by Jan Hostyn
I sat in front of my computer, my head spinning. There were so many options.
Did I want broccoli stalks or broccoli crowns? By the piece or by the bundle? And how many exactly? Next came mushrooms. Did I want to dictate the exact number of mushrooms, or should I simply buy a package or two? Precisely how many mushrooms did I want, though? I’m not in the habit of counting out each individual one as I plunk them into the bag. Like most things, I just get whatever seems like enough. And the options kept coming.
I was not having fun.
Just months after publicly declaring that I would never consider letting someone else pick out my groceries for me, here I was doing exactly that. I was online grocery shopping, and those groceries included fresh fruits and veggies, items I am ultra-picky about.
Sigh.
In my defence, that declaration came before the whole Covid-19 pandemic hit and our world changed almost overnight. It also came before I underwent major surgery, just one day before elective surgeries were put on hold indefinitely because of the pandemic. Leaving the house was not only off the table because of my physical state, but Covid-19 complicated things even more. The last thing I needed was to come down with something that might hamper my recovery, and that something included Covid-19.
Online grocery shopping it was.
The whole process took more brainpower than I ever could have imagined. When I go to the grocery store, I am armed with a list. I also shop with my eyes, though. My list is comprised of things I want to get, but a good chunk of my shopping is based on how things look, particularly when it comes to fresh fruits and veggies. Produce that looks good finds its way into my cart, produce that’s wilted, old or compromised gets a pass.
The thing is, though, you actually have to see the produce to make that kind of decision. Pictures on a computer screen simply don’t cut it.
But the computer screen was my only option.
There were decisions galore. Exactly how many bananas? Boxed spinach or bunched? What kind of apples? The choices seemed never-ending. And I couldn’t say it depends—it depends on how ripe the bananas are, how fresh the bunched spinach is, how good the apples look.
I did my best. And after spending far too much time making decisions and checking boxes, I was finally done.
Just before I paid, a box popped up asking if I wanted to authorize the store to make substitutions if necessary, whether it be a different item or a different brand. I selected NO. That would be giving away way too much control. Besides, I was choosing the items I did for a reason.
This was at the very beginning of the pandemic, and consumer demand was overwhelming the system. It was almost a week later when my husband went off to pick up our order. I was looking forward to getting the groceries (our fridge—well, our fridges—had never been so empty), but I admit I was also a tad apprehensive.
Unloading the groceries took forever (again, this was early on, when the recommendation was to disinfect everything that came into the house), and it seemed like I held my breath every time I reached into a bag to retrieve an item. What would I pull out?
I won’t dwell on every little thing that went wrong, but the end result was disappointing, to say the least.
My two bags of broccoli were overwhelmingly yellow, far too old to be even remotely edible. I don’t know that I have ever seen broccoli that bad, so I was shocked to find it in one of the bags, shocked a store would actually sell something so compromised. Returning items was unthinkable back then, so all the broccoli went straight into the garbage.
The bananas that emerged from another of the bags were green, really really green. So green I was doubtful they would ever ripen. They eventually did (yay), but it was weeks before we ate any of them.
Thankfully the broccoli and bananas were the worst offenders. The rest of the produce fluctuated between being just fine and not exactly stellar.
Acceptable, though, especially considering the challenges of the times.
There were other issues, though. My no substitutions request was completely ignored. Store brands were substituted for some of the name brands we had ordered, and different kinds of lettuce, apples and assorted other items than the ones we had requested littered our counter. And size specifications seemed to have been overlooked as well. The lemon juice I unpacked was so big that, if it didn’t have a best before date, it could potentially last forever. Again, all were things I could deal with, but they certainly didn’t endear me to the whole process.
There you go. My first and only online grocery shopping experience.
I went into this whole process knowing things would not be perfect, knowing I needed to put my pickiness aside and just make do. Simply getting fresh produce at this point was going to be a treat. I honestly think I had a fairly open mind. It’s also worth noting that my husband had already done the grocery shopping a couple of times, so I was getting used to having fresh produce in the house that wasn’t exactly what I would have chosen.
It didn’t help that this came at a time when the whole system was extremely overloaded and stretched well beyond its limits. The stores couldn’t keep up and were navigating through myriad new challenges as well. So, this might not be exactly typical.
Still.
My husband was back on full-time grocery shopping duty after that, and that came with its own set of challenges. But through it all, I did feel fortunate just to get groceries. The whole experience also gave me a new appreciation of frozen fruits and veggies—saviours, since popping into the grocery store became a thing of the past.
I’m now back to doing our grocery shopping, and that includes plopping mushrooms into a bag without counting them. Even I’ve changed, though, and perhaps for the better. I am still picky, but definitely less so. And I’ve had to rejig the way I pick things out—I use my eyes more and try to take only what I touch. I definitely still like to be in control of what ultimately goes into my fridge, freezer and cupboards, though, and I can’t see that changing anytime soon.
But we shall see—this world seems to have a way of throwing the unexpected at us. Never say never.