Acquiring Food During a Pandemic

[danbrotherston]

I don't have a car, so I'm really not sure how a curbside pickup order would work from these places, I've also noticed some of them will not delivery to multi-residential buildings. It's kind of put me off those options.

Biking to roadside stalls is a great idea, I did at one point locate the OK Egg farm, but I'm not sure if they would have a roadside stall. The one weakness of this is the likely need for cash.

I will probably try instacart at some point, the frozen foods tip is a good one, but that is too bad, since frozen veggies is how I've avoided shopping for a month. I've noticed delivery slots are more available now, so perhaps things are getting more settled.

In the places I've done curbside pickup the process is always to call when you arrive, and let the person know which numbered spot you are in. In those circumstances my expectation would be to take a spot with the bike, and just let the person know on the phone that I'm riding and they can place the package down and I'll pack it into my bags myself. I think accommodating cyclists will take a little bit of practice, but I expect most places will be able to make it workable. I think the largest barrier is cargo space. I certainly wouldn't have been able to ride my Stemmler's order home but that was a "stock the freezer for the summer" sort of trip for us.

Cash is problematic, I agree. I figure in most cases I'll try to fill my basket up enough to get things to a point where I'm comfortable rounding up, which isn't something everyone will be able to do. At some point the right thing for their businesses may very well be to accept cashless transactions, and technologies with clear business value can be adopted by mennonite communities more readily than technologies for personal use. I think a lot of market stalls, even Mennonite-owned and run, were already accepting transactions. With fully wireless pin pads like those used by delivery services as long as there's cell phone coverage they wouldn't even need electricity or internet access on the farm itself.

I have no idea what is actually practical for small downtown grocers like Full Circle or Legacy Greens, but if you had a significant order of frozen items they might be able to help get those items in via their distributors perhaps?

Yeah, I'm hoping it would be no problem...just remembering issues going through drivethroughs without a car.

As for cargo space...that just sounds like a challenge .

Good tip on Downtown grocers too...and I certainly don't mind supporting them.

[clasher]

If you order online at Full Circle they'll put your order on the picnic table by the bike rack and you can do whatever you want with it afterward, my partner picked up an order there last week, pretty convenient way to get some things.

[jgsz]

We can help restaurants by getting takeout or delivery but, in the long run, it may not help.  Here are a couple of articles that shows the stress restaurants are experiencing.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/restaur...-1.5549475

https://www.kitchenertoday.com/regional-...rt-2293660

[tomh009]

Lower occupancy in restaurants will in many/most cases dictate higher pricing as the restaurants will have fewer customers but the same fixed costs. And, yes, some of the restaurants won't make it.

[danbrotherston]

Lower occupancy in restaurants will in many/most cases dictate higher pricing as the restaurants will have fewer customers but the same fixed costs. And, yes, some of the restaurants won't make it.

Yes, this is going to be really bad.

For recovery, I very much hope that 1. Business credit is readily available, and 2. Business failures during covid either don't count, or count far less against someone applying for a business loan. 

Basically, if you were operating in good standing before, and you failed during, you should probably just a green light on resuming after. I really have no idea why any commercial landlords would be evicting tenants that they didn't already want to get rid of, there is no way they can replace them right now.

[tomh009]

Yes. But apart from handling the shutdown right now, the restaurants need to be viable after they are allowed to open again. If they were marginal and/or depending on filling all the tables, the situation will be difficult at best. Same for bars. Restaurants less dependent on filling all the tables will have a better chance.

[clasher]

https://www.flanagangrocery.ca/ is offering a pickup for stuff, might be good for families with kids or if you're shopping for a couple households... larger quantities of stuff but might be a good option. I couldn't believe the lineup at wal-mart the other day!

[jgsz]

I was going to order some takeout from Arabesque and was very surprised when I saw their webpage. 

http://www.arabesquecafekw.com/

I suspect their business is still not what it should be but they will survive the pandemic.  Restaurants that are not set up for takeout or delivery will probably fail.

[danbrotherston]

I was going to order some takeout from Arabesque and was very surprised when I saw their webpage. 

http://www.arabesquecafekw.com/

I suspect their business is still not what it should be but they will survive the pandemic.  Restaurants that are not set up for takeout or delivery will probably fail.

Surprised good, or surprised bad?

I have ordered from them twice now, and I've been very happy, I am slightly disappointed I cannot pay online for a completely contactless drop, but their delivery people have been very good, by the time I have gotten to the door, the food, and payment terminals have been on the floor, and they have been up the hallway waiting, make the payment, pickup the food, thank the person and then close the door.

It doesn't hurt that the food is amazing too.

I am glad someone pinged this thread again, I was going to mention a few things.

First, a couple of coworkers of mine have put together a directory of really good, local food options during COVID, along with a fairly good amount of detail around their delivery and pickup options.  They cover a lot of grocery and specialty type items (they are into coffee).

https://www.heartlocal.ca/

Second, I was surprised but Longos seems to offer a pretty reasonable delivery service in KW, has anyone used it? I am thinking of trying it next.  It's interesting because their description seems to play up the "personal shopping" experience, but it sounds like they're actually fulfilling deliveries from a fulfillment centre, which makes way more sense than personal shopping.

Third, I actually tried out instacart. It is certainly a functional service, I do indeed have groceries, but frankly, it's didn't impress. Instacard does not provide the shoppers any equipment of any sort for shopping, the result is, the person delivering my order needed me to come down and help him with the twenty some bags of groceries, because apparently to instacart, providing a CART would be too much overhead for them to incur in logistics. But more generally, the "personal shopping" experience is just not something I enjoy or find valuable in anyway. I suspect some people disagree, but to me, it's a negative, and the concept of fulfilling a delivery order from grocery stores is just stupid in general, it would be far more efficient (read: cheaper, or, you could pay people a reasonable wage instead) to fulfill orders from a fulfillment centre designed for it.

Regardless, there is plenty more pandemic to try out all the different options we have available.

[plam]

Third, I actually tried out instacart. It is certainly a functional service, I do indeed have groceries, but frankly, it's didn't impress. Instacard does not provide the shoppers any equipment of any sort for shopping, the result is, the person delivering my order needed me to come down and help him with the twenty some bags of groceries, because apparently to instacart, providing a CART would be too much overhead for them to incur in logistics. But more generally, the "personal shopping" experience is just not something I enjoy or find valuable in anyway. I suspect some people disagree, but to me, it's a negative, and the concept of fulfilling a delivery order from grocery stores is just stupid in general, it would be far more efficient (read: cheaper, or, you could pay people a reasonable wage instead) to fulfill orders from a fulfillment centre designed for it.

Regardless, there is plenty more pandemic to try out all the different options we have available.

So NZ is not generally ahead of the curve on these things but there is an eStore that they opened recently. There were some neighbour complaints about noise. Here's a press release from Countdown about it.

https://www.countdown.co.nz/news-and-med...ing-demand

Countdown also closed one of the metro stores around here to redeploy staff to meet online shopping demand (which exceeds supply).

[dtkvictim]

Third, I actually tried out instacart. It is certainly a functional service, I do indeed have groceries, but frankly, it's didn't impress. Instacard does not provide the shoppers any equipment of any sort for shopping, the result is, the person delivering my order needed me to come down and help him with the twenty some bags of groceries, because apparently to instacart, providing a CART would be too much overhead for them to incur in logistics. But more generally, the "personal shopping" experience is just not something I enjoy or find valuable in anyway. I suspect some people disagree, but to me, it's a negative, and the concept of fulfilling a delivery order from grocery stores is just stupid in general, it would be far more efficient (read: cheaper, or, you could pay people a reasonable wage instead) to fulfill orders from a fulfillment centre designed for it.

Regardless, there is plenty more pandemic to try out all the different options we have available.

I've long dreamed of a fulfillment center based delivery service, or even pickup service if it was actually close by (I hate shopping in supermarkets even without a pandemic). Having to keep an eye on my phone for ~1 hour while an Instacart shopper asks me about replacements for out of stock items is annoying, but I still find it the most practical way of getting groceries downtown. I have found during the pandemic that all kinds of delivery (not just Instacart) are much more willing to come up to my unit to drop deliveries at my door. I think a large part of this is the lack of traffic making it easier for them to stop for a couple minutes. I do feel bad about having them carry so many bags up, but I try to tip generously.

Above all though, I'd love to see more practical grocers downtown (this seems like heaven to me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYHTzqHIngk). I've tried to use just about every option (Legacy Greens, Fore Quarter, Shoppers, New City, farmers market, J&P when it existed), but between limited selection, higher prices, or the inconvenient distances to walk between some of these stores, getting groceries is probably the least convenient part of living downtown.

For anyone interested, these are all the delivery services I've come across locally (although I'm yet to try anything other than Instacart so far):

https://www.grocerygateway.com/store/
https://getbutter.ca/ (Has an invalid cert at the time of posting, hopefully it hasn't shut down already)
https://producedeliverykw.company.site/
https://hellamaid.ca/grocery-delivery/
https://waterloo.mrsgrocery.com/ (Very interested in trying this one)
https://www.zerocery.ca/
https://www.instacart.ca/store

I've also ordered (free) delivery from good vibes a couple times: https://www.goodvibesjuice.com/

[danbrotherston]

Third, I actually tried out instacart. It is certainly a functional service, I do indeed have groceries, but frankly, it's didn't impress. Instacard does not provide the shoppers any equipment of any sort for shopping, the result is, the person delivering my order needed me to come down and help him with the twenty some bags of groceries, because apparently to instacart, providing a CART would be too much overhead for them to incur in logistics. But more generally, the "personal shopping" experience is just not something I enjoy or find valuable in anyway. I suspect some people disagree, but to me, it's a negative, and the concept of fulfilling a delivery order from grocery stores is just stupid in general, it would be far more efficient (read: cheaper, or, you could pay people a reasonable wage instead) to fulfill orders from a fulfillment centre designed for it.

Regardless, there is plenty more pandemic to try out all the different options we have available.

I've long dreamed of a fulfillment center based delivery service, or even pickup service if it was actually close by (I hate shopping in supermarkets even without a pandemic). Having to keep an eye on my phone for ~1 hour while an Instacart shopper asks me about replacements for out of stock items is annoying, but I still find it the most practical way of getting groceries downtown. I have found during the pandemic that all kinds of delivery (not just Instacart) are much more willing to come up to my unit to drop deliveries at my door. I think a large part of this is the lack of traffic making it easier for them to stop for a couple minutes. I do feel bad about having them carry so many bags up, but I try to tip generously.

Above all though, I'd love to see more practical grocers downtown (this seems like heaven to me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYHTzqHIngk). I've tried to use just about every option (Legacy Greens, Fore Quarter, Shoppers, New City, farmers market, J&P when it existed), but between limited selection, higher prices, or the inconvenient distances to walk between some of these stores, getting groceries is probably the least convenient part of living downtown.

For anyone interested, these are all the delivery services I've come across locally (although I'm yet to try anything other than Instacart so far):

https://www.grocerygateway.com/store/
https://getbutter.ca/ (Has an invalid cert at the time of posting, hopefully it hasn't shut down already)
https://producedeliverykw.company.site/
https://hellamaid.ca/grocery-delivery/
https://waterloo.mrsgrocery.com/ (Very interested in trying this one)
https://www.zerocery.ca/
https://www.instacart.ca/store

I've also ordered (free) delivery from good vibes a couple times: https://www.goodvibesjuice.com/

Getbutter has indeed shut down, before they were erroring out, they had a shutdown message.

The hellamaid people were quite interesting.

Zerocerie was interesting sounding too, but a lot of those are quite high priced, more so than any of the local stores in DTK.

Outside of the pandemic, I certainly agree that groceries in dtk appears to be a challenge since we don't have a traditional supermarket, but since I've lived here, I haven't found it pretty reasonable to meet all my grocery needs and wants. The market has almost everything I need, but only Saturdays, the other smaller shops meet most of my needs, if I'm willing to make multiple stops (which combined still take less time than going to costco, and I'm able to pay higher prices--part of that is not needing to own a car because I live downtown) but if I'm shopping between market days, usually I only need one or two things, so probably just one stop.  And when I really need a full supermarket, I'll either take the LRT to Valumart in uptown or I'll bike on the trail to Sobeys/Food Basics.

I certainly wouldn't object to a supermarket, but after living here a while, I'm surprised how little of an obstacle it has been not having a supermarket, and I do think we would lose a lot of the smaller businesses if we did get a supermarket.

[jgsz]

I was going to order some takeout from Arabesque and was very surprised when I saw their webpage. 

http://www.arabesquecafekw.com/

I suspect their business is still not what it should be but they will survive the pandemic.  Restaurants that are not set up for takeout or delivery will probably fail.

Surprised good, or surprised bad?

Surprised good.  I would really like to order takeout from Meetpoint (in the Boardwalk) but everything would be cold by the time I got back to DTK. So Arabesque is a very good alternative.

[robdrimmie]

I haven't tried Grocery Gateway (which is Longo's service) during the pandemic, but in the before-times it was fine, and probably a really good source of frozen goods as there is some amount of climate control in their delivery trucks as well.

[jgsz]

Fear on tap

I am not a beer drinker so I don't know what is happening to our local craft brewers but an article on the CBC says that many across Canada are in trouble due to the pandemic.  Does anyone on this forum have any info on the local situation?