'AmazonFresh Pickup' Beta Test Lets You Pick Up Groceries Without Leaving Your Car

This is kinda cool, yet very lazy. Plus, I like to actually go into the grocery to look at the produce and pick exactly what I need. You never know what these guys are gonna put in the bags. Maybe a bruised apple, or an older, less fresh one, etc. I think most people would rather pick out their own too. But I guess time will tell.

I'm sure it could be lazy; "More leisure time for me!" On the other hand, if grocery shopping takes a half-hour to an hour (including "park the car," "walk the aisles," and "wait in the check-out line"), there are all sorts of good ways to use the time, and undoubtedly the most time-conscious, never-enough-time-in-the-day types will benefit - a bit more breathing space/less stress (until they find other ways to "productively" occupy that time).

Now, my Watch tells me the time I spend in the grocery store counts as exercise, but it's low intensity exercise; that time could be spent doing a more physically intensive activity (which I do anyway, but more is better). And if grocery shopping was nearly as easy as hitting the fast food drive-through, maybe some people would have a better, more affordable diet.

Will the stores take advantage of shoppers? Perhaps, but overall, they want repeat business. They're not likely to be as picky (literally) as some of us, but I'd wager they won't intentionally seek out the worst, either. For me, the disadvantage is the overall inspection - "Hmm, the asparagus isn't looking very good today," "the plums are hard as rocks," "Would I rather have two larger pork chops or three smaller ones at the same weight?" But for the majority of the items in the shopping cart, that's not a consideration.

Krogers already does this with far more items.

This is kinda cool, yet very lazy.

Try shopping with babies or toddlers. It's a sanity saver!

There are a lot of "if" scenarios in that statement. I mean sure it might free up an hour of someone's day, but I doubt that it would convert to that person doing vigorous exercise instead. Sure the option is there, but most people will just use that extra time to play games on their phones. Which is none of my business, I'm just sayin'.

Also, that last point is exactly what I was going for. The fact that there's no way they would be able to know your exact quality standard for the produce. For me that's a deal-breaker because I am very picky as it is. But to each their own.

Your statement was far more absolute than mine. I'm quite willing to accept that human behavior is variable, therefore, I tend to make conditional statements (like "tend").

My answer to the "deal-breaker" would be to order all my staples for delivery/pick-up, and purchase meats, fruits, veggies, and the like in person. I save time, I maintain quality.

My local Kroger has been doing this for a while. While I have yet to use the service, I know people who say it's the only way they buy groceries now.

This is the kind of thing where Siri integration could really shine if only Siri was smart enough. It would be fantastic if I could say to Siri, "Add my usual trash bags to my Kroger shopping list" and it knew that when I say "Kroger shopping list", to add it to the Kroger ClickList for curbside pickup; and when I say, "my usual trash bags", it knew what I bought from Kroger last time, checked to see if it was still available for sale from Kroger, and if it was, added it to the ClickList.

This is the kind of deep third-party integration that Siri desperately needs. If Apple brings this kind of thing to Siri sometime within the next year or two, they have a shot at having an assistant in their ecosystem that's actually worthy to be called an assistant. Without that type of deep integration, Siri is just the dumb blonde that does little more than tell the same jokes over and over.
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This is kinda cool, yet very lazy.

For some people, it might be lazy; but for a good many others, it's called good time management. I can spend an hour at the grocery store and spend $200.00; or, I can spend that hour working and almost make the $200.00 that buys those groceries. Personally, I'd rather do the latter and let someone else roam the aisles for me.

Do I have to be in the car? Can't I just send the car to pick up the groceries?

Back in the 60's my mom would just call Possum Wiggly's grocery store, and Possum himself would deliver right to our house. He'd bring the groceries in the kitchen door, and put them away for her.

In the midwest we can just order online groceries from Hy-Vee for free if we spend over $100, and for a $5 fee if we spend under $100. If you order them early enough in the morning, you can usually schedule the delivery for the evening. If you order the night before, you can easily get them the next day. You can see things you've ordered before and add them to your cart again. It takes my wife about 10 minutes to grocery shop on her iPad every two weeks. It's one of the greatest things that has ever happened, lol. They've rarely messed up, and when they have, we've gotten a personal note from the store manager with a $10 gift card, and they replaced it within a few hours. We are quite happy with it, but I only wish they accepted Apple Pay and had some way to automatically order certain things.

I'm wondering—do you guys on the coast not have this yet? I would be really surprised if you didn't, but then I see articles like this making it sound like it's such a new thing when we've been using it for a while.