a peek inside the fishbowl

23 Mar, 2020

Groceries

Posted by andrea tomkins in: Misc. life

How are you getting your groceries? How often are you going out to get them? We placed our first order with Click & Collect at the Westboro location of the Real Canadian Superstore and I picked it up today. The process was fairly simple, and I would do it again.

BUT, here are a few things you might want to consider if you want to do try this service:

  • Although I ordered toilet paper and disinfecting wipes, I didn’t get any. I guess that means that the website is not automatically updated when there are shortages. Same goes for a whole bunch of other stuff, like canned fruit. There was also NO CHOCOLATE. (!!) I wonder if this is because we were picking up on a Monday and the shelves weren’t stocked from the weekend. Regardless, the next time I place an order it will be for a midweek pickup.
  • Sometimes there were substitutions, and they were ok for the most part. For example, one brand of eggs was swapped for another, but in this case the price was comparable. Obviously I only pay for what is delivered to my car.
  • The quality of the produce was pretty good.
  • I found ordering through the web interface to be a slow process. We also made some mistakes because we didn’t pay attention to the sizes of some items. (This is why my father-in-law now has a 1.3lb tub of coleslaw in his fridge, instead of the smaller one size.)
  • I appreciated the fact that I could add items to my order until the day before pickup.
  • Orders have to be placed days before you will actually need the stuff, so a bit of planning is needed. I just checked and the earliest you can get a time slot at this point is Thursday April 2.
  • The pick up part was so easy! They sent me a text and confirmed my 60-minute window for pick up. I parked in a specially-marked spot in front of the store and called the phone number. Within five or ten minutes a nice young fellow was loading my groceries in my car.

I’ve been cleaning out our freezer a bit at a time. This is a surprisingly satisfying process. I discovered a bag of edamame pods, which made a good healthy snack earlier this week. A half-bag of frozen pita made good crisps (here’s a quick how-to). We used up a bag of haddock making fish and chips last night and are using the leftovers for fish tacos today. I also found a container of peaches I had the foresight to chop up last summer, which made pretty good smoothies. So all in all we are doing ok on the grocery front. (Although if you asked the youngest she’d probably disagree. She doesn’t think we’re stocking enough snack food!)

I’ve heard good things about Produce Depot on Carling Avenue. I’m tempted to go there for fresh produce, but I am really trying to stay put and minimize my contact with the outdoor world now that community spread is a thing.

I’d love to hear your grocery stories! Let me know how it’s going for you.


8 Responses to "Groceries"

1 | Corvid

March 23rd, 2020 at 11:05 pm

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What is the main reason you are shopping this way? Avoiding contamination and spread of virus ?

2 | andrea tomkins

March 24th, 2020 at 8:40 am

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We have a fragile family member so we are extra cautious. Besides, isn’t it better if people stayed home?

For what it’s worth, it’s been announced that a staff member at an Oshawa Superstore has a confirmed case of Covid.

3 | a peek inside the fishbowl » Blog Archive Contagion - a peek inside the fishbowl

March 24th, 2020 at 7:00 pm

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[…] touch anything. I even thought about whether I needed gloves to handle the grocery bags that were loaded into our car yesterday. (In the end, I did put on gloves. Mark and the youngest unloaded them and washed their hands […]

4 | Amy

March 24th, 2020 at 9:13 pm

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My husband and I have two children under 2 so we have been using Superstore’s pick up service for a couple of months now. We used to be able to order and pick up on the same day. Once the coronavirus hoarding started, demand shot way up. Now most of the time the app crashes or no items load so we gave up on it. I think also because of the popularity there were requests for people to come in if they were not sick (we also haven’t had any confirmed cases here yet), so that’s what we’ve done the last couple grocery runs. When we did use their service, it wasn’t too bad for the most part but we did find some of their substitutions weren’t comparable, and sometimes if the picker couldn’t find an item easily they didn’t bother.

5 | Lynn

March 26th, 2020 at 11:41 am

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It’s Thursday now, and this just goes to show you how fast things change – we got an email from PC Optimum yesterday letting us know that a) they will no longer allow changes or additions to be made to an order once placed, so you have to make and confirm your entire order up front, which might be 10 days in advance or more; and b) asking that anyone who does not currently show symptoms to please come in to the store and not use this service and those who are actually quarantined or unable to leave their house can’t access the service. I was interested in trying it but I guess we will pass on it for now.

6 | andrea tomkins

March 26th, 2020 at 2:20 pm

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It is true that things are changing so fast. It’s hard to keep up. Strangely, I am a PC client and didn’t receive the email everyone is talking about and there’s no notice on my account page. Hmm. I will keep an eye on it as we have another order pending! After that, who knows …

7 | a peek inside the fishbowl » Blog Archive The importance of chocolate - a peek inside the fishbowl

March 26th, 2020 at 7:00 pm

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[…] Earlier this week we placed an order for grocery pick up at the Superstore. I had figured we might not get the toilet paper we wanted, or the disinfectant wipes, but I did NOT think the store would run out of chocolate. I ordered a couple Lindt bars and didn’t get them! The store normally makes a substitution if one item isn’t available, for another item that is similar. Well, there was no substitution made so we had nothing. NO. CHOCOLATE. […]

8 | a peek inside the fishbowl » Blog Archive Sign of the times - a peek inside the fishbowl

April 9th, 2020 at 7:00 pm

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[…] As I mentioned before, our groceries are done primarily doing the Loblaws Click & Collect but I’ve had to augment this with a couple of in-store visits this past month. One trip was to stock up on groceries for my mother (which the youngest dropped off to her, she lives about 2.5 hours away) and the second trip was because the youngest has a birthday this weekend and our C&C slot is still a week away. […]

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My name is Andrea and I live in the Westboro area of Ottawa with my husband Mark and our dog Piper who is kind of a big deal on Instagram. We also have two human offspring: Emma (24) and Sarah (22). During the day I work as a writer at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. I am a longtime Ottawa blogger and I've occupied this little corner of the WWW since 1999. The Fishbowl is my whiteboard, water cooler, and journal, all rolled into one. I'm passionate about healthy living, arts and culture, travel, great gear, good food, and sharing the best of Ottawa. I also love vegetables, photography, gadgets, and great design.

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