When my heartmate and I first moved to Toronto five years ago, everyone told us we wouldn’t need a car as we would be living in the core of the city, and as such, would be able to walk anywhere we needed to go.
So the time came where packed up all our belongings in Montreal, we sold our car, hired movers… and 2 plane tickets later we were living in a new city, (the big city), in our condo waiting for our belongings to arrive.
To this day, I still remember our first grocery shopping trip in Toronto. Like any other grocery haul, we walked in, picked out a grocery cart, and began to tour the store. We did our rounds in the produce section, then the aisles, picking up literally everything we needed (since our newly purchased condo was empty). We passed the frozen section, picked up some frozen berries, iced cream, etc. And headed to checkout aisle no. whatever. We realized we didn’t bring any reusable bags — no problem, we paid the additional fees for plastic bags (even though we had about 20 of them), and loaded them back into the cart.
It wasn’t until we left the grocery store, about five feet from the entrance, when the wheels on the cart locked, and our hearts sunk. We looked at each other and realized at the same time… we weren’t walking the grocery cart to our car anymore. We didn’t have one!
Suffice to say we learned our lesson, and quickly I might add! We did the whole “grandma grocery cart”, wheeling it back and forth on our grocery trips. We did the “let’s call an Uber just this time since we have so much stuff”.
Over the years, what we’ve found the most convenient solution to be is ordering our groceries online and having them delivered straight to our door.
Honestly, it may sound like a luxury to some (I’m totally aware of that) but think of the winters, and the long hauls, and the shopping trips where you have to buy a couple litres of orange juice, or a watermelon, or a case of sparkling water! Anything heavy really, quickly becomes a challenge, and you’re no longer shopping based on wants/needs, but strictly on what you can carry!
That’s why I was genuinely so excited as I started to see more and more retailers offer personal shopping experiences to their customers, particularly in the GTA like Metro!
They recently launched their eCommerce platform, and I’ve tried it out, personally picking out the groceries I would have delivered to my door.
I would say the biggest benefit is really the time that it puts back into our lives.
Seriously, when time is so valuable and precious moments are always fleeting, and we’re trying so hard to maximize our quality time together on weekends, who wants to take three hours out of their day to pick up (and lug back) heavy groceries and necessities for the house? Where we can save time, we will.
I’m sure a concern for many would be the added carbon footprint, it’s legit, and I get it. However, another silver lining in having our Metro groceries delivered to our door, is the fact that they focus on local produce. So yes there is an added footprint in the delivery vs having us walk it back, but it is somewhat offset from sourcing the produce from local suppliers.
As well, for those living in the GTA, orders can even be picked up at Metro Millcroft (2010 Appleby Line, Burlington) and Metro St. Clair (2155 St. Clair Ave West) which are also the two hub stores currently serving the GTA radius.
Not compromising on freshness or savings.
My heartmate and I are by no means extreme couponers (though I admire the ones who take the time to be). However, we do consider ourselves to be savvy shoppers. And we’ll always take advantage of a good bargain where we can get one. Ordering our groceries online gives us access to all the same discounts and promotions in-store, and it’s actually even easier this way in my opinion since we don’t have to look through any flyers to see what’s on sale.
When I tried Metro’s online ordering process, our food was kept fresh on the trucks and we pre-selected our delivery time slot for the week and it came right on time!
So while everyone who consulted us on selling our car in moving to Toronto was partially right, I’m sure there are many urban condo and city dwellers who can relate. And if like us you don’t own a car and want to put those leisure or “quality/family time” house back into your schedule, this really is a win-win scenario. It’s something we’ve been doing for years now, and we don’t really compromise on anything!
You can head to Metro’s Online Grocery page to see if your area is eligible for delivery. Let me know if you’ve tried a similar service before in the comments below!
Nick Joly | Inspired by Nick
be good to your body
inspiredbynick.com
Thank you to Metro Inc. for sponsoring this post!
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