progress happens slowly here!

I do totally see this working as I believe many vacationers aren't as money conscious as we have to be.