Groceries on demand

I did it.

After two years of glimpsing longingly at the Fresh Direct truck as it rode around my tiny Jersey City neighborhood delivering boxes upon boxes of groceries, I gave in. I placed an order.

I have been regaled with tales of Fresh Direct as friends and family (even our realtor!) sang its praises over the last months, but always had an itty bitty pang of guilt at the thought of having my groceries delivered. Doesn't grocery shopping come with the being-a-wife territory? And that's how the guilt always got me. After all, I don't reeeally have a good excuse as to why I can't take time out of my day to grocery shop. It's not that I mind food shopping. I generally like it...and at times, I even love it. I enjoy trolling the aisles for fun new foods, filling up my cart and subsequently my fridge and pantry...and, oh yeah, eating up the goods. However, quite honestly? The thought of giving up even a moment of my precious weekend hours, which are typically spent getting our apartment in order, writing away and getting to spend some fun time with the husband, for grocery shopping just became too much to bear. Not to mention the annoyance of carting groceries up to our apartment. So last week when I realized that this weekend would need to be a grocery shopping extravaganza, I decided to give Fresh Direct a try.

I scoured the website, filling up my cyber shopping cart with fruits and veggies galore (I admittedly may have overbought), sticking to my general shopping technique of purchasing what's in season and on sale. I found giant packs of chicken breasts, frozen shrimp and lean ground beef - my usual staple proteins. Most of my favorite name brand products were available and for similar, if not lower prices than in store. Not only did I score better deals on cold cuts and vegetables (which lead to my fabulous grilled zucchini) than at my local A&P, but I hunted down an electronic coupon which scored me a sweet 25% off my order bringing my order total to way, way less than what I'd usually spend on a bi-monthly shopping trip. Oh, and the fact that much of the produce is grown locally, with plenty of organic options, is just the icing on the proverbial cake.

So that nagging pang of guilt at the thought of delivered groceries? Let's just say, like many things in life, its been zapped away by convenience and low prices. Now it's the thought of ever having to visit a grocery store again that gives me an itty bitty pang of anxiety.

So what's your thought on the groceries-being-delivered movement? Are you on board? Resisting? Waiting for it to come to a neighborhood near you?

*Images borrowed from FreshDirect.com