Get Notified When a Grocery Slot Appears
The last time I bought groceries, it was only after a full seven days when I periodically and sometimes constantly updated my cart to ensure delivery times. A new web tool can make this process a lot less painful for you if you live in an area where sidetracking is possible.
I have severe asthma that makes it difficult for me to wear thick masks for extended periods of time, turning every grocery row into a potential war zone. However, grocery shopping still had to happen and this led to creative dinners being organized in my home thanks to a local wine shop that has a limited selection of groceries.
Getting a delivery or pick-up window on grocery store sites is becoming increasingly difficult, so much so that Amazon has created a waiting list for new customers to subscribe to its service to control demand.
If you’re like me and need to shop for groceries from a larger store without going inside, the new Curb Run service can help. Once you sign up and agree to receive text messages, the site will let you know when curbside pickup is available at a grocery store near you.
The idea here is that you have already completed your shopping cart on the selected grocery store website, including your payment information. You can then set up an alert on Curb Run, specifying how far you are ready to go for groceries, which store you would like to get them from, and what day you would ideally like to pick them up. Enter your phone number and you will receive an automatic message when the site offers an opportunity to pick up a car at the curb.
Unfortunately, the site only works with the major chains – and not all of them – but maintains a pretty good list of familiar brands, including Wegmans, Safeway, Albertsons, Food Lion, Vons, Smith’s Fry’s, Ralphs, and Fred Meyer.
I took a test drive this morning and after about 15 minutes got a message about available pickup options at the curb 20 miles from my house.
This text will not save you, it just makes it clear that it exists. Once you receive this notification, you need to quickly load that grocery store’s site and complete the transaction – hopefully before someone catches the available pickup time. This means that the best way to do this is to open the page and be ready to go and keep an eye on your phone so you can pounce quickly as soon as the text alert sounds.
It’s not a reliable system, but if you’ve been trying for a while, this might be exactly what you need for eggs and milk to finally appear.