If you’re like me, you enjoy grocery shopping about as much as cleaning the toilet. Don’t spend Sunday morning at the grocery store; spend it on the water, or doing something else that’s fun. Here are my strategies for minimizing time at the grocery store:
Peapod Pickup: If you live near a Stop and Shop, you can take advantage of the store’s pickup service, called Peapod. Other stores may have similar services. With Peapod, you order your groceries online in advance, select a one-hour pick up window, drive up, and grab your groceries from an attendant.
Now, we’ve noticed that they tend to stick you with the unsellable produce when you order your groceries online. I work around that by ordering all the dry goods and meats from Peapod and running into the store for the produce and veggies, which are all located in one section close to the entrance. You can buy your produce first, get in and out of the store in 15 minutes, meet the attendant outside to grab your online order, and be on your way.
Shop off-peak: If you must pick out your own dry goods (or don’t want to spend the extra money for pickup), go shopping at the margins of the day. If I don’t have plans on a Thursday or Friday evening, I’ll pick up my groceries for the following week at 8:00 PM, when most people are finishing dinner and watching TV, iPads or other screens. A less crowded store means fewer shopping cart traffic jams and getting in and out fast so you have more time for fun.