My Great Online Grocery Delivery Experiment

So. Today? Not good. I would tell you about how I almost CRIED and how the almost crying had to do with a particular pair of brand new pants that are now RUINED and also a nap that lasted only one and a half hours and how half of that time was spent folding LAUNDRY and not RESTING because a certain someone was up THREE TIMES last night and that certain person is NOT THE BABY. I still think it is teeth and these teeth are going to kill us all. And? I will be dead first.

Anyway. Not talking about that! What we ARE talking about is equally scintillating: ordering groceries online!

That big WHOOSH you heard was the giant stampede of readers who rushed for the exit. But I TOLD YOU. I said EQUALLY SCINTILLATING.

Moving on.

I have mentioned, oh, a bazillion trillion times that I love grocery stores. The grocery shopping is my favorite chore (if you can HAVE a favorite chore, which I realize is debatable) and I think this has to do with the fact that for a good ten years I was deprived of American grocery stores which are, you must realize, the same kind they have in Heaven. The thrill of a huge and well-stocked grocery store is still the same, and yes, I have few excitements in my life.

So you are probably wondering why I would want to order groceries ONLINE and cheat myself out of a good bask in the produce section. I will tell you: TIME. I have none of it.

I used to go grocery shopping with Jack during the week. Then I went grocery shopping on Mondays when my mother-in-law was here to take care of the kids. Then I went grocery shopping on Sunday afternoons, usually with Jack, because I wanted to reserve Mondays for better stuff like Target and coffee shops. And then our weekends started getting packed, or the weather was really nice, or we were just too tired. Also! I was coming to a very sad conclusion that if I wanted all the stuff I wanted I would have to go to MORE THAN ONE STORE. And as much as I love grocery stores, I do not love to DRIVE to them.

I have, within a two-minute drive from my house, two Safeways and an Asian grocery store. A bit farther away is a QFC (Kroger) and a handful of local (read: pricier) stores. After a month or two of comparing prices and mentally noting which things were at which stores, I ended up with Safeway. It's the closest, I like the store brands and most of the time was the cheapest. The problem with Safeway, at least mine, is the produce is always questionable. So I started entertaining the idea of ordering non-perishables and dairy from Safeway and use my Sunday afternoons to drive out to the Fancy Local Market where the produce is more expensive, but GOOD and also PRETTY. I love pretty in grocery stores.

Oh, and we plan a menu and shop once a week, only buying stuff for that week. This is the only way I can [mostly] stick to our grocery budget. Once a month we load up on meat and frozen stuff at Costco and every so often Phillip heads to the Asian market for deep fried tofu and noodles.

The only local online grocers I know of are Safeway and Amazon Fresh. I was really hoping to go with Amazon Fresh because their delivery options were AWESOME. Next day, pre-dawn, no need to sign anything. I had a free delivery coupon from Safeway, but normally the delivery fee is TWELVE NINETY-FIVE and you have to hang around during a two-hour delivery window. Ack.

I had a list and I found everything I wanted on the Safeway site, because that is where I always shop and of course they have the things I always buy.

Amazon had... nothing I usually buy. Oh sure, I found different brands for milk and cheese and lunch meat and fruit snacks, but they didn't have the cheaper store brand stuff (obviously) and everything seemed a LOT more expensive. Pretty much the only thing that was cheaper with Amazon Fresh was baby food (um, confession: I am not making my own baby food these days, SUE ME) and that was only if you bought 3 or 4 at a time. Which I would totally do, but it didn't make up for everything else.

Safeway online, however, was more expensive than Safeway the store. Which was a bummer. When you go grocery shopping every week and buy the same things every week, you start to remember the prices. I'm not sure why things were 20 and 30 cents more expensive, and why you couldn't redeem coupons online. LAME.

My Safeway order was $87.02. My Amazon order, which I tried to match as closely as possible to my Safeway order, was $101.41. I went with Safeway.

It was supposed to be delivered the next day between 11 and 1. At 12:55 I got a phone call from the delivery driver telling me he was going to be about 15 minutes late. It didn't matter, and I appreciated the call, but still. I could have gone somewhere and worn out my kids. Boo.

My groceries eventually arrived, and it was mildly disappointing. I'm not sure what I was expecting. Like maybe the personal Safeway shoppers might have included a free chocolate bar or some other fun treat, but no, the driver showed up with two plastic crates with bags of groceries, just like the bags of groceries I bring home every week. He was very nice and answered all my dorky questions- my order came from my usual store (literally up the street), not all Safeways deliver, blah blah blah. And then I put my groceries away and made myself a sandwich.

I'll definitely do it again. I'm still partial to Safeway and I know what to order. It'll be faster next time since I can just order off my previous order. The Amazon site was sooooo much better than the Safeway site, but I'll deal. I think I might go buy my produce at the yummy produce store, though, or even farmer's markets now that it's nicer weather. The tomatoes in my online order were not terribly impressive tomatoes.

Amazon, though, if they deliver to you, seemed really great for people who want to eat local or have special considerations, like no-dairy or gluten-free etc. You could sort the items a million different ways and that was helpful. I would LIKE to eat local and organic and all that, but right now my top priority, for most stuff anyway, is Cheap. And Amazon didn't sell my beloved South Beach cereal bars, so I guess it's not ALL awesome.

So concludes Maggie's Great Online Grocery Delivery Experiment. Best part: one more chore I can do from my laptop. Biggest disappointment: no surprise chocolate bars.

Comments

[Susan (5 Minutes for Mom)]

That is so funny that you like grocery stores.

A long time ago, I used to get kinda depressed in grocery stores, I think b/c of the sappy music they usually play. That's gone away now... but now my husband picks up most of the groceries and I hardly ever go.

I've never tried online grocery shopping. I'm not sure what it's like here in Canada.

[Jen]

I have always wanted to order groceries online because it just sounds awesome. I used to like grocery shopping and I still kind of do, but now I have to shop at Wal-Mart because we only have Wal-Mart and Publix here and Publix, though beautiful and lovely, is SO expensive. I miss Fred Meyer.

[Elizabeth]

I tried Safeway delivery but it just didn't seem to go as far for as much money as some of my other grocery stores - and a few times they left ou the stuff that was the only reason I was ordering from them - diapers or wipes, and then I still had to go get diapers and wipes. So annoying. And I am not paying $12.95 for delivery of $50 worth of groceries! But this summer I am going to experiment with shopping only at Trader Joe's, the farmer's market, and the mexican grocery store down the street, which is supposed to have the best meat in town.
I really do wish we had amazon grocery delivery but it's only in Seattle. Boo.

[Christina]

Back in the day I used to order from Home Grocer. Now that was True Awesomeness. The food was always really good and fresh, the delivery guy was super friendly and they gave me something free everytime. Flowers, candies, all kinds of good stuff. Hubby used to joke I was having an affair with the Home Grocer guy because of all the great stuff I got. And then sadly they went out of business because apparently you can't stay in business if you sell really good food at really good prices and give away free stuff all the time. SIGH. I still miss them.

Now I'm using PeaPod (east coast thing, attached to Giant) and they are okay, but definitely no Home Grocer. Also I never remember everything because my style of shopping is going up and down every aisle and it doesn't work the same online. But it is a real timesaver, which is something anyway.

[Carrie]

Is the Asian grocery store near you any good? We drive by it all the time and always comment that we need to stop there, but never do.

Hope the teething situation improves soon. We're teething here too, but it hasn't affected his sleep yet, just makes him cranky during the day.

[kirida]

I have ordered from Safeway and Albertson's before and for the most part, they're okay except for the fruits and vegetables.

I really love asian grocery stores. If you can ever get to H-Mart, it's the bombdotcom. See you tonight at the spa meetup!

[Jess]

We looked into ordering groceries online but we struggled because they didn't have everything we wanted, and some things I like to look at to decide on, like the meat and the expiration date on the milk, you know?

Sorry about your pants.

[Amanda]

The Asian grocery store that's near you... NOODLES. Man, oh man. I'm dieing here!

(For those of you who are SOO curious but didn't click the link above, let me just say that I literally threw my "ramen" in the trash last week. I can! not! eat! it! It's CRAP to me now. Booooo. Maggie's real Chinese ramen is AAAMMMMMAAAZZZZZIIIIINNNGGGGGGG)

Add to the list of Things Amanda is Jealous of That Maggie has: grocery stores that deliver.

Next time the guy comes to deliver yours, ask if Montgomery, AL is too far? Mkay? Great.

[Christiana]

Cannot find a grocery delivery that delivers to me, but I do okay, so I guess I can't complain - DH usually goes w/ me and we divide and conquer. :)

Thanks for the review, though!

[Julie]

I love grocery shopping, too! I feel so at home in the grocery store and I love to look, really look, at everything. Different labels and brands and varieties. It is amazing what is available to us!

I like the idea of online grocery shopping, but would miss the store. :)

[Meghan]

Maggie, here in DC the grocery stores that are affordable suck and I'm not really sure who can actually afford Whole Foods, but it's not me. I stick to Trader Jose's and Target for most things and Harris Teeter (upscaleish, bit not WF) for some things. BUT! We also have a veg delivery place that is AWEsome (in the summer). I get a big box of veg (and fruit) every other week (it's too much food and too much money for every week) and they get better stuff than the store, are really nice, and immediately correct any error or omission. I would be surprised if you don't have something like that? Our's is called Washington's Green Grocer, and it's 31 bucks for a "small" box of veg weekly. Whatever is best and in season is what's on the list and they have local dairy, eggs and bread and you can add extra stuff and switch out whatever you don't want for something else on the list. Is there nothing for you? I haven't actually compared the price of what I get to the grocery store, but I feel it's a very good value. And it shows up on my doorstep, no charge, every other Wednesday.
Sorry about your let down. I find that here in DC, the food they do sell at Target (not much, it's not a Super Target) is the cheapest you can get. Small jars of mayo are my "price" item. I look at the price of that in any store, and guage the prices of all other goods based on that. For example, at my Target that item used to be 1.89 (it may be 2.19 now), 2.69 at Harris Teeter and 3 something at Whole Paycheck. I love Target. They have good sliced cheese too. :)

[Meghan]

See? This sounds the same:

https://www.mothernaturesorganics.com/FAQ.html

I bet if you compared the prices with the store you get produce at, it's probably comparable. Like I said, I haven't done mine. But? You do like the grocery store, so you may not like to miss out. I hate buying produce, so this works great for me!

[Elsha]

My husband and I load up the baby and grocery shop as a family on Saturday mornings. I've thought about ordering online, but I figure it's a good way for us to get out of the house and spend some time together with no TV or laptops. Plus Kalena LOVES to be out and about so she's always super good while we shop.

[Angela Noelle]

Hm, interesting. I've actually thought about using Amazon Fresh, so it's kind of a bummer to hear they don't have the greatest selection. I'll have to check out Safeway--though I don't know if I'll be able to convince Colby that our time and sanity is worth $12.95. Particularly if the delivery window takes up so much of that "saved" time...

[online shopping philippines]

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Jason Zenteno