I go almost nowhere these days. Yes, I know COVID is not the threat it once was…and yes, I know the Delta variant may well be more of a threat than many people believe…but there's another reason I go almost nowhere: There's nowhere to go.
I don't think I'd be comfortable sitting in a movie theater these days close to others but I don't have to make that decision or overcome that fear/discomfort because there's nothing out there that I want to see. In truth, I wasn't going to very many movies before most of us had heard the word "coronavirus." No one I know seems to be having any parties except in The Magic Land of ZOOM. There are no plays I want to go to…no concerts…
And I'm perfectly happy in my house as long as I have my computers, high-speed internet, my TV and voluminous piles of DVDs and Blu-Rays, and selected company visiting me. Not counting walks for the sake of walking, about the only places I go are doctor offices and markets…and I don't go to many of them. I have learned the joy of having Costco deliver groceries and of getting the stuff I can't get at Costco — or don't want a three year supply of — via other services.
But the other day, I had to go somewhere near a new (open since January) Amazon Fresh store. As an online customer of Amazon Fresh from time to time, I thought I'd pop in, see what they had and pick up some of the things I usually get delivered by Amazon Fresh. I was afraid it might be crowded but as it turned out, it wasn't. In fact, it was close to empty. The aisles were full of Amazon Fresh shoppers scurrying about the store filling orders from the shelves.
It's a huge store and they have aisle after aisle of groceries and I went up and down each of those aisles and I bought…
…absolutely nothing.
It's a beautiful store and they have all sorts of high-tech ways of interfacing with the Amazon app on your phone, including charging the whole thing to the credit card you have linked to it. They have these magic shopping carts that will keep a running total of the prices of everything you put in them, including weighing your bananas. (I didn't use one of the magic carts. I used a regular one and didn't find anything I wanted to put in it.) There are little stations where you can "Ask Alexa" where to find the goddamn Rice-a-Roni.
The produce and meat counters looked great. And yes, they had paper towels and I use paper towels but I have a case of Costco paper towels. And I have cases of certain canned goods I often consume…and I have three unopened boxes of Cheerios from Costco and I have plenty of Rao's Marinara Sauce…
I was hoping to find items in two categories. One was that there are certain things I order from Amazon Fresh that I haven't found anywhere else. I still find them on the Amazon Fresh website where at this very moment, they're telling me I can order all I want of them and get free 2-hour delivery on any order over $35.00. But I couldn't find them on the shelves of the Amazon Fresh store where, I'd assumed, my orders were filled…but maybe not.
It wasn't that I couldn't find them. Alexa didn't know either so I reverted to the primitive method of asking human beings. Those humans were filling online Amazon Fresh orders but they said this Amazon Fresh store doesn't carry everything that Amazon Fresh offers online. Neither could explain how that works.
Then there was the other thing I hoped to find there: They offer a lot of prepared meals like carved meats and pizza and soups and sushi. That's all supposed to be available after 11 AM but at 11:40 when I was there, most of it was not. The pizza was but it didn't look too appetizing.
So I left empty-handed or empty-carted or whatever the term is. I like the cleanliness of the place. Amazon Fresh looks fresh. I liked the innovative computer/internet integration. I just couldn't find anything I wanted to buy. Mr. Bezos and his crew need to work on that part of it.