Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Jun 10, 2021 11:53:20 GMT -5
This article is based on ordering groceries (for pickup or delivery) online and only considers junk food and not other "impulse buys" one does at a Big Box grocery store. www.cnn.com/2021/06/10/health/healthy-eating-online-shopping-study-wellness/index.htmlIf you grocery shop online -- Have you purchased less junk food? or tried "new products" or "new flavors of old favorites site unseen? Will you continue grocery shopping on line once you are welcomed back at the grocery? I don't think it's surprising... one of the ways I cut back on "spending" in the past was to limit my grocery shopping to one day a week (or once every two weeks) because the fewer times I went - the less chance of buying "not on my list" stuff. I wonder if grocery marketing will change if people continue to use the on-line services they've grown accustom to during the Pandemic. I wonder if grocery stores will change - will they have less product on the shelf - because they are moving stuff directly from the "warehouse" to the orders to be picked up or delivered? I may never walk thru the store(s) where I purchase cat food and kitty litter ever again - although I will still go to the store to pick up my purchase(s). I rarely did impulse buys so this is more of a "time savings". I will be shopping in a store in the same "strip mall" as the pet store I'm picking up my purchases - so it's more convenient than the "stress" involved with having pet stuff delivered (food effected by extreme temperatures, porch pirates, wrong products). I've noticed that there aren't as many cans of the kind of food my cats eat on the shelf. I use to be able to buy 24 or 48 cans in person. Now I'm lucky if there's 12 cans available. I can order 48 or 60 cans online and have them delivered to my home with no problem. I'm wondering if the Amazon Fresh "Smart Cart" will have a short life - being able to check prices and see your check out total AT your cart as you are shopping - may influence people to put stuff back on the shelf once it's in their cart. With traditional shopping and check out once you are at the check out - I suspect most people just grin and bear it when it comes to mistakes (not the price they thought they would get) or too many impulse buys (a much higher than expected bill). If you can SEE the price you will be charged as you put stuff in your cart - and if you can see how much your total bill jumps when you put in an impulse buy... it might deter people from buying some stuff.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jun 10, 2021 12:57:49 GMT -5
People who shopped online spent a whopping $2.50 less in unhealthy purchases. I'm not sure that I would come to the conclusion that the article did as that's not even the price of a bag of chips.
How do they define unhealthy purchases? Chips, candy bars or sodas? Frozen dinners?
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daisylu
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Post by daisylu on Jun 10, 2021 13:55:17 GMT -5
My kids will attest that since I started ordering groceries for pickup, there are less chips & convenience food in the house. I noticed that my bill was far lower when I stopped grazing the stores.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2021 14:44:55 GMT -5
Even before COVID, studies showed that the longer you stayed in the store, the more you spent. It may just mean that you had a long list of items to buy, but stores are carefully laid out to lead you past high-margin and impulse items on the way to the milk, bread and eggs in the back of the store and with the shelves at the checkout lined with tasty snacks. Stations where you could sample food could keep you there longer and so could the right music. I like to think I'm pretty good at sticking to my list but I always check the displays of marked-down and discontinued items and occasionally pick up an interesting sauce or other food item.
It wouldn't surprise me if the average order was lower for on-line orders although I wonder if they compensate by offering deals on related items, such as a reminder to buy dip when you buy chips.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2021 15:11:48 GMT -5
We have good friends who switched to online order and delivery long before Covid. They both work long hours at demanding jobs, and felt the delivery charge and tip was well worth time saved. They also said that the extra expense was mostly covered by the lack of impulse purchases. They started planning their menus weekly, and greatly reduced their snack purchases which was good for their waistlines too. As Athena said, the stores definitely plan your route to take you past the yummies. At my Aldi, the queue for checkout goes past the German chocolate and the ice cream case-that's no accident After wasting so much time and gas trying to get cat litter, and being unable to source my cat's RX diet from the vet, I'm now a Chewy.com user forever.
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movingforward
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Post by movingforward on Jun 10, 2021 15:42:49 GMT -5
Sometimes I go to the store and sometimes I use delivery services. Last night I put in an Amazon fresh order because I don't feel like going to the grocery store this week. I probably do end up ordering less "junk" online such as chips, candy, etc.; however, I'm not sure that is all that helpful when I end up ordering items to bake with. Last night I included items needed to make pumpkin spice muffins this weekend. I really like online ordering for things like that...It saves me having to walk the spice aisle hunting for something like pumpkin pie spice, which seems to take more time than grabbing a loaf of bread or carton of milk.
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Opti
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Post by Opti on Jun 10, 2021 16:30:40 GMT -5
People who shopped online spent a whopping $2.50 less in unhealthy purchases. I'm not sure that I would come to the conclusion that the article did as that's not even the price of a bag of chips. How do they define unhealthy purchases? Chips, candy bars or sodas? Frozen dinners? There are people in Europe who shop daily for fresh bread, etc. I don't think its how often you shop. Its what you tend to buy and perhaps when you might buy things you shouldn't. You can notice screaming deals on junk food ordering online, so I wonder why skipping a trip would do much, if anything.
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Opti
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Post by Opti on Jun 10, 2021 16:41:23 GMT -5
Even before COVID, studies showed that the longer you stayed in the store, the more you spent. It may just mean that you had a long list of items to buy, but stores are carefully laid out to lead you past high-margin and impulse items on the way to the milk, bread and eggs in the back of the store and with the shelves at the checkout lined with tasty snacks. Stations where you could sample food could keep you there longer and so could the right music. I like to think I'm pretty good at sticking to my list but I always check the displays of marked-down and discontinued items and occasionally pick up an interesting sauce or other food item.
It wouldn't surprise me if the average order was lower for on-line orders although I wonder if they compensate by offering deals on related items, such as a reminder to buy dip when you buy chips. Part of my survival skills of living life under funded is looking at mark downs and discontinued items. Certain stores I always cruise the markdown areas. This year it did not appear stores did the usual spring reset of what they carried, but perhaps Covid and online shopping changed the need to do so. I buy more junk food when I am stressed. Which is often in this pandemic in the everchanging landscape of healthcare. Sometimes junk food is a mental reset for me. Buying the "right" thing and passing on the "wrong" thing has not always been a good idea *for me*. I still remember when I made the smart choice of buying the discounted meat instead of the never seen Zevia soda in bottles. The latter was marked down because it was a mis-deliver. I knew regular price would be at least $2 more at stores I have never shopped at. Time has erased how much money I had to spend, and even what kind of meat I bought. I still regret not choosing the soda. Years later.
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sesfw
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Post by sesfw on Jun 10, 2021 18:02:10 GMT -5
to make pumpkin spice muffins this weekend.Sounds yummy. If you are sharing, I'll send my address to you .......
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resolution
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Post by resolution on Jun 10, 2021 22:03:27 GMT -5
Periodically my grocery store gives me a bag of free samples with my online grocery order, and some of them have been good enough for me to buy the item in a later order. Also when i go to check out, they show me a page of items that i have ordered in the past that aren't in the current order and ask if I want to add any of those items to my order.
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jeffreymo
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Post by jeffreymo on Jun 11, 2021 7:41:20 GMT -5
I can think of one reason why we spent less - the store was out of whatever junk food item we wanted and it was so specific it couldn’t be substituted for. If we were doing in-store shopping the junk food substitute we might select could be a completely different junk food item.
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buystoys
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Post by buystoys on Jun 11, 2021 8:05:39 GMT -5
We're pretty good about sticking to the list unless we see a sale on something we use. Even then, if it's not a "good" sale or we have plenty of it (chicken, ground beef) we won't buy it. I do like to keep us stocked up on canned goods and freezer foods. We still have to shop once a week for produce and dairy items. That means we walk the whole length of the store! lol
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Ryan
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Post by Ryan on Jun 11, 2021 10:44:01 GMT -5
Yes, we buy less junk when we do pickup. Of course, last week Walmart gave us like 4 of the wrong bags, so we got a boatload of chips (must have been for a grad party) and Walmart told us to keep it. My kids were pumped!
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movingforward
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Post by movingforward on Jun 11, 2021 17:47:25 GMT -5
When getting groceries delivered does anyone else ever wonder what the shopper is thinking when getting your items? My Amazon Fresh order arrived earlier and when I was unpacking I wondered if my shopper thought "this bitch must love cheese."
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