Shopping for Groceries Online at Cold Storage

Friday I decided to shop online for my groceries instead of taking time away from our weekend. Steve usually has to go with me as we try to buy for a week and even if I took a taxi, I could not handle it all. We have one of those little pull behind trolly's, but if you buy 3 6-packs of beer, a 6 pack of Coke and 6 bottles of water, then you don't have room for the real food :-( Otherwise I would be walking to the store daily or every other day - and still lugging groceries.

Anyway, I was told Cold Storage delivered for free if I bought more than $100 worth of groceries. If I bought the above items and nothing else, I would have spent $100. Ordering online was easier than I expected. I had a grocery list (which I found out I can keep an ongoing one online as well) so I just browsed through and bought what I normally would have.

What a great thing to have groceries delivered to your door! The delivery man arrived, brought my groceries in, I signed for them, and that was all there was to it - other than putting them up. Best of all, no effort on my part and his was easy enough as well - he loaded the entire order on a flat cart and came up the elevator.

I learned several things about doing this:

* Pay close attention to delivery times. I ordered Friday afternoon expecting Saturday delivery. Unfortunately, I pressed the button at 5 minutes after 5 and therefore got a Monday morning delivery.
* Shopping online does not show everything you normally order. If you know brand names, it helps tremendously. In that case, you search by brand name and all the products in that brand show up. I could not find laundry detergent for the longest time because I did not know how it was listed. It was not where I thought it would be, but it was there when I searched by brand name.
* Figure out your g/kg/ml conversions. I thought I ordered 6 large bottles of water, and got 6 drinking bottles of water instead of the large ones. Chalk one up for learning.
* I have no idea what I did on the pork chops, but guess what we will be bbq-ing next week? rofl... I pressed one and will be able to feed all the guys next week.
* The bread was a small package; we needed large. Also in the notes below, I need to mark 'freshest available' - I think they got the stalest one possible.
* Does anyone need tomatoes? I ordered 1 package (thinking a 4 pack) and got 8 tomatoes.
* Just because it says that it is available, it does not mean it actually is. I ordered Gala apples and Worcestershire Sauce and I am sorry to tell you Steve, you are SOL.
* Check the prices charged. I was charged S$ 23.10 for a package of minced topside (ground beef) which is marked S $17.93.
* They do charge to deliver - but because they deliver cold/frozen goods as well with a reefer truck. I can even shop for perishables online! I was charged S $7.00 for the delivery of 2 gray boxes (cold goods), 1 frozen box, and 7 grocery bags, and one box with my bread neatly taped into it so it didn't come looking like hotcakes - flat.

I must also comment on this: other than the bread being a bit stale, everything else was extremely fresh; tomatoes (ALL of them) are red, greens are fresh and the apples not bruised. They were very prompt with their delivery as well.

I asked the man if they delivered from Cold Storage Kallang, and he said, "Ah-lah, nearest Cold Storage ah-la Kallang."

Mark one up for Cold Storage! I am going to thank them for offering this. If you have not tried it, trust me, it is MUCH easier than shopping the way I have been shopping. I love the look when you hand the delivery man a tip - it is like Christmas to them. Well worth the tip for him to do my lugging - and better yet, to see his face light up.