Rocking My World

I am not a shopper. 

When it comes to malls, I avoid them like the plague. However, they have always been a necessity in terms of my wardrobe. As a result, I am one of those people who goes shopping twice a year or so and spends far too much money on shopping sprees as my wardrobe has been depleted to rags. For years I chided myself about this, determining to add a piece or two every month to my wardrobe in order to avoid the binge shopping...to no avail. I am not a fan of lines, of dressing rooms, of scouring a store for bargains. And so, I procrastinate my shopping sprees until I simply must go.

I can remember many years ago when we lived in Wisconsin, I met a girl who did all of her clothing shopping for her family through catalogues. This was, of course, before the Internet was a part of our regular, and I can remember pummeling her with questions as to how she made that work. I envied her ability to avoid malls.

And then we moved to Texas.

The mall that is closest to where I now live requires driving through freeways in Fort Worth and wrangling traffic for about 30 minutes. That is just not acceptable. And so, I decided to attempt some online shopping for my clothing needs: JJill, Talbots, Kohl's, Stitch Fix...And it worked! I have successfully avoided a mall for one year now. 

For Christmas? Amazon.

But the one mode of shopping that I have never even contemplated removing from my life is grocery shopping.

Now let me just give you a glimpse into my weekly grocery shopping experience. It's a major production.

First of all, I have Roy's breakfasts and lunches to consider -- all of which is packed for him in a small ice chest that he hauls in his truck to work. Secondly, Jace gets a daily lunch for school. (Sometimes I feel like I spent an absurd amount of time packing meals for these two.) And then there is our Saturday meal that we eat with the Lewis family so I plan for that...I have always been a meal planner so that I know exactly what I am cooking over the course of a week. And then I create my list that is organized into sections: dairy, produce, freezer, canned goods, etc.

And so every Sunday morning, Roy and I load up and head to HEB where we both fill a cart with the necessities for the week...and a few other things, of course. Roy has his special items that he always likes to gather: sandwich meat from the deli, chocolate covered almonds, his cereals, etc. It is rare that he doesn't tag along for the adventure.

But frankly, I find it tiresome. It's a solid two to three hours every week that cuts into my weekend. I'm sure you feel my pain.

This last weekend, I had an alumni event in Arkansas which consisted of serving strawberry shortcake to our alumni. Tami and Lori, my sisters, both volunteered to go with me and help serve. Now let me say, this was genuinely kind of them as it was a solid 6 hour drive one way...all to serve shortcake during a one hour time slot. But we made it fun -- chatting it up, listening to Lori's music (which she proclaimed is the best music though I differ in opinion), and eating along the way.

And it was during the very last part of this journey home that Tami mentioned curbside grocery pickup -- that one of their friends did it and proclaimed it changed their lives.

"Wait a minute. What was that?" I asked, suddenly totally engaged in this story.

"You know--it's kind of like online shopping where you choose your groceries online, pay for it, and then go to the grocery store, pop your trunk and they load everything into your car."

"I've never heard of that!" I exclaimed. No really -- I exclaimed it.

"You've never heard of it?" Tami said, incredulous. "They've been doing this for years! My friend swears she has saved a lot of money with this."

And so that very day (Sunday), I got home and created an account with HEB, our local grocery store. I created my meal plan for the week and shopped away, searching for items, choosing amounts, and "placing" them in the online basket. Grand total? $71. Far cheaper than my normal weekly excursion. And then I chose a time slot early Monday morning to pick those bags up.

Folks, my world has been rocked. Rumor has it that Walmart even delivers to my door, free of charge!

I'm pretty sure I will never set foot in a store again.