Rob her.
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Probably not in my best interests 
Just illustrates how everything is disappearing from stock shelves, with big delivery orders like these. I think the sanitary wipes were from 3 separate companies.
@CiaoBob, I see that online but definitely had the 5 pack Clorox wipes in my local Costco Sunday. The availability is unpredictable so best to check first.
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Thanks everyone for the suggestions. We’ll probably resort to doing a baby wipe/disinfectant concentrate hack if it comes to that.
Timing is important. To get first crack at it, maybe you need to be there shortly after they unload the truck and pallet.
I walked by an employee stocking toilet paper at Bristol Farms who looked at me and said, “Get it while it’s hot!” I thanked him and kept walking. Just can’t play that game.
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Mercato is still screwy around here. It showed me that delivery was available this afternoon, but after I finished shopping and checked out, the first available delivery date was next week. It still shows that delivery is available this afternoon.
Re toilet paper, there’s plenty available in the commercial supply chain.
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Illuminating article, thanks robert
Albertson’s (and by extension, Vons, Ralphs, and Pavillions, I’ve tried them all) pick up was disappointing. Half of items were not available. I waited 45 minutes for my order to be brought out to the car, but watched as two other cars were loaded and left within 15 minutes of their arrival. I decided it was better to just go in to the store and chance it with a mask.
This strategy is obviously not practical for everything or for things like wipes that are in extremely short supply, but since I have not been able to get delivery dates from Instacart or Amazon and since I don’t feel like venturing out to Whole Foods which carries some of the things that are my staples (especially since my usual staples might not even currently be in stock), I have been taking to our friend Google to source what I need.
I’m addicted to one brand of olive oil which only Whole Foods carries and on which I am running low. No problem – Google the brand – and find it at Market Hall Foods in Oakland. Click and buy and its on its way faster than I could ever get a delivery date from Amazon Prime Now or Instacart. Another one of my staples is frozen cranberries and Whole Foods is the only place I know that carries them year round. Turn to Google again and a 5 pound box of frozen cranberries (which I will definitely go through since I eat them every day) is on its way directly from the bogs of Massachusetts where they are grown.
Deeply happy about both the olive oil and the cranberries. In times of such tragedy and uncertainty, it feels calming and luxurious to be able to have my favorite staples in the house.
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FYI we got a large proportion of our Ralph’s delivery order today. Only didn’t get milk and sweet potatoes. This of course meant that I have spent the last hour and a half cleaning the groceries.
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Clicking through Instacart looking for someplace that can actually deliver some of the things we need before next week, I came across this store I’ve never heard of that had a bizarre selection of products . Took me a couple of minutes to figure out that the address was Instacart’s offices. I guess some developer accidentally made a test public.
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Just got delivery of my first Mercato test run. Wow. I feel like I won the lottery. I ordered organic eggs and milk, some produce and cheese, some pantry staples, all from a single market (I’ll branch out next time) and I got every single thing I ordered. Okay, the shopper got snow peas instead of snap peas 
and I even got baking potatoes that I didn’t order, but mashed potatoes are sounding pretty good right now!
I really LOVE that I can check my order online and see what the shopper successfully located even before I take delivery. And she was good enough to call me about a substitution.
This is in stark contrast to a Target order I recently placed. I got maybe 1/3 of what I ordered and no contact from the shopper about substitutions.
So thanks, FTCers, for the Mercato recommendation!
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Mercato delivery from which store?
Handy’s Market in Burbank.
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Here’s a summary of our 2 experiences w/ Ralphs via Instacart.
For the first order, I didn’t realize that, if you don’t select no-substitution, the shopper will make decisions for you that are sometimes not what you consider comparable (e.g., substituting your order for oil packed tuna w/ “light” tuna). Delivery only took a few hrs (this was at the start of the isolation).
Second order was more successful. Shopper contacted us when she started collecting the items and would send us photos of possible substitutions! (we had selected the “no substitutions” for all items) Despite being told over the weekend (when we had originally placed the order) that the toilet paper we had selected wasn’t available, the shopper was able to find another brand. For some reason, I hadn’t realized that the shopping would be “live” (perhaps this was mentioned above; I’m too lazy to review). If I had known, I certainly would’ve given a bigger tip.
We had placed the order on Sunday (I think), but the shopping and delivery took place today. We were given a one-hour window to select for delivery, and the shopper adhered to this in terms of contacting us during shopping and for final delivery.
We’re pretty happy w/ the service.
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You can go into your order ex-post and modify the tip. I did - I didn’t order toilet paper but my shopper notified me that there was some and did I want any. Was pretty happy about that!
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Titled: Mercato, I Knew It Was Too Good To Be True
I waited to see if Mercato would respond to my reply email before posting a review, but nope…
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We’re trying to heed the pleas to “stay-at-home!” Mercato seemed too good to be true, especially during the lockdown (ability to order from multiple shops and have it delivered together by one company in one day).
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To make it simple for the driver and more “green” I ordered everything from shops at one location - Fairfax Farmers Market on 3/26
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The advertised 1-day turned into 7-days at checkout. That’s fine as we’re in difficult times, it was multiple shops, and I’d already done some shopping before hell broke loose.
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On the 4/2 due date you can imagine we were more than ready for our delivery. Here’s what went down…
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M. Marcel called needing to quickly replace an out-of-stock item but said the order was otherwise ready for pickup. Cool.
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The Huntington Meats & Marconda orders were ready for pickup. Great.
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Farm Fresh or Mercato cancelled our Farm Fresh order that morning with no explanation.
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Finally, only the Marconda order arrived as scheduled.
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On 4/3 after failed attempts at contacting Mercato I called Huntington & M. Marcel, who discovered Mercato never picked-up. They ended up using one of MM’s drivers to deliver both orders, no charge. Please note: I added a big tip at checkout, so the Mercato driver received the full tip for delivering only a small portion of the delivery.
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To add insult to injury - Mercato contacted me a couple days later by email seemingly concerned and wanting to know the exact problem. When I listed the issues they never replied and instead charged us $96 for an annual membership (so much for the free-trial-offer) AND you still need to make a minimum order from each shop to avoid delivery fees… and don’t forget that tip!
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In conclusion M Marcel & Huntington saved the day by cooperating with each other and getting us our food. I suggested that FM vendors get together and implement an in-house delivery service. Especially, since Mercato appears to have used one of the dreaded 3rd party delivery apps, anyway.
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I don’t know if this is a one-time glitch (hoping) or growing pains or Mercato can’t provide the service they offer. I haven’t decided wether or not I’m going use them again (definitely not for multiple shops) or cancel the membership. We’re fully stocked right now and I’ll decide when we’re running low on provisions.
Happy Healthy Food Seeking!
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As it stands Yummy Market (https://www.yummy.com/) is our go to for grocery deliveries (no in-store pickup at the moment). They have all the conventional grocery store staples and a deli, liquor, plus gourmet & health-food items (organics, free-range, cheeses, vegan, gf, etc). What’s great is they have their own vans & drivers and delivery generally arrives within an hour. It’s convenience-store-pricey, but if you join the club @ $20 per month you get unlimited delivery, lots of $10-off coupons and multiple households can use the membership (think friends, family & neighbors). Note: right now, they can be out-of-stock on certain items like other stores and a couple times a day they shutdown for a bit to re-stock and give the drivers time to regroup, but all-in-all they’re the fastest, friendliest and most efficient ticket around.
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I order through the Ralphs website. AFAIK, the personal shoppers that actually deliver the food work for Instacart. Service has been less than satisfactory, although I have only been charged for the food I actually received.
My next to the last order took five days of clicking on attempting to get a delivery date and time. When I fianlly got one, it was an additional five days later.
My last order took three days of clicking (hooray, an improvement), and again the actual date was another five days later. I only received about half my order. I know Instacart is obviously swamped with business, but millions of unemployed people are available for hire.
The closest Whole Foods is near Ventura and Sepulveda (I live near Victory and Woodman), so I never even tried to order from them.
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