Sunday, November 01, 2015

Review: Meijer's Curbside Pickup Service

So I tried Meijer​'s curbside pickup for the first time today.  Early this morning I had created an order of about 25 items for the Cascade Michigan Meijer I use.  Below are some pros and cons for the process.

Pros: 
o For a large or heavy order this saves you from having to fight the usual Meijer crowds and their inability to ever have sufficient checkout lanes open unless you go at 2 AM or some other ungodly hour for shopping.
o Process was fast;  I drove up to the curbside pickup station, announced myself, and my order was brought out in about 7 minutes.  My credit card was swiped, my groceries loaded into the trunk, and I was good to go.
o Agent was friendly and cheerful.

Cons:
o Agent could not shut my trunk.  She tried several times.  I got out of the car and shut the trunk with no issue using one hand.
o Agent was unable to give me a receipt as her receipt printer was not working.  She seemed to have no idea what the issue was or how to fix it.  As I am a mPerks customer I knew I could get my receipt online so no worries for me and I told her I did not need a receipt.
o Agent had trouble understanding me over the speaker/mike when I checked in.  Had to say my name three times and then spell it.  There was no wind or other background noise.
o The ordering system is not 100% accurate.  Some items I knew the store had did not show up online when I was creating my order.
o Takes awhile to go through the online ordering though subsequent orders should be easier as you can bring up past orders.
o As there's a flat rate for your order regardless of the size it's not worth using to just pick up a few items.
o Scheduling could be better;  after placing my 25 item order the first pickup time was almost 12 hours later.  There were no other cars in the curbside area when I made my pickup.

Note:
For things like produce, meats, etc. you are basically at the stores mercy, though there is a comment field for every item you order.  I ordered some boneless skinless chicken breasts, some ground beef, and some produce and was quite pleased with the results of what was selected for me.  It will be interesting to see if this is maintained as I envisioned damaged produce and extra gnarly chicken, but it was almost as if my mom had picked the items out for me.

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