Ah the good old days

[susandennis]

In the good old days we had this fabulous service here called HomeGrocer.Com. They delivered groceries to my kitchen counter that I ordered on the web. They were reasonably priced and had far better quality of goods than I could even find in the grocery store and amazingly fabulous customer service. And the delivery guys were beyond cute. They were wonderful. Alas, they were bought by WebVan in WebVan's dying days and soon the whole thing was a memory.

We do still have one grocery store here that offers web ordering with delivery but they are expensive and they get at least one and usually more than one thing wrong with your order every time and have no way to get your money back or complain. Plus their selections sucks and their food quality is poor.

I just got a note from a friend who said that their website is back up now with a note saying they are going to try again in Southern California in mid-2003... Oh please, oh please, oh please come back here!!!!

Comments

albertson's and safeway deliver here ...

[henare.livejournal.com]

i was a webvan early adopter (you know you're a pack rat when you find some of those webvan-branded plastic shopping bags in your closet!), and i really miss it.

i've been using albertson's, mostly ... ok. not thrilling, but ok.

Re: albertson's and safeway deliver here ...

[susandennis]

Albertson's is the 'other' one I was talking about. Every once in a while I give it another try and get pissed off all over again.

I think I've used up all my WebVan bags but when I come across a HomeGrocer, I shove it back in the pile - on the bottom. I just can't bring myself to have no more of them.

[pinkrose70.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Susan. I just pre-registered at:

www.homegrocer.com

I've never tried a home delivery service, but your praises are credible and I'll let you know when I try it.

[susandennis]

If it's anything like the old version, it's well worth a try. I pre-registered, too, just in case. Hope springs eternal. Do let me know if you hear anything!! And I'll do the same.

[idajo.livejournal.com]

I miss HomeGrocer.com SO much . . . WebVan was a pale imitation and Albertson's is hardly worth mentioning in the same breath! Altho I have noticed an improvement in their customer service lately

Susan, if you should accidentally use/misplace/lose your lone bag, I have a small stash of the paper bags (w/handles!!). . I'll share.

I worked with a man who'd been a HomeGrocer.com employee . . he wore his HG.com shirts to work; it was all I could do not to rip one off his back! Ah well, an opportunity missed but I still have my bags 'n' my fridge magnet!!

[susandennis]

Ohhhh a paper HomeGrocer bag??!! Now, that's impressive. And I think that guy you used to work with is lucky that he got out of there with his shirt! If I saw one it would be mine.

That's good to know about Albertson's getting maybe a bit better. Maybe it's time to try them again...

Grocery Options

[spiritgirl.livejournal.com]

I had great fun with Priceline.com bidding on groceries. You bid for a certain brand/size of a product, hit the enter button and see if you won. I got great deals on diapers which I used at the time. You had to go to certain stores, and then the check out people got confused and if they didn't have exactly what I bid on, they would let me switch out something similar (mostly to my benefit!!). I hate when that foled, becuase it was much easier than coupon clipping and I could save $20-$30 bucks!!!

We had Webvan for a few months....excellent quality, great service. I have one of their plastic tubs. They delivered to my work and we had a big refrigerator to store things. Gees I miss that!!!

[lothie.livejournal.com]

YES OH YES OH YES OH YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Here we have GroceryGateway.com. It is a Toronto company that has spread to the smaller surrounding cities. A few things (like meat) seem overpriced, and I hate not being able to buy small quantities of some things. (What do I do with a pound of bananas? Peal most of them and stick them in the freezer and use them in muffings.) But in my books this is one of the most useful services on the internet.

I started using it when I had surgery coming up and knew I wouldn't be able to hike to the grocery store or carry any thing for a few weeks. Not only do these boys deliver, they even carry the boxes up my steep stairs.

I have used the service 13 times and only had two errors, one major one (an entire box of groceries got left behind) and one small one (a bag of brownies got missed). But they're big on customer service, so there was no hesitation at putting things right, to my satisfaction.

[shanynrose.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I could bring myself to use something like that; living with my grandmother has brought out my unrealized familial streak of parsimony and as a result I've gotten totally hooked on coupons. Three hours in the stores once a week with a ton of groceries for a pittance, or luxurious delivery to the door at retail? I'd have to be some highfalutin and highly paid consultant type my time I spend shopping to be worth as much per hour as I save being a coupon princess.
I would, however, have welcomed such a thing when I lived in the land of no double coupons AND had to cab to the store.