The last couple of years have been hard on many people. Contrary to some of the posts you may see on Facebook, everybody was affected, and some good things actually came of these years. This is one I have enjoyed a lot and I hope it doesn’t disappear as we approach the end of the pandemic*.

Curbside pick up. CSPU to afficionados. I am loving this concept. Everybody from grocery stores to garden supply sellers to liquor stores to warehouse clubs. Just as Zoom spawned a mini-trend of the meeting mullet (business on top, pajamas on the bottom), curbside shopping has turned shopping into an ultra-casual activity. To be sure, “buy online, pick up in store” has been around for years, decades, stretching back into the last century even, but the process always involved some time spent in the shop. It’s right there in the name – “pick up in store.” Let’s face it. If you’re going into a store, you’re going to have to put pants on. The signs may say “no shoes, no shirt, no service” but they’ll stop you from going in trouser-less too (or skirt-less or dress-less even though we’ve seen how close some people can get in those “People of Walmart” pics and videos). But with curbside pickup, as long as you have an internet connection, a means of electronic payment, and an inside trunk or tailgate release, you can go shopping in a bathrobe if that suits you. It’s not just comfort that has me so enamored of CSPU (and I’ve yet to participate in a pick up in just a bathrobe), but the convenience and the savings. Yes, the savings!

Convenience is obvious. You sit in your favorite chair, put up your feet, and stroll through the aisles. You see that 84 inch OLED smart TV you’ve been waiting to go on sale. It is, and it’s time to buy, and it doesn’t matter that it’s over your doctor-ordered weight limit by 50-some pounds. Someone else will wrestle it off the shelf and into your car. Need a new pair of jeans. No problem. Buy them with confidence because almost everybody has a ‘buy now, try on’ at home policy easing returns for those brands that run small when you get them home. Need to do toilet paper math? You have a calculator, all the time in the world, and nobody trying to get around you while you calculate. So convenience is a given.

How can CSPU be a money-saver? You might think being able to click you way to a full shopping cart would lead to unchecked, indiscriminate buying, but nay I say! You can always stop and check the shopping cart (or the cuter shopping bags and baskets) for your running total, and even at checkout you get the opportunity to delete something. How often have you ever done that in real life? But the true genius to CSPU (and its older cousin OOLPUIS as long as you’re careful) is NO IMPULSE BUYING! No tunnel of candy and cold drinks, magazines and lunch size bags of chips, nail clippers and rolls of mints, key chains and energy drinks to pass through on the way to the final check out. No endcaps filled with unadvertised specials (that never are that much) or overstocks and clearances (that are there for a reason). No electronics counters filled with car chargers, charging cables, and brochures for cell plans, all trying to wrestle away more of your spending dollar (and/or your favorite local currency). Oh some e-tailers have tried to emulate the impulse buy with “people who bought this, often add this” or “don’t forget the…” and “would you like to add…” throughout the shopping experience, but those intrusions are easier to ignore that the constant barrage of political ads that pop into your text messaging app nearing general election time.

Yes, of all the benefits being locked down, quarantined, socially distanced, and generally wanted to stay off the streets, I hope curbside pick up is here to stay.

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* People keep saying we’re getting close to the end of the pandemic but there is no end to the pandemic, or more accurately, the Covid virus has not waved a white flag, agreed to peace talks or will quietly leave the planet. It is like your favorite Russian autocrat.  There will be a point that we may (may with a capital M and an exclamation mark) not experience worldwide stoppages of life as we know it no even country wide interruptions. But the virus will still be out and about and we will still be susceptible to it and its periodic annoying intrusions on intelligent life on earth, much like your garden variety politician.