www.greengrocer.com.sg - part one

i adore online shopping. actually i love online shopping - supplies, bags, books and so on. its fast, easy and convenient. and i have made lotsa fren on de world wide web too.

thus i was absolutely thrilled when i was given a chance to try out a new service - http://www.greengrocer.com.sg/ - where one can purchase fine food and get them deliver to his/her home.

de selection on the site is pretty good. from meat to seafood (you can get waygu beef!!), fresh herbs to truffle oil ... ingredients and condiments that you might need in your cookout, you could possibly find it in greengrocer. furthermore, greengrocer states where they get their produces; weight and size are also shown on de site.

with S$150 to spend, it was rather difficult to figure what to buy. after a quick discussion w mdm tan (aka my mother), we settled for seafood (scallops, prawns, salmon and cod fish) and minced pork (for my grandma; wanted to get her the weight watcher lean but it was not stated if its pork or beef ... so i got to give it a miss).

its rather understandable that some of the items were not available (seasonal or due to lack of quality produce). de site itself was easy to navigate (even though i am still tryin to figure out why salmon yakitori is at the meat section ... ) - all you need to do is enter the qty you needed and voila.

however the checkout is a NIGHTMARE!! if you are jus paying without using any vouchers or redemption of pts, its fine. all you need to do is ensure you have a paypal account and you are good to go.

since i have vouchers to be redeemed, i thought i would do so at the checkout. NOOOOooo it did not work that way at all. when i was at paypal, ready to pay up, there is a section where i can enter any redemption codes and so on (in paypal site). i assume i was to redeem my vouchers there. after several tries, i realised i could have been mistaken. thus i went back to the site to take a look. via de online faq, i then found out that i am supposed to enter the voucher code at "my account".

to add to my pain, beside entering the voucher serial number, i have to login the friggin long passcode (which is made up of letters and numbers) too. i have three vouchers to enter!!

i dun get it. i have been shopping online for years. its de first time ever i have to redeem vouchers via "my account". to me, "my account" is meant to track your orders, update profiles, redemption history and so on. its not abt redemption of vouchers. this shld be done at the checkout. logically. go cashier ... show discount card/ voucher ... pay final total!

as i finally ready to pay, i realised i do not know when the items will be delivered to me. apparently, there is a designated date and time where they will send the items to me. and a note will be given if i am not around. however i wonder if i am allowed to choose a designated time instead. in this case de delivery guy will not face an empty house and i could get my fresh produces de day i need it. anyway i believe i will get a notification email soon. i think.

i lovin de idea of purchasing quality produces online. i mean restaurant quality goods. however i am definitely loathing de checkout (de only good thing - greengrocer uses paypal). i do not know abt the rest of de online shoppers. checkout to me must be fast and furious. you done your shopping, you just want to quickly pay up and get your stuff asap. and get the adrenaline going. any hint of difficulties will just kill away de excitement.

so now i jus hope de follow-up service is good. more reviews later ...