Online Grocery Shopping

***Dedicated to Sister, who wants to keep reading my blog posts even though she got a new email address. I love you!!!!***

Many of the families in our community do their grocery shopping online. They say it's much better than schlepping to the store: just go to the website, fill your virtual cart, pick your delivery window, and voilà! Groceries are delivered to your door without the hassle and time commitment of actually going to the store.

It makes sense, but I always had reasons not to do grocery shopping online. The prices are probably higher online. You can't pick your own produce online. You have to plan out days in advance if you want to order online. It's probably hard to find the exact products you want on the website. You can never really trust that you'll get exactly what you want. You probably have to be on hold with people for ages to clarify and correct errors every time. Et cetera, et cetera. What it really boils down to, though, is that I enjoy in-person grocery shopping, and if it ain't broke, why fix it?

However, a few weeks ago, before Husbinator and I were fully vaccinated, our family had to quarantine (which might be called isolation in America, but whatever it's called, it's Israeli and therefore I'm going to brag and insist loudly that it's more hard-core than whatever youse Americans do) due to BY being exposed to someone in his daycare who tested positive for COVID. Thank G-d, we're all fine and we tested negative, but I had to find a new way to get food, since I couldn't physically go to the store.

Naturally, EmaII and AbbaII were all over this, bringing us care packages daily, but there's a difference between asking for milk and some cukes versus asking for an entire cart full of food. And if I need to write up a whole precise list anyway, why not try this "online grocery shopping" thing that everyone is raving about?

Long story short, we ended up ordering groceries online twice while were in quarantine. The first order was an impulse purchase from Yeinot Bitan (they were the only store with same-day delivery slots left when I decided at 6am on Friday morning that I was doing this), and once was a fully-planned, fully-loaded order from Rami Levy (their prices tend to be cheapest, and anecdotal evidence suggests that this is the store most often used by my friendly local online-shoppers). 

Gentle readers, it worked! Online grocery shopping felt empowering. It's a relief to know that even if I can't get to the store, I can still easily get lots of varied food for my family. 

Yes, the product selection was smaller, and yes, there was a 30 shekel delivery fee, and yes, many grocery stores have a 200-shekel minimum for online orders. And yes, Rami Levy played fast and loose with what I asked for, and no, I didn't get everything that I thought I was going to get from them. But the produce was fine, the substitutions (that Yeinot Bitan made with my consent and that Rami Levy made unilaterally) were close enough to what I actually wanted, it wasn't that much more expensive than shopping in-person, getting a refund from Rami Levy for the stuff that was on our receipt but not in our bags wasn't a hassle, and online shopping really was convenient.

Also, the Yeinot Bitan order came in 4 big cardboard boxes, which were a delightful surprise toy for a locked-in Shabbat that followed nearly a week of being locked-in already.