The Benefits Of Grocery Shopping Online

[caption id="attachment_829125" align="alignleft" width="1068"] Bigstockphoto.com/African woman unpacking groceries[/caption] You’ve likely noticed that a lot of your grocery stores—from smaller markets to mega chains—have started offering delivery. If you live in New York City, ordering groceries may have been a regular activity for you for years (markets here can be so jam-packed that getting in and out with just a carton of milk may take an hour and a half). As for the rest of the country, you’re likely still in the habit of making an event out of grocery shopping. You set time aside for it, you schedule your day such that your groceries won’t have to sit in the car for too long, and you even put on makeup and do your hair to hit the market. You might even enjoy the tradition of grocery shopping! But, have an open mind: here are reasons it’s actually good for you to do your grocery shopping online. [caption id="attachment_717632" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You won’t smell the baked goods section

You go into the store with the best intentions, but the moment you smell that baked goods section, you B-line it for the sheet cakes and the blueberry muffins. The smells of a grocery store are very powerful but at home you’re immune to their power. [caption id="attachment_613915" align="alignleft" width="500"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You won’t stand in line near the candy

You won’t be forced to stare at the candy and soft drinks that are strategically placed at the checkout line. Oh, and you won’t kill your brain cells perusing trashy tabloids. [caption id="attachment_717191" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You’ll only see the foods you want to see

Admit it; when you go to the store, you end up buying a dozen things that weren’t on your list, just because you passed them by. That temptation isn’t on your computer screen.   [caption id="attachment_713648" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You can blow up the nutrition information

You can zoom in on the nutrition information of each item on your computer screen and you won’t feel insecure about standing around in a public place, looking up calorie counts. [caption id="attachment_711664" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Most sites show a price per ounce

Most grocery sites display the price per ounce of their items, so you can find the best ways to save money.     [caption id="attachment_715033" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

There’s less of a need to overstock

Once you’ve sat in traffic and survived the drama of the parking lot, you think, “I don’t want to come back here for a long time.” And so, you buy way more food than you need so that you won’t have to go back there for a long time. Online, you can just buy what you need, now. [caption id="attachment_715049" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You’ll avoid that clearance bin

Each individual location has a clearance bin. It doesn’t typically have the healthiest stuff—this is where you’ll find things like whipped marshmallow and day-old pastries. You don’t need that in your life, and it isn’t online. [caption id="attachment_715037" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

The bright lights of the frozen food won’t catch you

The frozen food aisle is designed to look heavenly. It’s one of the only spacious aisles in the whole place, and it’s lit so beautifully…it’s calling your name. And that’s why you end up with five frozen pizzas when you go to the store. That won’t happen online. [caption id="attachment_707103" align="alignleft" width="419"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You won’t make other unnecessary stops

Since you aren’t leaving your home, you won’t make the other unnecessary stops you make up, like a visit to your manicurist or a short stop at the clothing boutique you love. [caption id="attachment_693872" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You’ll buy real groceries

You won’t be tempted by the pre-made sushi, wraps, sandwiches, salad bar, deli counter and other tasty but expensive items in the front of the store.     [caption id="attachment_719139" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You can get hours of your day back

Even if you live right by a grocery store, you likely spend over an hour driving there, picking out your items, waiting in line, and driving home. And that’s if you’re lucky. Plenty of people spend well over two hours grocery shopping. [caption id="attachment_610941" align="alignleft" width="378"] Shutterstock[/caption]

You won’t run into anybody you don’t want to

There are some places like your favorite bars, nail salons and music venues where you feel pretty safe you won’t run into someone you don’t like—they don’t like those places. But everybody needs to eat, so you can run into anybody at the grocery store.   [caption id="attachment_608910" align="alignleft" width="500"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You can avoid germs

Shopping carts are breeding grounds for bacteria! Fortunately, you may never have to touch one of those again. [caption id="attachment_711684" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Your food won’t spoil

The delivery service transports your food in special crates, inside of climate-controlled trucks to make sure nothing goes bad on the way to your home.     [caption id="attachment_712066" align="alignleft" width="518"] KizingoKids.com[/caption]

If you have a kid, this is over

Temper tantrums, the insistence to sit on the wrong part of the cart, the tendency to wander off any time you look away, the urge to reach for things they can’t reach and breaking things. [caption id="attachment_717971" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Most sites remember what you buy

If you get to the store and just can’t remember what you need, you may stand there and wrack your brain for twenty minutes. Web sites, however, remember what you bought last time, so you don’t have to. [caption id="attachment_707056" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You can shop by recipe

Most sites allow you to shop by a recipe, so you can decide what your family is having for dinner every night of this week and grab all the right ingredients in one swoop.     [caption id="attachment_715029" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You won’t fall for marketing ploys

Grocery stores love putting the priciest potato chips at the front of the chip aisle, and the expensive, pre-cut fruit at the front of the produce section. Their hope is that you just grab these, because you don’t have the energy to walk down the aisle and find the more affordable options. [caption id="attachment_702707" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

Gone are the days of seeking an employee

Grocery stores can be enormous places. Sometimes, when you need the help of an employee, it can feel like you’re crossing an entire desert to find somebody. You don’t have to do that online; you can just type what you need into the search bar. [caption id="attachment_697808" align="alignleft" width="469"] Shutterstock[/caption]

It’s okay if you forget something

You don’t have to drive all the way back to the store if you forget something; you can just log online and edit your order.

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