Originally Posted by
Siu Blue Wind
At Safeway, the shoppers are very trained on the quality of produce. On the form, you can dictate ripeness, size, and you can say things like "I want to bananas with freckles on them and two that are greenish yellow" Or "I need my bell peppers around four inches high and flat bottom for stuffing" If they don't find any on the shelf, they have to go to the back and open a new box and find it in there.
The procedure is as follows: One person picks out the dry items, one person deals with the meat items, one person picks out the refrigerated items, and your frozen is picked out last as well... all at different times so that it's completely fresh. They separate your order so that your cold items remained chilled (they have to be between 32-36 degrees) and cannot be out of refrigeration for longer than 15 mins, which is why the cold items are picked separately and last. Then they go into a large walk in cooler until loaded onto the refrigerated truck.
In the short time I've been using the delivery service, I've been impressed with the products.
Someone, elsewhere, expressed concern to me ... she thought that they would go through and pick all the products which are on or nearly at their due-by dates, and she thought she'd end up with a bunch of dairy products she would have to use up in a couple days or they'd go off.
I checked, and that hasn't been the case at all.
In fact, the custard I got for Rowan (one of his favourites) expired about mid-August. Lots of time!
And yes ... our frozen goods arrive completely frozen.