Maybe the greatest thing ever
Yesterday, a really really cool thing happened. Groceries were delivered right to my door! It was everything it was cracked up to be. I'm pretty sure that I will be a regular customer. If only I could get past the feeling that I'm lazy and/or being tricked in some way. But, let me tell you more about it.
I got a coupon in the mail for $20 off of my first order from Peapod by Giant. Their delivery fee is $6.95 on orders over $100 and $9.95 on orders over $50. So, what the hell, why not? First let me describe my normal trips to the grocery store:
1) Find a time to get Levi out of the house when he is well rested and has something in his belly.
2) Go to the store and promise him 'a quarter' when we're finished (some random crap out of the quarter machine).
3) Wrestle and/or cajole him into the cart.
4) Distract him somehow while putting items into my cart (whole foods-bread samples, safeway-coupon machines, giant-??)
5) Talk and play games while standing in line.
6) Try and pay while keeping him sitting down and not playing with the credit card machine.
7) Get a quarter.
8) At the car, sort the groceries as I put them in the trunk so that those that need to go in right away are near the front.
9) Get Levi buckled in and go home. At home, before we get out, give him lecture about how I will be carrying bags and I need him to walk nicely home rather than run off in an opposite direction.
10) Get Levi out and set him on the sidewalk.
11) Chase after him as he runs off laughing.
12) Grab the groceries that need to go in.
13) Carry the bags a short distance, set them down go after Levi, repeat until we make it the 75 or so yards from the car to the door.
14) Give Levi a little talk about how I'm sorry I had to drag him by the arm, but I meant it when I told him to walk home now.
15) Give him a hug and put away the groceries.
16) Get the rest of the bags when Schuyler gets home and he can stay inside with Levi.
Okay, so that's not really so bad, no store meltdowns etc. most of the time, but I still would rather avoid it. So, I pretty much jumped at the chance when I got my coupon. I shopped online in short bursts over a whole day. That way I could remember something and go put it in my cart instead of on a list. When I had a longer stretch of time I browsed the sale section. They had everything I was looking for except chocolate Pediasure, taco sauce and YoBaby drinkable whole milk yogurt. The regular Giant doesn't carry the latter. I suggested the Pediasure on their product request thing.
The prices were comparable to Giant's in store prices, and the sales were pretty good, although I don't think they are the same sales as the store. Here are a few of the sale prices I got for example:
Perdue boneless skinless chicken breast - $2.75/lb
Crispix cereal - $2
Whole grain Wheat Thins - $1.50
Here are a few regular price things I bought:
Kashi Good Friends cereal - $3.69
Ken's Steak House ranch dressing - $2.99
Colgate toothpaste - $2.59
So, that seems about right, doesn't it?
Anyway, the online shopping experience was quite pleasant, and they'll keep my list, which might make it faster the next time. So, I chose a delivery time of 11am-1pm (they have two hour windows all day from 6am to 9:30pm, and you get $1 off if you choose a wider window because you'll be home all day), and waited for my food to arrive. The guy got here at about 11:30. He brought the bags all the way in and asked if I wanted them in the kitchen. He was extremely friendly and explained everything to me very well. He said they wanted me to be happy and blah blah blah about if I wasn't satisfied with any thing. Very good customer service I would say. Two of the things I ordered were unavailable, and as I had picked the 'no substitutions' option they just took them off of the order and said I could get a rain check on the sale prices. It didn't really bother me as the Giant store I go to always has a lot of stuff out of stock. You can choose to have them substitute a comparable item, but I was afraid of getting sweetened peanut butter or regular coke. So I did without a couple of unimportant things.
Also, one hidden cost - tip for the driver. I wasn't sure how much to tip, the only advice I could find online was 'tip is optional - use your discretion'. I gave him $4 because that's what I had. I guess I would've given him a fiver if I had it. Is that being cheap?
Anyway, overall I thought it was pretty great. I got more coupons for $5 off of each of my next four orders, so I think I'll take advantage. If any of my friends wants to use the service, they have a refer a friend thing where you get $15 off and I get $10 off, so let me know. Or you may be able to use the same $20 code I used, I'm not sure.
I got a coupon in the mail for $20 off of my first order from Peapod by Giant. Their delivery fee is $6.95 on orders over $100 and $9.95 on orders over $50. So, what the hell, why not? First let me describe my normal trips to the grocery store:
1) Find a time to get Levi out of the house when he is well rested and has something in his belly.
2) Go to the store and promise him 'a quarter' when we're finished (some random crap out of the quarter machine).
3) Wrestle and/or cajole him into the cart.
4) Distract him somehow while putting items into my cart (whole foods-bread samples, safeway-coupon machines, giant-??)
5) Talk and play games while standing in line.
6) Try and pay while keeping him sitting down and not playing with the credit card machine.
7) Get a quarter.
8) At the car, sort the groceries as I put them in the trunk so that those that need to go in right away are near the front.
9) Get Levi buckled in and go home. At home, before we get out, give him lecture about how I will be carrying bags and I need him to walk nicely home rather than run off in an opposite direction.
10) Get Levi out and set him on the sidewalk.
11) Chase after him as he runs off laughing.
12) Grab the groceries that need to go in.
13) Carry the bags a short distance, set them down go after Levi, repeat until we make it the 75 or so yards from the car to the door.
14) Give Levi a little talk about how I'm sorry I had to drag him by the arm, but I meant it when I told him to walk home now.
15) Give him a hug and put away the groceries.
16) Get the rest of the bags when Schuyler gets home and he can stay inside with Levi.
Okay, so that's not really so bad, no store meltdowns etc. most of the time, but I still would rather avoid it. So, I pretty much jumped at the chance when I got my coupon. I shopped online in short bursts over a whole day. That way I could remember something and go put it in my cart instead of on a list. When I had a longer stretch of time I browsed the sale section. They had everything I was looking for except chocolate Pediasure, taco sauce and YoBaby drinkable whole milk yogurt. The regular Giant doesn't carry the latter. I suggested the Pediasure on their product request thing.
The prices were comparable to Giant's in store prices, and the sales were pretty good, although I don't think they are the same sales as the store. Here are a few of the sale prices I got for example:
Perdue boneless skinless chicken breast - $2.75/lb
Crispix cereal - $2
Whole grain Wheat Thins - $1.50
Here are a few regular price things I bought:
Kashi Good Friends cereal - $3.69
Ken's Steak House ranch dressing - $2.99
Colgate toothpaste - $2.59
So, that seems about right, doesn't it?
Anyway, the online shopping experience was quite pleasant, and they'll keep my list, which might make it faster the next time. So, I chose a delivery time of 11am-1pm (they have two hour windows all day from 6am to 9:30pm, and you get $1 off if you choose a wider window because you'll be home all day), and waited for my food to arrive. The guy got here at about 11:30. He brought the bags all the way in and asked if I wanted them in the kitchen. He was extremely friendly and explained everything to me very well. He said they wanted me to be happy and blah blah blah about if I wasn't satisfied with any thing. Very good customer service I would say. Two of the things I ordered were unavailable, and as I had picked the 'no substitutions' option they just took them off of the order and said I could get a rain check on the sale prices. It didn't really bother me as the Giant store I go to always has a lot of stuff out of stock. You can choose to have them substitute a comparable item, but I was afraid of getting sweetened peanut butter or regular coke. So I did without a couple of unimportant things.
Also, one hidden cost - tip for the driver. I wasn't sure how much to tip, the only advice I could find online was 'tip is optional - use your discretion'. I gave him $4 because that's what I had. I guess I would've given him a fiver if I had it. Is that being cheap?
Anyway, overall I thought it was pretty great. I got more coupons for $5 off of each of my next four orders, so I think I'll take advantage. If any of my friends wants to use the service, they have a refer a friend thing where you get $15 off and I get $10 off, so let me know. Or you may be able to use the same $20 code I used, I'm not sure.
posted by Maggie | 8:07 PM
7 Comments:
Great review - thanks! How was the produce?
TWO DOLLARS AND FIFTY-NINE CENTS FOR COLGATE TOOTHPASTE?
Unbelievable!! What, are you made of money?? That's highway robbery! Must be nice sitting around all day throwing money out the window.
(kidding, of course. how was the produce?)
I was going to say that with a 2 year old at home, of COURSE you should use a delivery service ... and that was before your description of the usual shopping adventure. I remember what those shopping trips from H*!! were like.
The kids recently had an assignment for their Hunger class where they had to feed two people for a week on $25 and we went "shopping" on-line because we never made it to the grocery store. We used PeaPod and just subtracted the delivery fees because the prices seemed the same as Giant's regular prices.
Man, I'm sorry I forgot to write about the produce. I got broccoli, apples and bananas. They were all fine. Broccoli is hard to screw up I think, but the apples were good and there weren't brown spots on the bananas. The only wierd thing was that you buy them each instead of by the pound, so I got 6 individual banans. You can choose yellow or green and I got green, so I'm not sure if the yellow ones would've had spots.
Very cool! I've been thinking about trying the delievery service. You can refer me if you like.
Nice, Maggie! thanks for the review. I'll echo Sonja and say that you shouldn't feel the tiniest drip of guilt for using such a service -- it's heaven-sent for moms, sounds like.
The prices sound very reasonable, too. And I think your tip sounded fine.
I know this is unrelated to your post, but I just wanted to say I love your new pic :)
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