30. Jan, 2021

'Online Shopping in Lockdown'

What are we to do when the new variant of 'The Virus' is circulating freely and case numbers are climbing?  When only one of you has had a first jab and the Supermarket has become, apparently, the circus of death, where you joust with infection every time you go in?  Now, recently, after insisting that I would continue to shop for food on foot or by car solo, mostly trips on foot, throughout the first 10 months of our pandemic, I thought perhaps I should cave in to online shopping advice.  Not that I hadn't tried before, there just weren't any home deliveries available from anywhere and I conscientiously felt that since I personally was not in a shielding group, I should don the mask and sanitise, sanitise, insanitise.  It worked.  I got away with it. 

I have noticed a trend locally, though, for non masking up of late in shops.  Strangely, most culprits are young mums with a couple of kids trailing about and draping themselves all over shelves, freezer chests and conveyer belts, terminally bored and wanting the 'No!' things.  Usually, piloting a tank sized buggy before them prevents more than shouting as preventative action from the parent, and it's equally usually ignored.  So, go for  the online shopping I did.  Via the Co-op.  I should have realised that things would not run entirely smoothly since the main two items I needed, milk and cat food, were ones they didn't have in, although the rest of the order had pinged through successfully via this morning's confirmation email.  Great, a 9 to 10 am slot!  This turned out to be not running on Greenwich Mean Time but Driver Delivery Time ( an altogether more locally variable commodity).  Eventually, about coming up 11, a text with a tracking app, driver name and mobile number appeared.  Impressive, I thought, all will be well!  They duly arrived and we exchanged nods.  Some bags were passed in.  I assumed the next lot of shopping was on its way in, the bulk of the order, when I'd put down the first three carriers.  But no, they had whizzed off and were now even more incognito than when appearing masked, as the tracking app and driver details had vanished on arrival. 

What to do?  No other number available, so I looked up the store, where there was no answer.  A bag of hash browns, cat treats, bread and grated cheese did not constitue a full  basic meals shop of over £40.  It would not sustain us for long.  And this is the Co-op, not Waitrose. After a statutory period of ranting, we obviated the whole point of the exercise by driving at high speed with our high blood pressures direct to the shop.  I found a helpful young shelf stacker who located the missing bags still in the back and yes, all had been packed correctly but, and I may be wrong about this, having to go in person to the shop to get most of it rather cancelled out any point in online shopping to start with.   Plus, instead of a tranquil Saturday morning spent in creative thought, or at least putting some washing on, I was now pointlessly worked up.  It wasn't something the lad in the shop remembered happening before, although he did say sympathetically that driver arrival times were a law unto themselves.  Well, I wouldn't have minded if it had all arrived.  Well, I would, but not half as much. 

So I am left with unanswered questions.  How would I have proved what I didn't get if the bags hadn't been in the shop but either, trundling round in the delivery car missed out, or never packed in the first place?  Oh, there are always apps for refunds and all that, but I'm only glad I don't have to waste the rest of my Saturday chasing down some pretty thunderingly ordinary things.  And do I do it again or just go back to personal risk basis for convenience and an excuse to get out of the house?   I'm pretty sure I know what I'll be doing about it.  I had none of this trouble getting speciality Christmas drinks in through some app or other.  But we've drunk all that so I can't have a noggin for calming down.  I'll have to do some more Chi Quong then and realign me chakras instead...