The Evolution of the Grocery Getter

As an avid cook, I used to love grocery shopping. I perused a few retailers weekly to assure the best quality items for the price. Trader Joe’s for cheese, frozen appetizers, snacks and good deals on wine; Safeway for dependable basics; my local farmers market for ripe seasonal produce (and the live music). Shopping for groceries was truly a weekly hobby. All for the admittedly-smug satisfaction of knowing every meal had a personal touch and stamp of approval.

Then, I became a mom, and a member of the fastest online shopping demographic. Forget about multiple stores, I was lucky to make it to one. And that quickly evolved from the neighborhood grocery chain to SuperTarget – for the sole reason that I could purchase any household necessity in one place at one time and save my back from carting the babe in a carseat all over town. (Note to retailers: I’ll make the extra trip if your grocery carts’ car seat rests tilt forward as opposed to backward, thereby keeping my baby upright and not upside down, uncomfortable, and hence, wailing like a banshee. And if you have a few carts with built in baby seats – go ahead and splurge on a few more – moms like me will thank you for mitigating parking lot fights over them.)

I recently evolved (or regressed depending on how you look at it) once more. At the urging of another mom, I bit the bullet and outsourced my grocery shopping. I now shop for groceries online and love it. And according to Nielsen, so do 13 million U.S. Internet users. With one keystroke, my groceries are personally selected by a sweet young woman who had the foresight to call me to find out how ripe I wanted my avocados.

How can a self-professed grocery control freak like myself allow a stranger to shop for my food? Simple. Brand PR. I know and trust that the brands I buy are dependable, the same quality whether I’m personally selecting the food or not. Meals are easier to plan, and each week, I can quickly update a previous list and have a week’s worth of groceries waiting for me at my convenience. While I may no longer be the sole gatekeeper to each item finding its way into my refrigerator or pantry, I feel just as confident in the quality of the foods I’m choosing. And while the personal shopper certainly deserves some credit, so do the food brands that consistently exceed consumer expectations for quality and value. I count on them week after week whether I’m the one in the aisle or not.

And this doesn’t mean I’m forgoing my grocery forages altogether. I’m just savoring them as a family outing, rather than just one more draining errand.