The changing way to buy groceries
When I was a child my mother didn’t have to go out all that much to shop for food. For the most part, the food came to her.
There was bread delivery, milk delivery, fruit and vegetable delivery, and meat and fish delivery, and it was regular—some of it on weekly order and some by phone. I’m not sure how she paid; I’m assuming they sent bills that she paid with cash or check. The supermarket—there was only one anywhere near us, and I remember when it was built—was for a few items now and then, such as cereal and canned goods. We even had paper products and soda delivered, although I’m not sure that was commonplace among our neighbors.
By the time I was doing my own shopping, trips to the supermarket were frequent and I can’t remember any deliveries at all. I paid with cash or check, and when I gave the clerk a check there was a long process of looking at my ID and writing things down, and it had to be a local check and a local ID.
Then came credit cards, which initially were phoned in, with a wait that could be quite long. I’m not even sure whether at that point credit cards were used in supermarkets or were confined to other retail establishments unlikely to have such long lines. Remember those little machines that the clerk operated, that made an imprint of the raised figures on the card?
And of course you had to sign the credit slip, no matter what the amount.
Then the sliding of the card on the side of a small machine fixed so that the customer had easy access, and now we have chips. Unless the amount is high, no signing. And the computers of the world know your buying history from way way back.
Apparently there’s delivery again, too. I prefer to walk the aisles and look at things and people, but you can also have all sorts of services that deliver prepared meals that cater to your food preferences and diet needs.
What might be next?
My mother shopped at the market which then had delivery, usually by neighbor hood boys who drove a van and got tips. Few people drove to the market in those days. No parking lots. No credit cards either although department stores had metal plates that had a punched out spot for each department store. There could be several on one “chargaplate.”
The first “Death Wish” movie showed the downside of this delivery system.
The pivotal delivery scene in Death Wish was the very first thing that popped into my mind when I read this post!
I too, am fascinated with how buying habits change and cycle with changes in technology.
I am reminded of a sci-fi story I read in the sixties that speculated that improvements in transportation and communication would result in people abandoning the cities and dispersing themselves evenly throughout the world.
I read something today, can’t remember where, about food being delivered by autonomous vehicles. Made me wonder how payment would work.
FOAF:
I’m almost certain payment would be through the app, as with Uber for example.
Supposedly there are a few trial stores (maybe Amazon/Whole Foods?) where you just walk in, collect your items, and walk straight out. It uses smart shelves and cameras to eliminate any sort of checkout. Not sure if it uses facial recognition or RFID on your body to ID you. I wonder what kind of contingency they have for thieves?
Might be old fashioned us, but we go to the market, select what we want and pay with cash at the register. A cashless economy by forced digital economy is the final tyranny by the gobalist new world one ring to rule them (us) all. Bartell Town time.
Our local grocery stores are heavily pushing the new services where they pick your items and deliver them to you in the parking lot and the even newer delivery-to-your-home service, but quite frankly, I’m not interested. I like walking the aisles to shop.
I can’t think that it’s a good thing for millennials, who already have issues dealing with actual other people, to give them new ways to avoid leaving the house.
A cashless economy by forced digital economy is the final tyranny
i think Starbucks hit on it as a way to keep the “homeless ” out without stirring up the crazies. They are doing it in Seattle, which is ground zero for crazies. Maybe Portland is but they are off the chart.
Starbucks also has a new policy that says “no purchase needed to use restrooms or sit in cafes”.
Looks as if it just caused the closure of a Starbucks in San Diego: “The closing comes some seven months after Starbucks announced customers would no longer be required to buy something to use the restroom or hang out. Critics said the policy could attract more homeless.”
Probably life-saving for the handicapped and elderly.
The pick-up is useful for people who have a sick kid in the car.
An elderly friend of mine had new phone service installed a few years ago . The installer asked how he liked all of the new capabilities. To which he answered that he was still waiting for them to get to where it was when he was a child and could pickup the receiver and say “where’s my mom”. The operator would reply “she just left the drugstore and is going to the hardware store, I will have her call you when she gets there “. We have spent a lot of time and money trying to get back to where we used to be.
Or break into the conversation and say “you boys have been talking long enough” 🙂 The operators for the town were in a small building by the elementary school.
Glen and Chuck,
Yes indeed, I believe you. I grew up on a farm a mile outside of town. The switchboard was in the apartment of a little old lady in town, who lived over (I think) the (chiefly) soda fountain. (Dad used to stop there on the way home from church, and treat us all to a Sunday Coke out of the cooler. The bottles were kept immersed in cold water, and you popped off the tops with a bottle-opener attached to the side of the cooler.)
My best friend ran the switchboard part-time when we were in high school. A few of the Affluent had private lines, but we were on a party line. A single long crank on the wall phone, and when the operator answered, we said, “Hello, Central?” I really didn’t know her personally, but of course my folks did. When the barn caught fire (don’t ask, but it had nothing to do with me!), it was “Hello, Central? Our barn is on fire! Send the fire department!” The lady said, “Where?” I said, “Oh–it’s the Burnham place!” And the fire siren went off in a few moments, calling the FD volunteers.
Those, indeed, were the days. And I still use a land-line. My cell-phone is $25/90 days (plus taxes) or 100 minutes, whichever is less, and I only got it for car emergencies. It was helpful the two or three other times I ever used it, for checking with the Young Miss when grocery shopping.
Which, alas, I am no longer able to do. So yes, for people like me ordering groceries on-line (or by phone) would be a blessing if there were no one here to do the shopping. But I’d never buy clothes or shoes without being able to try them on first.
But picking out your groceries yourself, where you can make the choices from the meat, produce, etc. counters yourself, is definitely preferable, aside from the excuse to get out among people. Although I fell out love with going to the grocery store about a hundred years ago. Maybe from having to deal with the Hyde Park Co-Op, the only supermarket in Hyde Park (Chicago), on a Saturday when the place was wall-to-wall people and there was no place to park. I remember once when my Honey ended up directing traffic there, which was gridlocked. And he wasn’t the only one.
Life made more sense when the milkman delivered the milk every day.
He would slowly drive his horse drawn cart down my street in Brooklyn , clop clop clop, at 4:30am. Wearing a long white coat, he would put two glass bottles of milk in an insulated aluminum box on our stoop. We would get them out at breakfast, peel the paper off the top and eat the cream.
Never mind that I hated milk and it was the 1960’s and horse drawn carts weren’t supposed to exist anymore.
Long after the deliveries stopped the aluminum box was still there. Once in a while I’d peek inside, hoping.
Very classy, Esther. –The long white coat. Unfortunately, we outside of town had to fetch our own milk.
I’d have gone for the cream too! :>)
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Correction:
“I’d never buy clothes or shoes without being able to try them on first.”
Mere empty boasting. In fact I did buy 3 bras and a casual dress online once. The bras are on me, but the dress (I bought Small) has a scooped neck that still almost falls off my shoulders.
I did also get quite an attractive duster, though. 100% cotton. :>))
Esther, my kids (and some other friends) get daily milk delivery on their front porch now, but the box is just plywood, so they have to get it out quickly in the summer.
On the tyranny of cashless societies, there are some positive benefits.
Barry Longyear’s collections of stories about “Circus World” (interstellar version) includes one where the grifters are expecting to rake off some of the ticket sales, only to discover that the residents of that particular planet make all their purchases via personal ID and distant “funds” accounts.
Pretty prescient for the 80s, when even ATMs were relatively new (1967), and paying bills by waving your phone at the clerk was unimagined by all but the most serious SF geeks.
More from my childhood….
The mailman came twice a day. At 9 a.m. (theoretically, anyway) and then again at 3 p.m. IIRC. A postcard really did cost only a penny. Pre-stamped envelopes — sold by the P.O. with an embossed blue image of, I think, President Washington on them — cost 2¢ each.
You could mail us letters addressed
Risotto
Podunk, Ill.
and they would reach us just fine.
[Not the real name or address, however. I am trying half-heartedly to remain Anonymous and Untraceable. Hah!]
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AesopFan, you make Mr. Longyear’s stories sound promising. I’ll have to hunt them up.
I closed down my restaurant this year and have been contemplating what business to start in our little mountain town. One of the biggest considerations is what doesn’t compete with the internet. I grew up in the grocery business. My father worked in one until he was 85. The internet has changed the industry, but food is one of those things that requires a local presence. Auto mechanics, hair styling, nail salons, restaurants, and various personal services can’t be Fedexed to your doorstep.
Online ordering and third party delivery of staples such as groceries and prepared meals still has to be supplied from a local facility. Our local economy used to be driven by tourism, but that has shifted. The school board has always been the largest employer in the area, and that hasn’t changed. How we vacation has changed over the years. People don’t flock here to do the traditional vacation stuff that they used to. We’re more of a stopover on the way to something else rather than a destination.
Employment has suffered in our high tech, smart phone age. I used to employ high school students. They always needed money for gas, clothes, trips to Six Flags, and movie tickets. Not anymore. As long as they have a smart phone, they’re content. They don’t need a job, provided Mom and Dad keep paying that monthly data fee. Changing the way we buy groceries is a symptom of the larger issue of fundamentally changing who we are.
What’s coming next? Stores will do far more recommending of foods they think you will like as they learn your buying habits. “Hey Ms. Jones– should we send you a nice lamb roast for Sunday dinner? And it looks like you’re running low on baking potatoes” and that sort of thing.
On the topic of the milkman delivering regularly, a friend of mine (in his 70s now) told me he was a milkman for a while in college. He said the story of lonely housewives inviting the milkman in for a short stay was entirely true.
What might be next?
It’s already here.
Food ordering on the internet (Amazon Prime) and delivery by Fedex, UPS, or the U.S. Postal service.
We live about 15 miles from the nearest small town and nearest supermarket. We order all of our dog and cat food over the internet and have ordered single specific items that are not needed sooner than 2 or three days.
Stores will do far more recommending of foods they think you will like as they learn your buying habits.
I have been an Amazon Prime member since they began the program. One example of why. My wife wanted those reindeer antlers for her car this Christmas season. I went to three or four auto supply places with no luck. I went to Amazon finally and they were delivered two days later.
We live about 15 miles from the nearest small town and nearest supermarket.
I recently watched a video of a young woman who lives in a “tiny house,” which is a trailer, in Wyoming near Jackson Hole. She is miles from town but, close enough to work as a waitress, and uses Amazon Prime. She says she knows others “living off the grid” who do so too because they deliver. That was interesting.
My favorite grocery store will pack an online order for pick-up, but I prefer to choose for myself, especially since my order is now mostly fresh produce, meat, poultry, and fish. For household supplies not readily available at the grocery store, I use Amazon.
Maybe when I’m old (which somehow always seems to be 10-15 years older than I am, whatever age I am), I’ll take advantage of grocery delivery options. By then, I’ll be living someplace where that will be available.
Mike K, I remember seeing an article about indigenous peoples living in far northern Canada who use Amazon extensively to get things not available at retail in their land.
parker:
I suppose I can understand people’s fears about a loss of privacy from a cashless economy. But, the way I see it is that there are only two types of purchases one might want to keep secret: Ones that are illegal, and ones that are embarrassing.
If you are buying something illegal, then maybe you shouldn’t.
If you are buying something embarrassing, but legal, maybe you should just grow up and get over being embarrassed about it.
Roy — there is more to privacy. Look at the creeps in the data world; you can give them your daily life if you choose, but I’d rather keep them out of my kitchen, living room, and bedroom. Then, when the money’s all on paper only, the government can decide it wants to take it for some worthy cause of its own. Bank and economic policy — you aren’t investing enough in green energy, maybe. Or your social credit points require some punishment. Gonna cost you, Roy, sorry!
If you are buying something embarrassing, but legal, maybe you should just grow up and get over being embarrassed about it.
Embarrassing for who ?
If someone thinks mowing your lawn is racist ?
We are dealing with the consequences of peace and prosperity for 70 years. Insanity is braking out. I don’t want a Google or Amazon spy in my house.
I use credit cards and debit cards but not for everything. I want the option of cash because one never knows what the crazies might do. Mastercard is denying purchases from some places, not just guns.
Roy Nathanson:
That’s like saying that if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn’t worry about having your house searched illegally. It’s about liberty and protection of rights, and also what the authorities can do to twist information to charge you with something, not about whether you’ve done something wrong or embarrassing.
Roy:
And when the busybodies decide that legal purchases become something you deserve to be ostracized for or which affect your opportunities for career advancement; for instance if you own (collect) and shoot firearms, or reload your own ammunition for whatever reason: and there are many reasons. Where does your growing up and embarrassment end? There are more aspects to shaming and social disapprobation in today’s world. To modify an old saying: you may not care about big data but big data cares about you.
Roy, did you buy that book about climate change foolishness? First time is a misdemeanor, second time a felony and ohbytheway we now execute proven climate deniers.
I remember that aluminum box for milk deliveries, on the side porch nearest the driveway. I barely remember two-cent stamps and clearly remember four-cent stamps, and I remember when words were the first part of everybody’s phone number. As for shopping, I remember being taken to the grocery store with my mother and left in the car in the parking lot with my siblings and our library books and our quarrels, while she went in to do the shopping. Many other cars in the lot were also crammed with kids, and as far as I recall nobody ever got kidnapped, and it never occurred to anybody to call child protective services.
Nowadays, I do the majority of my shopping online for clothing and such, because we live in a bit of a backwater, where you have to drive an hour or more to reach places with shopping malls and department stores. And why would I want to drive all that way, only to end up in a shopping mall or a department store, when I could stay comfortably at home and find what I need in a few moments on Amazon, or in an online clothing shop that I’ve used often enough to know what will fit?
As for food, we still do most of that in nearby old-fashioned brick and mortar supermarkets. But for the past year or so, we’ve also been using one of those online services that sends you the ingredients for a few meals each week, along with recipe cards that tell you how to use them. It’s more expensive than buying the same ingredients ourselves, but the food is almost always fresh and good, the recipes are interesting, the convenience is great and there’s no waste — they deliver exactly what you need for a single meal so there’s no need to buy a whole package of fresh coriander or whatever, when all you need is a tablespoonful. Many of the recipes are good enough to add to our go-to home library and to reproduce on our own. We’re fans.
Let me add in the loudest voice to the chorus disagreeing with Roy’s statement above.
Miss Rand once said something to the effect that one of the measures of advancing civilization is its growing degree of privacy.
By that measure, we are becoming less civilized every day.
I’ve used grocery delivery at certain times – when I was working for a dot.com, way back when, and barely had time to pee, much less go shopping; when I was sick and couldn’t face it; when I’d let time get away from me and was faced with the prospect of shopping during the runup to a football game or something. And I do appreciate not having to fight my way through the seas of shopping carts when I don’t pick my moment well, so maybe once every couple of months I’ll order online and go wait in the parking lot for my stuff.
But… I remember in college when I was working in Markleeville, CA, population 250 at the time if I recall, and spending my days collecting rock samples above Alpine Pass, seeing literally not one single soul during daylight hours for ten days at a time. I used to drive into Minden and Gardnerville, NV, to buy groceries every four or five days, and stroll leisurely through the aisles for an hour at a time (though I was living out of a cooler in my hotel room back in Markleeville and didn’t have room for anything CLOSE to that much food), just to see human beings. I’m more or less an introvert, but that long-ago summer of utter isolation taught me the value of human interaction, however cursory.
Jamie:
Sometimes when I’m feeling lonely I go food shopping and take my time there. I happen to like walking around supermarkets anyway, especially certain ones.
Neo and Jamie: I call that my recreational shopping, as opposed to the “get it done and get home” mode.
Remember the song about the Wells Fargo Wagon in “The Music Man” and the mail-order band instruments and uniforms?
In the early 20th century there was the Sears catalog, and you could even order a complete house, pre-cut and delivered by rail.
http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/1908-1914.htm
Jamie:
That’s funny: I live in Minden and drive to Markleeville for the quiet and the mountains! Oh, and the fishing.
I needed an item for a wood project I’m working on. Perusing online for this thing I found it available from a company that has traditional brick & mortar store as well as selling their wares online. The item in question costs about $6, which is a typical and good price. To buy it online (not Amazon) I would have to pay about $6 to have it delivered, several days from now. Annoyed by the doubling of the cost (I didn’t need it immediately) I checked their retail stores and one nearby has the item. So I drove there and picked it up. Here’s my estimate of the cost of the trip: $2.80 for tolls ($1.40 each way into and out of NH with my EZPass), then about $5 for gas given the distance and my car’s cost per mile. Also cost me about an hour and a half round trip. I didn’t need this thing right away, should have just ordered on line and paid for the shipping.