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Post by busy on Jul 23, 2022 17:45:47 GMT
I’m a produce control freak, I admit it. I’m very particular about the quality, state of ripeness, etc. Summers during college, I worked at a high-end food store that specialized in produce and I’ve never shaken what I learned there lol The only produce I’ll order in pickup or delivery orders are lemons and limes and even those I’m sometimes not happy with their selections. It’s better for everyone for me to just pick out my own What about you? (This post brought to you by the shitty limes I got in my grocery pickup order this morning.”)
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J u l e e
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,531
Location: Cincinnati
Jun 28, 2014 2:50:47 GMT
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Post by J u l e e on Jul 23, 2022 17:54:45 GMT
No. I’ve been shopping in person since May 2020 because I couldn’t stand having someone else choosing my produce.
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Post by cadoodlebug on Jul 23, 2022 17:57:29 GMT
I admit that I've never used a grocery service because I too am a produce control freak!!
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Post by busy on Jul 23, 2022 17:59:25 GMT
I do my dry goods, refrigerated items, frozen items, beer/wine, household goods, etc by pickup. Usually one large order every two weeks. It saves time and eliminates impulse buys.
I buy most of our produce and meats at the farmers’ markets or directly from farms this time of year, but I do occasionally go to the grocery store to grab stuff I can’t get locally right now or if there’s a time constraint.
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pantsonfire
Drama Llama
Take a step back, evaluate what is important, and enjoy your life with those who you love.
Posts: 6,001
Jun 19, 2022 16:48:04 GMT
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Post by pantsonfire on Jul 23, 2022 18:03:58 GMT
Proud Produce Control Freak. Even dh knows not to get me produce items while we shop together LOL
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QueenoftheSloths
Drama Llama
Member Since January 2004, 2,698 forum posts PeaNut Number: 122614 PeaBoard Title: StuckOnPeas
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Jun 26, 2014 0:29:24 GMT
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Post by QueenoftheSloths on Jul 23, 2022 18:05:37 GMT
I only order non perishable items in pick up orders. I don't know if that makes me a control freak. I just like to pick my own. Whether I am looking for freshness, size, ripeness, etc I know I care more about what I get than the shopper does.
I do almost all of my own shopping. The only time I will do a pick up is if it is a better price to buy online than in store. Target will have online only discounts so I will order online then, but really shouldn't I get the discount for being willing to go get it myself instead of Target having to pay an employee to gather the order for me?
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pantsonfire
Drama Llama
Take a step back, evaluate what is important, and enjoy your life with those who you love.
Posts: 6,001
Jun 19, 2022 16:48:04 GMT
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Post by pantsonfire on Jul 23, 2022 18:06:21 GMT
To answer the question, I did during Covid for the months of April and May. Oh and mid March to end of March as well. Very end of May is when I started to go back and grocery shop myself. But then produce was hit or miss so I took what I could get. We had a lot of canned and frozen fruits and vegetables during that time.
I have ordered a few potatoes and carrots in a store pick up order and that has been hit or miss. But I needed the items and wasn't able to shop in store.
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Post by cmpeter on Jul 23, 2022 18:07:01 GMT
I’ve been pretty impressed by the produce my Whole Foods shoppers have picked. I have tried it with Amazon Fresh and had very mixed results and don’t use them for produce.
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Post by Clair on Jul 23, 2022 18:14:54 GMT
Like most people, I’m particular about my produce. Most of my shopping is delivered - including produce. I also in person shop at Trader Joe’s.
I live where there is an Amazon fresh store - they are hands down the best. I’ve never had anything less than great produce. Whole Foods is good too.
Most other places the shoppers are ok to pretty good but I don’t know the quality of what they are choosing that day.
I also tend to choose the fresh store if I go inside because I can use the smart cart and not bother with checking out.
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Post by Lexica on Jul 23, 2022 18:34:15 GMT
The very first time I ordered something from the produce section, cilantro, it was actually floating in greenish murky water inside the plastic bag and the tips of the leaves were black. You could not have picked a more disgusting batch if you tried. The only thing I could think of as to why this occurred is that I placed my order on a Monday afternoon, requesting delivery for Tuesday. I seriously wondered if the shopper picked up my order on Monday and left it in the trunk of their hot car until Tuesday afternoon. Lesson learned.
I only added it to my order because I really needed it for my taco soup and wasn’t feeling well enough to make a store run. Thankfully I didn’t need any other produce. They refunded the money without a hassle because I emailed a photo of the goopy mess along with the receipt showing the day/time I placed the order. There was no way it could have degraded to that state under normal conditions.
The majority of the delivery people driving for Instacart when it first started in my area were men. At least that was my experience. During the beginning of the pandemic, I decided to try ordering produce with my Costco orders because I just did not want to go out. I don’t think the men knew how to choose decent produce. They didn’t check the dates on packaged produce either. Or check for mold.
I learned to leave instructions on every single item from the produce section telling them to check for the expiration date choosing only the one that would last the longest and to look for moldy bits. Fortunately Costco food turns over so fast that it doesn’t usually spoil on the shelves. Well, strawberries do, but on those, I told them to turn the box over and check for wet looking spots or fuzzy mold. I began to receive decent produce after that. I think the drivers learned pretty quickly that they would get complaints if they delivered junk vegetables. The produce from Costco was much better than that first Walmart order.
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Post by Merge on Jul 23, 2022 18:46:59 GMT
The H‑E‑B pickers seem to be pretty well trained. I’ve rarely had a problem with produce selection. I put specific notes in if I’m looking for something special.
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Post by elaine on Jul 23, 2022 18:47:23 GMT
After a couple of very bad experiences with the produce part of a grocery order at the beginning of COVID, I do all my produce and meat/poultry shopping myself in-person.
I don't think that I am a control freak; I just want edible produce and meat products.
One bag of coleslaw that I bought must have been left out in the heat somewhere - not sure where as it was a morning order - and it literally was fermenting in the bag. The ham I ordered from Walmart for Easter ended up weighing 0.75 pounds when it was dropped off. For my family of 4. Yeah, no. I had to go into the store to pick up a ham myself and wasn't happy about it because that was at the beginning of COVID. That was the end of produce and meat products for me.
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Post by chaosisapony on Jul 23, 2022 18:56:59 GMT
There's only certain produce I'll buy in a pickup order. Broccoli, onions, potatoes, bell peppers are generally fine. Tomatoes, bananas, melons, fresh herbs or cucumbers I will wait until I go for in person shopping.
ETA: I only do Walmart pickup, not Instacart or anything else. So if I receive something that's poor quality I just go back to the website and request a refund. I've done it a couple of times open receiving open cans of cat food or half rotten onions or potatoes. Sometimes it's less than a 50 cent refund but I don't care, I am not paying for rotten food.
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Post by busy on Jul 23, 2022 19:00:14 GMT
I’ve been pretty impressed by the produce my Whole Foods shoppers have picked. I have tried it with Amazon Fresh and had very mixed results and don’t use them for produce. My Whole Foods does a worse job than my local Fred Meyer :/ I wish New Seasons had their own employees pick orders rather than Instacart shoppers because I’d actually trust them to do a good job.
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Post by monklady123 on Jul 23, 2022 19:03:50 GMT
No. This is the main reason why I never did pickup even in the height of the pandemic. I just shopped at 6:00 a.m. during senior hour, and got in and out quickly. My grocery store often has pretty bad produce as it is so I always figured if someone was dumb enough to put it out like that then they certainly weren't going to be able to sift through it all to pick up good ones.
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janeliz
Drama Llama
I'm the Wiz and nobody beats me.
Posts: 5,641
Jun 26, 2014 14:35:07 GMT
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Post by janeliz on Jul 23, 2022 19:04:34 GMT
I’ve actually had fairly good luck with my Instacart shoppers. Especially when it’s a woman. I had one guy bring me a bundle of radishes instead of the beets I ordered, which made me laugh.
Now my 16 y/o daughter? I recently discovered I need to teach her how to pick out a good tomato.
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Post by lisae on Jul 23, 2022 19:04:38 GMT
I only do orders at Walmart. I shop in person at other stores. If I get produce at Walmart, it is usually onions, potatoes, garlic and packaged things like carrots, spinach or celery. The only thing they might handle that isn't peeled later would be peppers. I get most produce from my trips to our other regular grocery store. In the summer, I shop at a couple of produce markets because I love cantaloupe, corn and cucumbers and the options are better at the markets. So I've not really had a problem with any of the selections.
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Post by freecharlie on Jul 23, 2022 19:08:54 GMT
Nope. They just grab
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keithurbanlovinpea
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Flowing with the go...
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Jun 29, 2014 3:29:30 GMT
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Post by keithurbanlovinpea on Jul 23, 2022 19:09:55 GMT
I used to be. But I am trying to not waste as much food as I was, and in doing so learned that produce travels a long way and doesn't need to be aesthetic. Now I agree... I don't want spoiled produce, but for the most part what I get from the picker I can work with
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Post by chances on Jul 23, 2022 20:17:42 GMT
I’m not a control freak but the shoppers I’ve had bring back terrible items. Produce that shouldn’t even be available for purchase and they dgaf. So no more produce orders for me.
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Post by huskermom98 on Jul 23, 2022 20:35:31 GMT
For what I buy I've had pretty good luck, but I do trust them for the most part. The worst was in one of my earliest orders--the shopper picked the worst container of mushrooms I've ever seen. I made a note on the next order or two when I ordered mushrooms to pick one that has dry, light brown mushrooms & not wet looking ones.
I've also learned to speak up when I get something wrong or something that didn't make the trip home without being squished (bread in a bag NEXT TO juice bottles...why yes you can use the photo i sent with my complaint for training purposes....) or smashed (eggs...10 out of 36 were still ok). So if I were to get some bad produce I would let the store know & they are good about wither refunding me or delivering new items.
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Post by padresfan619 on Jul 23, 2022 20:41:26 GMT
I admit to being a produce control freak, but I have had to relinquish that part of myself a few times the last few months for various reasons. I’ve had to do 3 Instacart orders in the last 3 months, once because my car was in the shop over grocery shopping day and twice over the last two weeks because of Covid. Still need groceries!
Anyway, 2/3 orders were perfect. The shoppers chose produce I would have chosen myself. I also tried to keep it pretty easy by opting for easy produce like cucumbers, strawberries, blueberries, potatoes, and onions. Stuff that’s easy to identify if it’s bad, and not things like bananas or melons where I can be pretty particular. The last time I ordered though the shopper picked a rotten, soft cucumber. It was disgusting and I knew it was bad before I even unwrapped it.
I was able to get a refund but I was still left cucumber-less and we devour them! It was a bummer. I was very happy to finally be able to be out of isolation so I could go back to choosing my own produce.
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Post by padresfan619 on Jul 23, 2022 20:43:49 GMT
Also in the early days of Covid when I was still very wary of in person shopping due to my pregnancy, I did a pick up order at Ralph’s and asked for broccoli crowns. They claimed they were out of stock so they just canceled the item. It was a key ingredient to the dinner I was making (aka craving) so I braved the store and went inside. There were tons of broccoli crowns as well as bags of the pre-cut broccoli. Not my usual choice but seemed like a worthy substitution, and I approved reasonable substitutions when I did my order. That’s where I get frustrated with pick up and Instacart, people want to fly through the orders so they don’t take an extra moment to look around.
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Jul 23, 2022 20:51:04 GMT
The H‑E‑B pickers seem to be pretty well trained. I’ve rarely had a problem with produce selection. I put specific notes in if I’m looking for something special. Not at mine. However, I'm über picky about my produce and much prefer the quality at Central Market. But even there I don't trust them to choose my produce. I'm even pickier about how/where my bananas are packed. I fully admit I have issues!
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Post by Merge on Jul 23, 2022 21:10:05 GMT
The H‑E‑B pickers seem to be pretty well trained. I’ve rarely had a problem with produce selection. I put specific notes in if I’m looking for something special. Not at mine. However, I'm über picky about my produce and much prefer the quality at Central Market. But even there I don't trust them to choose my produce. I'm even pickier about how/where my bananas are packed. I fully admit I have issues! Eh, I don’t want to deal with the inner loop traffic to get to Central Market every week - but that is where I’d go if I wanted a more finicky item like fresh figs, and I’d pick them out myself. Or for that matter large tomatoes. The folks at the Meyerland H‑E‑B do just fine with my broccoli and bananas. 😂 I don’t buy meat at the grocery store but I have had good luck with salmon - I’m careful to specify that I want a center cut, not the thin end.
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Post by bc2ca on Jul 23, 2022 21:14:45 GMT
The only time I've let someone else pick my produce is when we subscribed to a CSA.
I had no complaints about the box, but missing buying our produce, so stopped the service.
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Post by mymindseyedpea on Jul 23, 2022 21:23:33 GMT
This is the very reason why I won’t work such a job/department because it’s too much mental navigation to make sure I select proper produce. Too many times while bagging I go back to switch out moldy berries for non moldy. I don’t even trust selecting my own. Why does it have to be such a chore?
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Post by natscraps on Jul 23, 2022 21:33:27 GMT
This thread is timely as DH just asked me if I wanted him to go to the store for me 😂 Not only am I a produce control freak, I’m also a meat and deli control freak. We mainly shop at two different stores. To limit time inside we would do curbside pick up for most items at the one store with the cheaper prices and then I would go to the other store just for meat and produce because it’s higher quality. I’m the kind of person that needs to see what I’m getting. The pandemic kicked my donut habit because I couldn’t see the donuts beforehand. They got verrrry skimpy on the frosting sometimes and had I’d known I would have picked a different kind. Disappointed too many times.
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Post by mellyw on Jul 23, 2022 21:51:19 GMT
Proud Produce Control Freak. Even dh knows not to get me produce items while we shop together LOL Pretty much describes me
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Jul 23, 2022 21:51:37 GMT
Eh, I don’t want to deal with the inner loop traffic to get to Central Market every week We live right at the loop, so going in is just as quick most of the time. It's only a .8 mile difference between going west to BH HEB or going east to CM. As with everything Houston, which way I go depends on which way is least congested. It also depends on what else I need because neither one has everything that I like to buy.
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