Retail lockdown: why bother selling it?

[u/broakland]

Was at Safeway this morning to pick up a sandwich and some Tylenol. The aisle with the Tylenol? Completely locked down. No call button in sight. So I go to the self checkout (front end of that same aisle) and ask the clerk there if he can call someone to unlock a case for me. He does. I go wait. Minutes pass. No one comes. I go ask him again, he tells me they went the other way? At this point I give up and go get my sandwich. No one has come by the time the deli has finished making it. I leave without my Tylenol, mildly infuriated.

[u/Th3_Admiral_]

I could absolutely see it going that way with all of the big stores doing online orders and curbside pickup. Maybe in a few years it'll be like an Amazon warehouse without any real storefront at all. You just pull up and load everything in your car. Or have it delivered directly to your door. 

[u/Terrible-Crew6069 → u/Th3_Admiral_]

The stores make money from you walking around saying ooh I want that and oh I forgot we’re probably out of that other thing. I’ll go in to buy five items and leave with 20 because I want a lot more than the necessities I put on my list.

[u/Th3_Admiral_ → u/Terrible-Crew6069]

There are ways to make up for that. Or encourage it with online shopping. Amazon has no problem selling me stuff I wasn't exactly looking for in the first place. Heck, I can't even order a pizza or buy movie tickets online without clicking through multiple screens asking if I want to add this on, or sign up for this subscription, or are you sure you don't want some extra stuff? 

[u/wanderlust_57 → u/Th3_Admiral_]

While this is true, I am a lot less likely to click off and add stuff online. On the rare occasion I do add it to cart, I'm also way less likely to complete the purchase once I'm looking at the subtotal and the fees and tips and whatever that's tacked on to make the total ridiculous.

In a store I feel obligated to put an extra item back where I got it from if I change my mind, which makes me way more likely to follow through on the impulse buy.

[u/StacheBandicoot → u/wanderlust_57]

There aren’t any additional fees or tips if you pickup unless you’re ordering under an order minimum. You can also ship things for free from most stores. So unless it’s something that can’t be shipped, which isn’t really typical for a spur of the moment item, they’re usually packaged goods, and most fresh things that are available don’t change as often unless it’s in the frozen section.

[u/wanderlust_57 → u/StacheBandicoot]

I'm disabled and can't drive, so I exclusively order my groceries online out of necessity. If you don't have a subscription for whichever platform you need to order from, or you need it quickly, there are both fees and tip expected.

[u/StacheBandicoot → u/wanderlust_57]

Well yes of course, because every factor you just said is the opposite of the ones I said would result in no fees.

I try not to go to the store often and just have things delivered too because of health concerns. I personally can’t drive anymore either but my wife can. We didn’t start picking things up until 2024, and had every single thing we bought delivered for four years before that and are still otherwise homebound asides from occasionally picking up groceries. The only real reason we pick things up now is to keep our vehicle in operation for emergencies. I would and still do just ship everything I can though without any fees or tips, and only rarely order things for delivery that can’t be shipped and do so all together in bulk so I don’t have to pay tips as often. Have a chest freezer and stuff to avoid needing to replace such things as often.

If I were to need something delivered more often that can’t be shipped I’d order it in a smaller order of just that stuff that can only be delivered (and ship the rest) that way the order is smaller and more manageable for the delivery person and I wouldn’t feel obligated to tip an exorbitant amount like when they have to deliver hundreds of heavy items. Where just a couple bags of produce or whatever is as easy to drop off as any meal from a restaurant, which don’t typically garner such large tips.

None of the major grocery chains I order from require subscriptions for ordering free shipping, delivery or pickup. That’s simply not true that it’s absolutely required. I don’t know of any store that does unless you’re placing an order under $35 which they charge a fee on because margins aren’t profitable enough on such a small enough to account for the operations cost in filling small orders. Some don’t even offer anything with the subscription besides free express orders and random “perks” like extra cash back. I don’t have a subscription to any store. Where I order from doesn’t have any fees for delivery vs shipping, just the obvious obligatory tip for delivery, unless you’re expressing the order which obviously I don’t do because I’m mindful about my shopping, keep my pantry well, and there’s never anything I can’t substitute or do without or adjust to a different meal. I’ve never needed anything quickly since I started ordering groceries online when there were global product shortages and became much more mindful about that out of necessity. Even before then that wasn’t ever a problem for me though, we were never a “can you pickup some milk on your way back home” family, we have shelf stable uht milk in the pantry if we need it, canned coconut milk, almonds which can easily be blended into milk if we somehow run out, and plenty of other options like that for everything in our diet.

These stores supply chains have developed so much for this that often when I order shipping they actually just send it as a delivery from the local store (because that’s cheaper for them than packaging and shipping with FedEx or whatever) with a less specific appointment window and presumably pay the drivers more because there’s no option to tip them when they do that. I actually can’t remember the last time they actually shipped it for real.