Please explain to me why my brilliant idea wouldn’t work/doesn’t exist yet

[Dollywilde]

DH and I do do a ‘big shop’ either online or in the big supermarket, once every 10-14 days or so. Though obviously we need to supplement that with top ups of the basics - bread/milk/eggs/salad bits.

I’ve recently had DD (12 weeks old) and suddenly I’ve realised just how hard it is to ‘pop’ into the shops when we’re driving back from somewhere. It’s one thing when we have a quiet day and I can make ‘going to the Co-Op’ the focus with a walk etc but if I’m on the way back from somewhere the idea of parking up, going to the boot, getting out the pram, assembling it, getting DD out of the car seat, going into the shop, getting what we need, then the whole thing in reverse is just exhausting! Also often DD is asleep in the car and I know the whole process will wake her up whereas sometimes I can sneak her into the house without waking (sometimes!)

So here’s my idea: a drive through, but for basic groceries. Obviously I wouldn’t expect to be able to get complex or fancy stuff but you know when you stop at a petrol station after hours and they serve you from the Perspex window and the shop assistant grabs the basics you need? Like that, but a basic shop with multiple windows like the drive through at McDonald’s etc.

There must be a reason why this doesn’t exist yet. Is it that for most people, parking up and getting out of the car isn’t too tricky? But that’s true of McDonalds drive through and they still exist. I’m sure if there was a market for it it would exist... so MN, tell me, why doesn’t it?

I'd use your idea on my bike, OP. It's so time consuming to find a suitable place to lock it, strip it of all nick-able parts (panniers, lights), & get the toddler out of the seat, and then to have to redo all that stuff in reverse. It's not worth it if I just need a couple of things. I stop at a coffee stall on my bike and often wish they sold bread and milk too!

how do you service these cars arriving? What if queues build up? do you lose customers because you can't serve fast enough? Do you have to find somewhere where a queue of cars waiting to buy bread and milk can be hanging around without causing traffic/neighbour problems?

This!

People get annoyed at petrol stations when they can’t drive in and then out because the person in front is shopping. A drive-thru grocery store would be really congested if the picking and packing is happening ad hoc. What if the person at the front wants 7 different items and the person behind just wants milk - they’re served but can’t leave...

It would work on a click and collect app basis- put the order in and it’s ready to collect at window A between 10.00 to 10.15 or whatever.

But just rocking up to buy a bunch of basil, a pint of cream and tin foil without leaving your car - probably not.

OP I too have had the same thought and don't know why it doesn't exist yet. I have a newsagenent round the corner where I can pick up milk etc but I'd still love this service for when you are in the car.

Even popping into a petrol station is a faff, I'd much rather drive thru, request some milk, chocoalte etc and get it delivered to my window, exactly like to drive thru bottle-o 's in Oz.

I'd hate it. With online shopping you can choose exactly what you want (size, brand) and specify about substitutions. With this, you'd have to specify everything verbally (I want the one with the green packaging... can't remember what flavour it is, but it's green! Or blue-green, I suppose...) and can you imagine doing that for multiple items?

Ah see maybe this is one of those things which depends on where you live. I’m in a commuter town, our options are big supermarket with an Argos etc in it (not worth the effort for one or two items) or the likes of Tesco express with no trolleys. If you have a small supermarket (now I come to think of it, like the town my mum and dad live in) then it’s less useful.

I remember wanting this when I had a new born, such a faff getting them out the car for a 2 minute shop!

@SpaceOP oh I totally see your point about making it profitable, that’s what I’d suspected, my argument about people using it was that it might draw an income that could sustain it... but it is niche, I get that.

I'm in the US and have never seen the sort of thing the OP is suggesting, which makes me think it just isn't feasible.

We do have drive through pharmacies, coffee shops and ATMs, but if you want to get drive through groceries you have to order via click and collect, and book a pickup slot.

Maybe they have something more like the OP suggests in other states, but I haven't seen them.

@NoSquirrels ah but surely that’s just one of the annoyances about drive through? Don’t get me wrong I’m not a fast food obsessive but I mayyyy have gone to McDonald’s when in very late pregnancy in the heatwave in August because I HAD to have a strawberry milkshake (😂) and the car in front of me had ordered food to feed 5000. Just the way of things surely? Like having someone in front of you with a weekly shop when you just want a bottle of wine?

@LethargicLumpOfLockdownLard see weirdly if I impulsively wanted a bottle of wine we have a good stash. Arguably I need to change my ‘stash’ priorities which probably predate pregnancy

Don't you have a close shop for basics? I live next to a high street so I'd never be the target audience for this, but I think lots of people just take baby for a walk in pram and get things like fresh bread?

I’d use it OP, and my child is now 18m. I still find it a faff getting her in and out the car seat to go in and grab something, even though she can walk so there’s no pram. I can’t see the car seat faff reducing until she’s old enough to strap herself in so that’s a good few more years I’d use it for!

Drive through bottle shops in Australia.

Imagine the faff though, you'd have to have a touch screen order and collect at the next window or suchlike. I've often wanted this when I need milk or bread and can't be bothered to get dressed
On holiday once I saw these huge vending machines on street corners that sold a random assortment of stuff like bread, baby formula, sanpro, condoms, UHT milk, snacks. Bloody wonderful idea.

I had DTs when my eldest was 2. I would have been delighted to have done this 🤣 I think its a cracking idea OP ❤

@ZoeTurtle yeah I get that, but if you do a late night dash to the petrol station you’re not assuming you have brand choice right? At my local Sainsburys petrol station the conversation would usually go ‘I’d like 2 pints of semi skimmed milk (would be Sainsburys own brand), a loaf of seeded bread (from memory it’s Hovis or nothing), a bar of dairy milk (obvs Cadbury) and some cornflakes (obvs Kellogg’s)’

I just don’t see why they couldn’t set that up in a way that doesn’t require me to leave my car, lazy bint that I am 😂

Dollywilde I think it just depends how you shop! I can't remember the last time I went out just for a few items - I do an online shop once a week and if they don't deliver something, I just do without it. If I did get a random craving or something and went out for one or two items, I would want to choose them myself.

But I'm obviously not the target market for this so don't listen to me

@doadeer oh we do, if I’m at home and we need to go out in the day. If we’re heading back from something though there’s no parking so the options are the big shop, or park at home and then schlep back out again, or find on the road parking by the Tesco Express and then unload the baby which is a faff... I accept it’s very much first world problems!

Just put the baby in the pram and walk to the local corner shop? 1

I like it. Needs work, but I’d be a customer at Eggs, Milk, Bread & cigarettes & alcohol Sundries.

In the US there are also drive thru liquor stores, in case no one has mentioned it.

These feels like an add-on idea and would be worth researching. Deliveroo must be great but I wouldn’t know because they don’t deliver to me, and I’m not rural—I’m about 4 miles outside of a university town. Hardly the boonies.

As for the suggestion of slings/papoose—absolutely fine if you have only one baby. Now what do you do with the 2 and 4 year old?

I'm in the US and it does (sort of) exist in my hometown area in So Cal. There used to be a lot of them, but I think only a few remain. You could get milk, bread, ice cream, eggs, random other dairy products, & snacks. Not meat or veg or non-food items (cleaning products).

Not sure if other places in the US have them. It was called (IIARC) "Inland Dairy" if there are any other 'Inland Empire' MNers

@ZoeTurtle that makes sense! I meal plan so we try and get a fortnights worth in at a time but then inevitably need top ups. Maybe I should try and do a week at a time and then it wouldn’t be so often we need a top up of fresh stuff. Always find it interesting to see how everyone else does things on here!

We visited a place on holiday that had this kind of shop. Basically a news agent you drive through. You asked what you wanted and they gave you it.

In all these scenarios (and I accept I am lucky that I wasn’t a single parent) I’d text DH and say “pick up X on the way home”. Because nothing could be urgent enough that waiting till 6pm wasn’t possible. I am also lazy.

@Darkestseasonofall oh I’d forgotten about those big vending machines! Only seen them on holiday like you say - very much not a UK thing.