Publix Curbside... No Longer!

We received this email (below) in regards to the Publix Curbside service... Not-so-long story short, ALL Publix's offering curbside will be canceling that service on January 28th, 2012. It's a sad, sad day for those busy professionals and parents with 18 kids. Instead of spending 30 minutes online shopping, you'll have to spend 30 minutes inside a Publix store... terrible!  In my opinion, curbside was a pretty neat service, but just tough to execute well. We tried it out when they first started last summer, and it's pretty cool to just pull up and have someone load all your groceries into you car, but just doesn't really warrant spending extra time online and extra money ($8). Plus I really enjoy going up and down the aisles looking at all the food and buying way more than I actually need.

See below for the notice to customers.

Dear Curbside Customer,

We appreciate your household being a customer of our Curbside service. We regret to inform you that as of January 28th, we will no longer be offering our Curbside service in our 3 Curbside test locations. January 27th will be the last day to place an order for pickup on Saturday, January 28th.

Before we approve a new product or service at Publix, we establish an expectation of financial, as well as customer service, results. While our Curbside associates have created many loyal Curbside customers, the number of consistent customers who chose to use this service was considerably less than required to meet our predetermined expectations. The majority of our customers love their Publix and still prefer to have the interaction with our associates. It's part of the customer service expectation we have created and the family environment we have fostered in our more than 80 years of service.

While we understand that you may initially be disappointed, we also know that your local Publix and Curbside associates look forward to serving your needs and making shopping a pleasure for you inside the store.

If you should have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact your Store Manager.

Sincerely,
The Publix Curbside Team

Publix Curbside Service

Sometimes I really enjoy going to the grocery store, but other times it's just a pain in the butt! For some reason in the summer, when it's really hot out, I especially find it to be a chore. It's always hot and humid outside and freezing inside, and I always end up walking in with that "what the hell did I come in here for anyway" thought on my mind. 

So this weekend I decided to check out the somewhat new Publix Curbside service- offered at only three locations (two in Atlanta and one in Florida), one of which is at our fabulous new Publix at Town Brookhaven. Sunday morning I sat down at my computer, signed on to http://www.publix.com/curbside/ and went through my grocery list on the online store (see screen shot below).

After about 5-10 minutes of online shopping, I placed my order, and scheduled my pickup. While this service is pretty convenient, you do have to give them a 4 hour notice, so this isn't something you can just order at 5pm and pick up in 30 minutes. The latest time to place a curbside order (for same-day pickup) is 4:30pm and the latest you can pick up is 9pm. You may be able to call and place an order later, but it all depends on how busy they are. When I ordered at 10am, they ended up having my stuff all ready to go at noon.  And they did call to let me know an item was out-of-stock, and let me choose a replacement.

The BEST part about curbside service is not wasting time in the grocery store and buying extra stuff I don't really need (because I always go to the store hungry). I pulled up to one of the many available "curbside only" spaces (it was Sunday at noon and the parking lot was crazy), walked in the double doors (they can also deliver straight to your car if you have kids/pets), paid, and then they loaded up my car. The entire process took less than 5 minutes! The second best part of the service, is the current $17.99 discount they have at the moment. For the month of August, they are waiving the $7.99 curbside fee for all new service users PLUS you get an additional $10.00 off your grocery order when you tell them you were referred.

If you're considering using the service, I would definitely try it soon before the discounts are all gone!