Delivery

I’m into the service economy.

I recently signed up with a grocery store chain for home delivery. Yes, there is a cost. Yes, I tip the driver dropping off the groceries. Yes, there were glitches at the start.

But it’s been so worth it.

I shop for my groceries on an app on my phone, maybe about 30 minutes a week. Store deals and coupons apply at checkout. I can give the OK for substitutions or say no substitutions. I pick a day and window of time for the delivery, and the goods come to me.

I don’t have to carve out an hour to two hours to shop, hopefully with a cart with all the wheels working, then wait in the checkout line and pack it into my car and out again. Nope. I pick up the groceries from my front porch and just put them away.

This is not perfect, though. The store uses plastic bags, so I’m accumulating those again instead of just using my own bags, and that’s a bummer.

Still, I’ve gained back valuable free time.

Some years ago I cut cable and went to only streaming services for TV entertainment. I made that move because it seemed cable or satellite under delivered for the price. And as the pandemic took hold, I took to shopping online for clothes, small appliances and the like. So shopping for groceries this way was really the next logical step.

So I’m all in with the service economy. I feel like I get more out of the services than I pay for them. And when it comes to grocery shopping, getting back six or eight hours of free time each month is a sweet deal.

— Phil Wright, news editor, East Oregonian