A Guide to Online Grocery Shopping During COVID-19

Here I am on a Sunday morning, day 9 of my “lockdown” due to the pandemic. While I cannot say the virus is strong in this area - three or four reported cases in the county - it is coming. Time to put in supplies!

Online grocery shopping at Giant

We will take the truck and have the shopper person put the stuff in the bed. My husband likes Giant, so Giant it is, especially since he's the driver. My other, local options are Walmart and Weis Market. I have nothing against either but right now we are going to do the procedure for Giant.

Getting to the grocery store website

If you do a search for the grocery store, it should come up with their homepage. Click on "shop" and you will be directed to a page that asks if you are a home or a business customer. Remember we are doing Giant. Other sites will undoubtedly be different.

I assume you will want to click on "home." Then enter your zip code so that you are routed to the correct store. I got a list of five stores within a 30-mile radius. Pick the one you want.

Next, you click "shop." A couple of community service notices - including a help wanted ad for the store - come up. Unless you want a job, you can ignore those.

Shopping virtually

At the bottom of the screen, they give you options. You can “push your cart” through the aisles. You can look at their specials or you can type in searches. I browsed the aisles just as if I were pushing my cart in the store.

Down the left-hand side of the page are the store departments. Pick a department and you can scroll down through what they have to offer. If you don’t see what you want, there is a space at the top where you can type in a search.

Items will also ask you how many you would like. If you leave the counter at one on the Giant site, it will put one item in your cart. The system keeps a running total in the top right-hand corner of the page.

Checking out online

Clicking on your cart will allow you to proceed to checkout. You will have to enter the usual identifying information and your credit card information. The system assumes you have credit cards or gift cards ...or at least I think it does. I did not see any other payment options but remember, I am visually impaired! There could be some I overlooked.

Picking up groceries

Now comes the part that sort of surprised me. The pick-up dates offered at the Giant in this sleepy little burg are nine and ten days in the future! Once again, something requires us to do a whole lot of planning. Sort of status quo for a VIP, I know, but this appears to be virus and not vision-related.

So, the bottom line is: Plan ahead. Unless you want to go into the store, know what you have and what you will need a week from now. Everyone and his proverbial brother appear to be using these services.

And there you go. I hope you benefit from my one-time experience of using a grocery store app to place a pick-up order. It was relatively painless. Looking forward to a week Tuesday to see how it goes.

And in the immortal words of Sargeant Esterhaus, “Let’s roll...and let’s be careful out there.” Stay safe.