Where Do Groceries Come From?

I remember listening to the radio as a child, and hearing Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “King of the Road”…Groceries have taken a new turn today with the apps, and the online ordering, and since we are a hurry up society, and in keeping with the ease of convenience why should groceries be any different. Out here with Safeway you can order online and have it delivered to your house, now Wal-Mart does it also with the exception that the price you see online is the same price you see in the store.

They use the same principles that we used when I sold Broadline Groceries with US Foodservice, you could set up an order guide and a shopping list and place your orders and never really see your Sales Rep. I recently was allowed to observe Schwan’s the grocer that drives up to your house in a truck also offers a online ordering component. They still come to your house every 2 weeks but give you the ease of being able to order at your leisure.

I was pleasantly surprised about the eagerness of the young man I observed. People were very giving in relation to allowing him into their homes and their lives. Their products are very nice and give you a sense menu planning with a no fuss, no muss prep and serve.

In today’s society this is where we have come to. As a young child I also recall a Coffee man and Milkman coming to the house to see Mrs. Juell. And the use of a trucker’s wallet (which I thought was very cool) I also recall a Dry Cleaner delivering to the house across the street. Fast forward 40 plus years, and similar to when I sold food where I placed your order via a wireless laptop and it would show up the next day. Today the Schwan’s guy drives to your house via a Garmin, and takes your order, knowing if he is out of a product on his truck, and if you pre-ordered an item from last time, and he goes to the truck and places your order in a bag and delivered to your door, and you pay with cash, check, or a credit card, which he swipes on a reader on his hip and it prints a receipt.or if you have a pre-paid order and are not home he puts it in a freezer bag with dry ice and leaves it at your door…and he goes on the next stop.

The funny things I noticed are that they do a majority of their business between 4 and 8 pm. And they can make more than 1 stop on a street but not in sequence, and will be on a street 3 –4 times in a 2-hour window depending when a person is home. After 8 pm however I noticed that with 5 calls only 2 stops resulted in sales, in a business sense I think that the 8 to 9 window was not beneficial in a quadrant time analysis.

Back to when I was growing up, like many, my mother would spend the day cleaning and prepping for dinner. It’s not like that today, it’s about how quick we can get it done and move on to what is next. What is the price we pay for Convenience? Where do your groceries come from?