My shopping behavior has changed.

[SlinkyPete]

I'm not anti Wal Mart but I haven't been to one in maybe 2 years. Gave up Kroger a couple of years ago too. I'm not doing the self checkout for a full cart of stuff.
I have pet food delivered from Chewy and a couple Amazon deliveries each month. Almost all of our groceries I get at Aldi. Aldi is a much better shopping experience than WM or Kroger.
I live in a rural area. Nearest real grocery store is 30 minutes away so I load up the cart every 2-3 weeks.

There is absolutely no way that Amazon or Chewy can make profit by delivering out here. Not my problem, they set the rules.

 

[athena53]

I live in a rural area. Nearest real grocery store is 30 minutes away so I load up the cart every 2-3 weeks.

I think that this has happened in many places due to a vicious circle of more people buying on-line, local stores closing down, then MORE people buying on-line because the local stores where they might find what they want are further away. The big box stores have also made it harder for the small businesses to compete. COVID hastened this; small, independent retailers were forced to close while Wal-Mart, Costco, Home Depot, etc. were allowed to remain open and people were free to browse the aisles for non-essentials.

 

[Koolau]

I hear about people who get Amazon packages every day. I wonder what in the world they could be buying. I go for groceries a couple of times a week. Once in a while, we'll hit a resale shop and buy a trinket or bobble that will likely end up back in the resale shop in a year. Other than that, we just do not buy "stuff." DW buys more clothes than I do, but it's still rare. My "weakness" is DVDs for $1 or two. I ditch the boxes and put the DVDs in selves to save room.

What IS it folks are buying so much of?

 

[aja8888]

I hear about people who get Amazon packages every day. I wonder what in the world they could be buying. I go for groceries a couple of times a week. Once in a while, we'll hit a resale shop and buy a trinket or bobble that will likely end up back in the resale shop in a year. Other than that, we just do not buy "stuff." DW buys more clothes than I do, but it's still rare. My "weakness" is DVDs for $1 or two. I ditch the boxes and put the DVDs in selves to save room.

What IS it folks are buying so much of?

Well, I'm a minority player here now that DW has stopped ordering (she did place an order with Amazon for a sweater while in skilled care though - she never got to wear it), but here's a few of my current Amazon (or internet) purchases:

Dog food from Chewy
5 tube pack of toothpaste from Costco
17 pound bag of Scotts fertilizer from Amazon
Set of Resistance Bands (exercise) from Amazon
New Merrell slip in walking shoes from Zappos
One Dog toy from Amazon
One pull over summer shirt from Amazon
Bottle of ACT Mouthwash from Amazon
12 bottle carton of Propel water (electrolyte) from Amazon

This was in the last month or so.

 

[Koolau]

Well, I'm a minority player here now that DW has stopped ordering (she did place an order with Amazon for a sweater while in skilled care though - she never got to wear it), but here's a few of my current Amazon (or internet) purchases:

Dog food from Chewy
5 tube pack of toothpaste from Costco
17 pound bag of Scotts fertilizer from Amazon
Set of Resistance Bands (exercise) from Amazon
New Merrell slip in walking shoes from Zappos
One Dog toy from Amazon
One pull over summer shirt from Amazon
Bottle of ACT Mouthwash from Amazon
12 bottle carton of Propel water (electrolyte) from Amazon

This was in the last month or so.

Thanks for sharing. Most of those things, I have no use for. Those I do, I pick up at Costco when I shop for food. I guess we're all different. Vive la différence.

​

 

[aja8888]

Thanks for sharing. Most of those things, I have no use for. Those I do, I pick up at Costco when I shop for food. I guess we're all different. Vive la différence.

​

I live in a huge metro area and traffic is usually nuts. Plus, Costco and WM are miles away. So I stock up on some of those things and Amazon makes it convenient and for the same price, generally. Plus, the 5% off from Amazon is nice.

 

[Koolau]

I live in a huge metro area and traffic is usually nuts. Plus, Costco and WM are miles away. So I stock up on some of those things and Amazon makes it convenient and for the same price, generally. Plus, the 5% off from Amazon is nice.

Yeah, I always joke that Costco is walking distance for us - but we never walk it! Excuse is we might buy something heavy and not be able to carry it home. IIRC Costco has 5% back on their stuff with their card.

 

[aja8888]

Yeah, I always joke that Costco is walking distance for us - but we never walk it! Excuse is we might buy something heavy and not be able to carry it home. IIRC Costco has 5% back on their stuff with their card.

The 5% is only on their gas, 2% on Costco.com and Costco shopping

The Citi Costco Anywhere Visa Card offers cash back rewards of 5% on gas at Costco, 4% on other gas and EV charging purchases (up to $7,000 spent annually), 3% on restaurants and travel, 2% at Costco and Costco.com, and 1% on all other purchases.

 

[audreyh1]

Yeah, no limit on the 3% back on restaurants and travel nor 2% on Costco. We use the card heavily for travel including overseas.

 

[mountainsoft]

We do most shopping online, with Amazon being the primary source of most items. I certainly don't have daily deliveries, but would guess at least a box every week or two on average.

We prefer shopping for groceries in person so we can pick out what we want (and grab a lot of stuff we didn't plan on. ). That said, I can see a day when we might not be as mobile and having the ability to order groceries online and have them delivered would be beneficial.

I also like shopping in person at the local Home Depot or Lowes, so I can feel and compare different items. However, many items are just not available in the store, so I'll either order them online or from Amazon. It really depends on availability and how much of a hurry I'm in. I just ordered a GFCI breaker from Amazon because neither HD or Lowes had them in stock.

One other store we often shopped in person for was JoAnn's for my wife's craft and sewing supplies. Now they're going out of business and there aren't any similar stores nearby. So I suspect many of those items will now need to be purchased online.

There are many things I would prefer to buy locally, but brick and mortar stores just don't carry them. Our local Safeway quit carrying several items I used to buy there, so now I order them online.

I order most car parts online these days as my preferred local source is quite a drive from home. The stuff I get from Autozone or Oreilly's never seems to last.

I also order stains and woodworking hardware online because HD/Lowes only carry the most generic brand names (Minwax typically).

Sadly, most of the stores we used to shop in person are no longer around. Our local JC Penney's closed, Best Buy closed, Sears closed, JoAnn's is closing, etc. I probably haven't been to the mall in 5-10 years as all the stores we were interested in have long since left. It's clearly geared to the young crowd these days.