I haven't stepped foot in a grocery store in 4 weeks

I'm not kidding. And no, I haven't just been eating fast food for a month.

Sort of like how McDonald's is the joke of fast food companies, Wal-Mart is the laughing stock of grocery stores. We love to hate it. People in my town hardly ever admit to shopping at Wal-Mart. Nope, nope, nope. Wal-Mart is for people who are obviously desperate for groceries.

Well recently, I've started doing all of my grocery shopping with the Waltons. And I love it.

Wow. I've never been able to say that before. Yup, I now love grocery shopping.

But seriously, just 8 minutes from my apartment I can drive over to Wal-Mart, wait about 5 minutes in the parking lot, and an employee will bring out and load my entire grocery order. All I had to do was order online and show up. Plus, I've never paid full price for all of my groceries going this route. In each of my four orders I have gotten $10-20 off just by using a code they advertise right on the site. This is all part of their curbside pickup program that they recently started offering in my city.

I know. Incredible.

Photo credit.

When I was in high school, I had an idea to start a service business where we would grocery shop for our customers. That was the entire business model. You give us a list, we'll do the shopping. I never even tried to get it off the ground though because I hated grocery shopping so much, I didn't even want to get paid to do it.

Now Wal-Mart is offering this service not just for free but practically paying you to try it by giving out discount codes.

What is Wal-Mart gaining from offering this service? I mean, you're not coming into the store so there isn't any impulse buying. Plus, they have to pay their employees to do your shopping. Surely this is a losing battle for the grocery store giant, right?

Actually, they may be on to something.

Ever since I moved in September, I was shopping at a different grocery store not because I'm a snob but because it was across the street. It was convenient. People love convenient. But now, I'm willing to drive an extra couple of minutes in order to not have to step foot from my vehicle. Wal-Mart has made using their store even easier than shopping across the street. And as a result, Wal-Mart is gaining several hundred dollars in business every month just from my purchases.

While I'm sure many current customers will start to take advantage of this service, Wal-Mart is surely gaining new business as well. I believe it's a smart move on their part. As more people shop for groceries online or shop at the "nicer" grocery store, Wal-Mart has to keep up. Eventually they might even be delivering to my door. For now, I'll take advantage of the curbside option. It allows me to cut down on my weekend chores and spend more time doing what I love.