Townhall of Hope – LIVE Next Thursday
Regardless of your fan-status for Dave Ramsey, there is a gigantic event coming up in a week around the country that is going to be highly valuable. I wish I could attend!
This is really neat because thousands of locations around the US are offering themselves as hosts. Check out Dave’s Townhall of Hope event scheduled for Thursday, April 23rd if you haven’t heard of it yet. Go Dave!
Here is a link to the Townhall blog.
Supermarket Woes Solved
I am in the passenger seat beside my husband as we roll along the infamous South Carolina Interstate 26. We are being passed by a large white truck bearing a gigantic image of a smiling pig and cheerful red type. This reminds me, “Oh yes, there it is again — that blog post swirling around in my head with no place to land.” Well, enough with my pitiful procrastination. I have something very exciting to share that may make you wiggly like a piggly. Either that, or it will just plain bore you in an anticlimactic sort of way. I have that effect on people sometimes. Anyhow, let us press on to love, good works, and grocery shopping made simply satisfying!
Bring on the Bacon
“Mom, I’m turning into a pig.” I can certainly attest to the happiness I have found since my grocery store conversion six months ago, even if it has turned me into a pig-lover. Perhaps you aren’t like me, and you could care less about who rings up your bill, who fills your prescriptions, or who carries your paper vs. plastic to the car. If you are like me, however, your relationship with your local supermarket ranks surprisingly high on your list of life relationships, right up there with the benevolent person who cleans your teeth and the sounding board you call when your child sticks a pumpkin seed up his nose and you’re debating whether or not to try the vacuum attachment or head straight to the pediatrician. I believe my friendship with the grocery store should be reliable and pleasurable. Shopping for food and baby wipes, although mundane and routine, is a necessary essential of family life, and I am pleased to say that it has become a welcome breeze at our house.
I have four children. Two are girls, and two are boys; they are full of joy, charm, wonder, and the innate ability to suck every bit of concentration and patience out of my body in a remarkable sand-in-hourglass kind of fashion while shopping. If you are a parent who has ever attempted to be in public with your child or have ever been on earth with any such combo, you are familiar with this humorous and humbling phenomenon. No elaboration is required; just close your eyes and take in the sight and sounds of silent serenity. “Ahhhh.” No. “Ahhhhhh!!!!”
I have a wonderful husband, though, who is often willing to run by on his way home or take one or two of them with him if we need something from the grocery store. Only a few times have one of us braved it with all of them in tow; it is just difficult because they are so young. (Or, okay, I’m lazy.) Last Fall another mother told some moms and me about “online grocery shopping” at the supermarket near her house. We listened with excitement as this really peaked our interest since most of us have several little ones.
That evening I search for any supermarkets nearby that offer this service. First on the list is Publix. I have always been a Publix kind of girl. I really like their customer service, their clean, organized stores, their bakery and deli, and their name-brand products. Doing a little research, however, reveals that Publix ceased offering its online shopping service a few years ago. This is quite disappointing because our Publix is right down the road. Next? There is Harris Teeter, which has many locations around the US. Score! Online shopping! The only problem, however, is there is no Harris Teeter close to our house or on our weekly route. Well, guess what I find, thanks to Google? Piggly Wiggly, a locally headquartered Southern chain, has an online shopping service called Click ‘n Shop. Granted, it is across town – a good twenty to thirty minutes from us – but because my husband works close to the store, we figure it’s worth a shot. We go ahead and try it for the first time in October 2008, and the rest is just pork sausage.
Gettin’ Wiggly With it
Here is what I do when I am ready to “go shopping.” First of all, it is fantastic because I can do it anytime, anywhere in my house with my laptop, and wearing anything I want. (There is not much that is more embarrassing to me than being forced to throw four unkempt children in the van wearing wrinkled yoga pants and a spit-up-stained t-shirt in order to obtain that missing ingredient for dinner or box of diapers or toilet paper. I laugh at some of the looks people give, as if I had ample time on my hands and appeared this way intentionally!) I digress. Click ‘n Shop is wonderful for the most obvious reason: I don’t have to leave the house to browse the aisles. I simply log in to my account, click on the items to put in my cart, and check-out when I am finished with the order. This is also fabulous because I have the tendency to get side-tracked at times when I see products on the shelves, whether I come hungry or not, and eventually I am spending more than I initially intended.
When my order is complete, I check-out using the credit card information I have saved in my account. There is a $5.00 fee for the service, which we think is right on and totally worth it. I select a time-slot to pick up my groceries. I am allowed to schedule pick-up up to 45 days in advance but no less than four hours ahead of time. That means I can get my groceries today and / or essentially make menus from my “master lists” for the entire following month and place the grocery orders for them in one shopping session! Wow; I think that is just awesome. What I often do is make my order at night and schedule the pick-up for just before dinnertime when Eric can swing by on his way home from work. When we are picking up the order, we drive into a designated parking space with signage bearing the logo and phone number. We dial the number, and a few minutes later an employee walks our groceries right out the car with our groceries and the print-outs from the order. Fantastic!
We like to keep Sunday lunch simple, so the little ones can eat and get settled as easily as possible. Sometimes I will place our order on Saturday evening, and I will add The Pig’s yummy deli chicken salad croissant sandwiches to the order. We pick up our weekly groceries and Sunday lunch right after church and haul our crew over the bridge to our house, and the whole thing is done in thirty minutes and one stop. Now that sounds like a Sabbath to me!
Kiss the Pig
We used to have an annual “kiss the pig” contest at my high school, and I remember holding that little squealing porker my sophomore year at our Farmer’s Day pep rally while Mr. Garrick leaned over to give him a big hairy smooch. Maybe kissing is a bit much, but I certainly want to give a big hug. I am confident about a good relationship with Piggly Wiggly that will likely remain for years to come. Our family hopes to move across town in the future also, so that will make this even more efficient.
Nonetheless I am constantly impressed and satisfied with the customer service we find there. Every time I speak with my “personal shoppers” on the phone or greet them at my car during pick-up, they are so friendly and go the extra mile. One of the essentials of making a click ‘n shop order for me is clicking the “allow substitutions” box, which lets my shopper know that if he cannot locate a 7oz. container of organic agave nectar (I am notorious for ordering the unconventional), he can substitute something based on my notes and/or what the store has in stock. Sometimes my shopper will call me on my cell phone to discuss a substitution or even to let me know the order is ready early if I would like to go ahead and pick-up at the store.
I like you, Piggly Wiggly, and I think we’re going to be friends for life.
Well. Surely I could have made this a two-sentence post and simply stated, “SC Lowcountry online grocery shopping is fantastic. Check it out!” But this is much more fun, isn’t it? I hope it enlightened some of you, or maybe just made you wiggle a little. If you have any questions, send me a comment, and I’ll be glad to give you more endorsements about The Pig’s Click ‘n Shop. I’d also like to hear your success (or horror) stories with online grocery shopping!
Oink!
[photo Copyright © Scott Soehlig, all rights reserved]
Midwife’s Psalm
Just in case you haven’t read this — four midwives and two home births for me, and I am just now stumbling across this, thanks to an email signature from my midwife! I love it (although I have to say I do not relate to the part about “hours or even days” — our home births seemed to go just a tad FAST)!
Enjoy 
Midwife’s Psalm
I have a midwife, I shall not want.
She has me lie back on soft cushions,
she leads me to walk during labor,
she empowers me to birth.
She will not rupture my membranes just for times’ sake.Yea, though I labor in my own home for hours or even days
I will fear no intervention, for she is with me:
Her heart and her hands, they support me.
She prepares a table beside me in the presence of my family.
She anoints my perineum with oil; my water flows.
Surely a precious babe will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will remember this birth with joy forever.- adapted by Janie Young
quick feed
bookmarks
photos and small videos
email me