Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Quick Grocery shopping

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I purchase everything from the Grocery stores website online.I then drive to grocery store/supermarket and simply collect the stuff I purchased after showing my ID. People working at the store have kept my grocery ready in bags. This saves me huge amount of time.
VJW, Jun 16 2011

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       that's a good tip.
po, Jun 16 2011
  

       edit prequal: You've halfbaked enough to know this but...   

       This idea depends on a lot of other factors, the store has to have this program in place, someone to read out the order, collect the items, bag them, set them aside till you get there. Therefore it is not an invention, but consumer advice. I appreciate knowing this system is in place somewhere in the world. But if you look on the help file you'll find "consumer advice" is not what this website is all about.
dentworth, Jun 16 2011
  

       I used to do this almost weekly with my local Chinese Takeaway.
zen_tom, Jun 16 2011
  

       So, once a week, you would place an order and cancel it at the last minute? You are stranger than I thought, [Z_T]...
daseva, Jun 16 2011
  

       Uh, if you're going to do this, could you not save yourself a little more time by asking them to deliver the groceries, like everyone else does?
MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 16 2011
  

       <In an ironic manner, places saucer of cream in front of [MB] >
8th of 7, Jun 16 2011
  

       is [MB] a cat?
po, Jun 16 2011
  

       MMMM cream - oops Couldn't resist.
The Kat, Jun 16 2011
  

       <In a puzzled manner, looks at [8th]>
MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 16 2011
  

       The notion of having your groceries delivered to you is ironically similar to the way food is brought to a housecat. A dog could have been used in the juxtaposition, but 8th hates cats so he attempted to convey ironic wit and degradation in one fell swoop. Further irony may be abound if MB would have personally much rather not been referred to as a dog than a cat (slides tin of kibbles... (thus creating maximum insult)), and finally the whole joke is on me if degradation was not included in the primary goal of the annotation (MB, I like you, but I want to be funny. daseva, you really didn't get the joke).
daseva, Jun 16 2011
  

       //<In a puzzled manner, looks at [8th]>// Case proved.
pocmloc, Jun 16 2011
  

       I would actually much rather have been referred to as a trilobite.   

       However, setting irony to one side and then standing a potted fern in front of it, grocery stores already make up your order and deliver, so this is really an idea for "Grocery Delivery Without the Delivery".
MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 16 2011
  

       Lets focus. ;)   

       Not all stores might be ready to deliver at home. Sometimes people do want to goto stores, but hate collecting items and standing in queue.
VJW, Jun 17 2011
  

       //Sometimes people do want to goto stores//   

       They should really be calling the store as a subroutine.
ytk, Jun 17 2011
  

       //after showing my ID//

What ID would that be? Here in the free world, we are not required to carry personal ID.
DrBob, Jun 17 2011
  

       Just Google *Stop & Shop Peapod Delivery*. They pack up everything you order and deliver it to your house. You save time by not having to go pick it up, too!
xandram, Jun 17 2011
  

       I get really pissed off if I'm not asked my age when I buy alcohol. Haven't seen my driving licence in years...
po, Jun 17 2011
  

       Store has a drive through window; I collect groceries without getting out of the car.
VJW, Jun 17 2011
  

       //If you are involved in any kind of police interaction and do not have ID, then you cannot simply be issued a citation and be on your way//

You say that like it's a bad thing!
DrBob, Jun 17 2011
  

       An ID regulated program will keep the minorities and youth from using the service Noooo!
daseva, Jun 17 2011
  

       Errrrm, is this the right time to mention our pending application for a Green Card ... ?
8th of 7, Jun 17 2011
  

       Quick, somebody highly educate him!
daseva, Jun 17 2011
  

       //Errrrm, is this the right time to mention our pending application for a Green Card ... ?//   

       It's okay. We need you Brits to come over and fill the demand for butlers, delightfully chipper chimney sweeps, and other jobs Americans simply won't do.
ytk, Jun 17 2011
  

       // other jobs Americans simply won't do //   

       What, like dying in combat in hot countries far away ?   

       Sorry, that was unfair. Withdrawn.   

       We were thinking of the french, and got confused.
8th of 7, Jun 17 2011
  

       What I like about the idea is versatility; choice as to when I wanna spend time in the store. If I have several errands to run, then the time spent amongst the visual and interpersonal elements of most groceries can become an unintended time-consuming enjoyment. I'll get sidetracked, sidetracked and behind schedule, in the comparative shopping process among the other shoppers and store personnel. It adds up.   

       At Lowes and many other stores, shopping lists can be communicated beforehand. I like it. Then any additional comparative shopping or impulse purchases or interpersonal inter-actioning I can afford, can be consumed at an enjoyably and practical/reasonable minimum of exspense.
Sir_Misspeller, Jun 18 2011
  

       //potted fern//   

       I've never seen fern in aspic, but I'm sure it might have find a market...
not_morrison_rm, Jun 18 2011
  

       //At Lowes and many other stores shopping lists can be communicated beforehand//   

       Makes sense. It is more eifficient if they collect/gather the grocery items, than we do, since they know very well where the things are. In fact in one sweep they can serve more than one customers.
VJW, Jun 18 2011
  

       //there was another statement that followed.//

Yes, but that merely amplified what had gone before and so it was irrelevant as far as my response was concerned. My point being that Drive Thru Justice is not justice at all. If everybody had to go through the whole arrest, fingerprinting, formal charges, remand, trial procedure then perhaps people might take 'minor' law breaking a bit more seriously or the authorities might concentrate their resources on the most serious matters.
DrBob, Jun 18 2011
  

       //store has to have this program in place, someone to read out the order,//   

       Yes, true. Idea is that , somebody will have to implement it.   

       I think delivering to home is lot of effort for stores. But it minuscale effort for them to gather all the stuff in shopping bags and give it out via drive through window.
VJW, Jun 19 2011
  

       [VJW] At one time, I lived in a poor neighborhood, in a large city. There was one supermarket -- a dump, and hardly big enough to call "super" -- and they delivered. Such a luxury was unexpected, to me, for such a neighborhood and such a store, but I figured it out eventually. Most people in that neighborhood couldn't afford a car (it was the TCO that was prohibitive: parking was expensive, also risk of theft). Without delivery, people would have had to carry their groceries 5-15 blocks on foot (or on a bus, but the busses were crowded). As it was, many people preferred to make small, frequent purchases at miniscule grocery stores located closer to their homes; the supermarket had to offer delivery, in order to compete.   

       My point is, I don't think the delivery service was a lot of effort for the store. Judging by the appearance of the people who made the deliveries, they weren't payed very much at all; maybe nothing -- could be they lived from tips. There was no truck or van: they walked the sidewalks with grocery carts.
mouseposture, Jun 19 2011
  

       //let them off with a stern lecture and no accountability// Not voicing a particular opinion either way (it's controversial, go figure) but that really is pretty much how it works over here [21Q] the whole policing by consent idea is balanced right on the edge of chaos - when and if the police step too far, the populace has a tendency to go ape-shit-mental and have a riot. For better or worse, it is different, but it does still kind of work. And counter-intuitively, it is a system with "freedom" at its core - albeit the messy, mobby, like-it-or-lump-it type of freedom that's born from thousands of years of rebellion and uprising against the various establishments of 2 millennia.
zen_tom, Jun 19 2011
  

       //Errrrm, is this the right time to mention our pending application for a Green Card ... ?//
Lacking ambition there, shirley?. I thought that you lot simply arrived and assimilated. Regarding the lack of new idea here, I can go online, order my shopping and get it delivered.
Nothing new here, move along, move along.....
gnomethang, Jun 19 2011
  

       I know wallmart does not deliver. I think K-mart also does not. There are many many stores which will not deliver.
VJW, Jun 19 2011
  

       Let's all (deliver)?
daseva, Jun 19 2011
  

       //wallmart does not deliver....K-mart also//
I suppose you're right. My old neighborhood was a pretty marginal niche for a supermarket. Unrepresentative.
mouseposture, Jun 19 2011
  

       //your view is that minor laws should be left unenforced, eh?//

No, my view is that laws aren't worth the paper that they are written on unless you provide the resources for proper enforcement - and that includes the laws regarding due process.
DrBob, Jun 19 2011
  

       // I know wallmart does not deliver. I think K-mart also does not. There are many many stores which will not deliver. //
I don't have any of those stores near me. Tesco deliver and so do Waitrose (under the Ocado label I think). My point is that there is nothing new in your idea at all. I can always MFD on the grounds of 'Widely Known to Exist' if you like.
gnomethang, Jun 19 2011
  

       ditto that last sentence!
DrBob, Jun 20 2011
  

       I like to nibble on the corner of a few fresh veggies then pick a different one.
gnomethang, Jun 20 2011
  

       Yarp, I think that the really interesting idea here is the segmentation of the shopping process (or, as it is know in this jurisdiction, "the messages"). What we're actually wanting is the ability to selectively carry out only those parts of the process which we find non-choresome. With this in mind, what we need to do is break down the shopping process into its constituent chunks and then deal with the dealing with each chunk.   

       A. Getting to the supermarket. This could be eliminated by:
having a giant supermarket on wheels drive to your home;
having a fleet vans, each containing a store segment (fish counter, freezers, kosher), to be dispatched to your door as needed;
developing or othewise acquiring teleportation technology;
eating whatever you have left in the house, right down to your shoe leather, boiled in bleach.
  

       B. Trudging about taking your items from the shelves. This could be eliminated by:
employing a third world lackey to do your bidding, perhaps pushing you around in your trolley (or, if you are being parochial about it, cart);
informing the supermarket in advance what you want, and have them drag the stuff off the shelves for you, and placed in a trolley waiting for you (which I am taking to be the premise with the idea here);
pretend to be an osteporotic auld biddy and have strapping young shoppers get each and every item off a shelf for you, as you hunch your way about the shop;
develop telekinetic powers.
  

       C. Waiting in a queue for to pay for your shopping. This could be eliminated by:
paying for your shopping in advance;
not paying, instead making a mad dash out of the store, perhaps still dressed as the OAB (above), trolley clattering down the pavement, wig flying;
paying or otherwise coercing an unfortunate to wait in a queue on your behalf, while you repair to a hostelry for a gin martini or so;
putting in place a queueing lottery system, each shopper being held in a pen before the checkouts, only escaping to move to the conveyor belt if their number is called. Admittedly, this does not guarantee an elimination of the waiting problem, but, if sufficiently moneyed, you can invest in more tickets;
kill everyone in front of you.
  

       D. Bagging your shopping. This can be eliminated by:
doing your shopping in certain stores (if in N. America) or shopping on Saturday mornings, when sulk-faced teenagers will, with the expectation of recompense, offer you put your potatos on your Hovis, all in aid of a local Scout troop or Dance School (if in UK);
co-ercing an orphan to assist;
simply walking out of the shop in disgust, returning home to eat urinal cakes and your neighbours' leavings.
  

       E. Getting home. See A.   

       F. Unpacking your shopping. This could be eliminated by:
leaving you shopping in the bags on the floor of your house (this is a fully legit strategy);
bobajobbery.
  

       So, it seems that there isn't a unitary solution (other than (a) not shopping or (b) being a child) but there is marketspace for a number of competing solutions to each these massively inane problems, many of which could be brought to market by either an evil genius or a ruthless international plutocrat. Chop chop.
calum, Jun 20 2011
  

       [Calum] there is a solution. Live in the supermarket.
pocmloc, Jun 20 2011
  
      
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