With the exception of gourmet supermarkets like Wegman’s and Whole foods, I hate supermarkets!
They are often too cold. It takes forever to find and purchase just what you are looking for. I especially hate these indistinguishable mega-supermarkets that we have out here in the suburbs: Shop Right and Stop –n -Shop. They both have these wide and never ending aisles and a boring selection of food. Shopping at one of these places is especially challenging when you have to do it with your 3 year old son. When shopping with a toddler just going to get milk is an orchestrated event. Here is my typical drill:
- put him in the car
- buckle him into the car seat
- drive to the market
- find parking that is less than a mile from the entrance of the supermarket (these mega stores have mega-size parking lots)
- unbuckle the car seat belt
- remove him from the child seat
- negotiate with him to hold his hand before beginning the mini hike thru the market’s parking lot
- securing a clean shopping cart
- convincing him to get in it
- locating the aisle with the milk
- and then going thru the same drill again to get him back home
It is a nightmare. And that is why ever since moving from Brooklyn to New Jersey I miss online grocery shopping. The best online grocer I have experienced is Fresh Direct.
If you are lucky enough to live in a zip code that is serviced by Fresh Direct I highly recommend this service. Why? Well besides the obvious reasons: great UI, fantastic photos of the food, easy checkout, shopping from a previous list, my number one reason for loving this service and why I am putting it on my single mother technology list is
It offers a one-stop-shop for a recipe’s ingredients.
Everyone knows you can never find all the ingredients called for in a recipe in just one store. So if you happen to be reading Gourmet Magazine and stumble across a wonderful recipe that you may want to try, all you have to do is launch Fresh Direct in your browser and search for all the ingredients listed in the recipe, add the items to your cart and expect them at your doorstep the next day.
Give Fresh Direct a try and for those of you who don’t happen to have a copy of Gourmet Magazine lying about I’ve include here a wonderful recipe for Coconut Cream Pie by Tom Douglas as printed in Cottage Living.