You want to see the stuff because you don't trust your merchant.
That's because the merchant can't trust you either in this day.
Loyalty no longer exists - you'll buy at the lowest price
Like everyone else.
So you're pretty sure they'll send you what they want to get rid of.

Today you can order from the local grocery over the Internet.
The grocery chains have that now - picked up software and stuff at a nickle to the buck in the dot.com bomb.
It's all about trust, and trust is real scarce today - we'll see how they do in the long run.

The old ways are still done, I know. In the ethnic groceries I shop at I see staff with a basket and list carefully picking produce now and then.