Online grocery services organize your shopping list for you -- even if you don't buy

Yesterday's post, in which I shared my Thanksgiving planning spreadsheets, prompted this brilliant comment from Chris:

Many grocery stores now offer online shopping. You don't have to complete the transaction though. When I go shopping for my weekly groceries or for a big event like Thanksgiving, I always do my shopping list online. I click on each item I need and it adds to the virtual shopping cart. Then, when I am done, I print out the list. It miraculously sorts my items for me by aisle. I go shopping on auto pilot with a baby in the sling on my belly and at least one toddler in the cart. I don't have to think about what we need for even an instant. Just follow the what the list says for each aisle and we're good to go.

If the task of shopping seems too daunting for whatever reason, I can go ahead and order them online and have a shopper gather them up for just $5.95. Pull up in front, hand over payment, and they load the car for me. Even if your local grocery store doesn't have online shopping like that, Lowes Foods to Go is online and will at least sort out your list for you in a logical way even if the aisle numbers are wrong. It'd be a big help no matter what.

I never would have figured that out myself. Our local healthy food grocery has an amazing online shopping service -- I'm going to try this out. Thanks, Chris!

Note: I've closed comments on this post so we can keep the responses to this comment in its original thread. To comment, click over to An Organized Thanksgiving and leave your comments there. I'll also open the conversation a bit wider with an upcoming "Talk Amongst Yourselves" post devoted to Thanksgiving. Stay tuned!

Related: Meal planning hack: Cook from a single cookbook all week (or all month)