Grocery delivery services

[Exterous]

We recently tried Shipt ($25 first time use coupon + $50 off $100 amex promo) and while I can see it for certain situations I don't know if I get the appeal. There's an annual fee and a markup of around 18-20%. On top of that you have to be tied to your phone while they are getting your stuff as the store might be out of the item you wanted. I got 6 texts notifying me of out of stock stuff and asking if I wanted substitutions. Then you have a delivery window you need to be home during

We don't live that far from the store so we'd be there and back before the end of the window. Sure we have to leave the house but its also easier to figure out what else you're going to do if they are out of something or a lot of things. Plus the whole markup + annual fee thing. So for the crazy busy who can be busy tied to their house for the delivery window maybe but I would rather just go myself

 

[BurnItDwn]

Jewel Osco is the big chain around here and they have a delivery service .... seems like the prices for delivery are the same as in store too ... only have to pay delivery fee which appears to be free for 1st order ...

I'm tempted to do it simply because I love to be a hermit that doesn't leave home.

 

[Thebobo]

Been using a delivery service for about 2 years now. I used Safeways delivery service for a while and that was ok but now I use Giants Peapod service which is a lot better and I get delivery for a year free.

So except of for the occasional trip to the store to pick up last minute items I haven't been grocery shopping in a years, and I don't miss it.

 

[Exterous]

Been using a delivery service for about 2 years now. I used Safeways delivery service for a while and that was ok but now I use Giants Peapod service which is a lot better and I get delivery for a year free.

So except of for the occasional trip to the store to pick up last minute items I haven't been grocery shopping in a years, and I don't miss it.

Do you have to do a lot of substitutions? Ours seem to go through stock very quickly at times and I think 6+ substitution question texts would be normal

 

[sandorski]

Been ordering Groceries Online for a few years now from a local Chain. Occasionally they'll be out of stock on something, especially Sale items later in the week of the Sale, but it has been very convenient.

 

[PowerEngineer]

Not that I necessarily want to see Amazon become more dominant, but I find myself ordering more of my non-perishable "grocery" items from Amazon.

 

[lxskllr]

I enjoy grocery shopping, and have very few regular purchases, so I have almost zero use for grocery delivery, other than the occasional item that's difficult to get locally.

 

[BoomerD]

I don't think we'd ever use it, but one of our neighbor couples, (he's 89, she's 85) have been down with the flu. Rather than impose on us to do their shopping for them, (I've been hauling them to the hospital/doctors/urgent care) their daughter (who lives in Alaska) set them up with Safeway home delivery. She ordered a couple of weeks worth of groceries for them, Safeway delivered them today. Neither of them will be fit to shop for several more days, (this flu is vicious, especially on the oldsters) so this provides them with their daily grocery needs. Good thing, IMO.

 

[A///]

Instacart is a service I've used from time to time, like last week. I was down with this year's vicious flu.

 

[Crono]

I like to pick my produce, so I pretty much ruled out grocery delivery. Some non-perishable items that I can't find as easily in stores or are cheaper online (e.g. cocoa butter, green coffee beans) I order online from time to time, but otherwise it's brick and mortar supermarkets like Whole Foods, Stop & Shop, and Shop Rite for me.

 

[KB]

I like grocery shopping. Wegmans and Costco still have free samples which can be interesting to try particularly if its a rare cheese. I often find specials or new products to try while there and its easier to do price compares when all the products are in front of you.

Grocery delivery cannot survive unless prices rise. The cost in labor to pick your groceries, deliver your groceries plus fuel is probably > $20 per household. Grocery margins are too small to handle that loss in large numbers.

 

[Exterous]

I like to pick my produce, so I pretty much ruled out grocery delivery.

We had quite a few produce items on there and I was surprised at how well she did picking them out so that did work out better than I had expected

 

[pete6032]

The last few times I went to the grocery store I noticed each time there were about 5-6 people there shopping for instacart. They were walking up and down the aisles and picking out food for customers. I saw some of them also loading up the groceries into the personal vehicles to drive to the customer.

 

[cherrytwist]

Instacart is available here and we considered it using it yesterday due to the cold. But, the wife decided to go out when she found out the wait was 3 hrs. A friend has been using it for years with success.

 

[K1052]

I used Instacart and Peapod somewhat frequently when I was traveling a lot. After a week plus on the road hitting 4-5 cities not having to physically grocery shop when I got home made a difference. I could schedule the delivery for an hour or two after I got home and have fresh food in the house instead of just ordering pizza/Chinese/etc.

 

[TeeJay1952]

Kroger in my area has "Pick Up" for $5.
I can see a Google driverless dropping off Groceries or Amazon.
I see Dude in China dropping mail and no touch arriving at doorstep. (Mail robot, shipping {ocean} Port and across country with a few sorting stops.
No wonder the 2% wants to get rid of us. We are not needed.

 

[Thebobo]

Do you have to do a lot of substitutions? Ours seem to go through stock very quickly at times and I think 6+ substitution question texts would be normal

Rarely for each item you can select a sub or no substitution.

 

[WelshBloke]

We use delivery grocery all the time but then pretty much all the big supermarkets here deliver anyway. Sometimes I'll go in and use the self serve scanner thing which is awesome if you actually need to go to the store. You just wander around scanning stuff as you add it to your trolley then scan a code on a till as you leave and pay. No queue or extraneous human contact needed!

 

[NetWareHead]

I dont use them and would rather take my own time to shop groceries. Im particular when it comes to selecting produce and look for the better head of lettuce out of the selection on the rack. I also pause to read product ingredients and nutrition information and make an on the spot decision as to which brand I should buy. Plus it gives me an excuse to get out of the house.

 

[clamum]

I dont use them and would rather take my own time to shop groceries. Im particular when it comes to selecting produce and look for the better head of lettuce out of the selection on the rack. I also pause to read product ingredients and nutrition information and make an on the spot decision as to which brand I should buy. Plus it gives me an excuse to get out of the house.

I'm more or less like you. I like to pick my own produce and don't mind taking an extra few minutes to browse and pick up some things I haven't tried before if they look interesting on the shelf, as I'm going through my list. I also check dates on any food that has an (expiration/sell-by) date on it. I'm not certain they'd do that at the store since I regularly see out-of-date things for sale, so at least whoever does the stocking doesn't look at them so the person picking it out not looking at it either isn't out of the question.

I can see where the feature would be handy for others but as a single guy who likes to pick his produce and doesn't really mind the shopping, it ain't for me at this point. My co-worker has had a pretty mixed experience with delivery shopping via Kroger, from what he tells me. He's had to wait exorbitantly long, one time in particular, and multiple times they forget items he had ordered.