Home Ridden folks

 ron thomas


 Having been with the team that helped care for Bob Abbot when he lived here and then again when a friend told me about the "singles", plight of not wanting to leave Longview Hills if a dilibating surgery or illness happens to them. surveying my own situation as I approach pending knee surgery I had an idea. I'm going to put it here and see what happens.


My daughter lives in Sunnyvale, CA., alone and she has occasionally needed to shop for groceries but is unable to do it because of an injury or illness of some sort. Fortunately, for her, Safeway Market has a program that does the shopping for her and delivers and puts them away in her home for a $5 service fee.... then they give you a coupon worth $5 on your next purchase. This program would be a real boon for our disabled folks or those with little time to shop. It isn't here because the demand is not high enough to make it profitable, I suspect. 


Their service is well thought out and and includes a website that shows each item the store carries and the prices of each item along with a picture of it. Just click the item you want, enter the quantity and it is entered on your shopping list and a running total is there for you to see what you've spent. Over time each shopping list is saved and you can simply say you want shopping list #4 and don't have to even search out you purchases. You can pay with your credit card on line and then pick a delivery time and date.


Pretty slick, no? Jacky has been after them for years to start here but to no avail. Maybe we could suggest an alternative that would work for them here? You bet, I have one. 


The problem for them is cost effectiveness. We are a town of 10,000 plus or minus a few. To hire people to do this and provide transportation, insurance, etc., is not cost effective. Here is our idea...


Recently, Safeway decided to become a 24 hour store. That means someone(s) is there at night doing a full time job. What say, we ask them to use that person to pull a grocery order, bag it, put it in a cart and store it in one of their coolers (we already have paid on line)? They then call or email that the order is ready. You or a friend then drive to the store and call them on your cell phone when you get there and ask for a bag person to bring it out to your car with your lights turned on. They load it up (tip the guy a couple of bucks) and you or your friend drive it home and unload.


Benefits Safeway by giving them the business for little effort and no cash outlay and seriously should be considered in view of the possibility that a Super WalMart with a full grocery store may soon be part of the local scene.