Talk to me about grocery curbside pickup?

[specialp]

Most stores here have it. For some there is a markup on items, some a charge, and Walmart is free. I am a menu maker and planner and shop from a list person so it doesn’t save money, but can time. I tend to use it when DH is out of town so it’s all on me to drop off and pickup from practice. At practice one night I can make my order for pickup during next night’s practice so I feel like I am filling dead time. Otherwise, It is easier for me to do it myself since I already have a menu and list and ordering does take time. I still shop fresh produce and meat at a smaller store. The only issue is substitutions. I’m picky about some things and not others. You can opt out of them.

[newnana]

We started using it when DH was very ill and I was exhausted from caring for him. I am so grateful for this service and much prefer it now that I know about it. Ours is a $5.95 fee per order and the first month of use was free. We do keep a list on our Alexa (messy hands while making dinner and run out of x? "Alexa, add x to the shopping list") These 2 things in my life have greatly improved my forgetting to add things to my list, take my list with me, spend time at the grocery store.

Ours is through our locally branded Kroger chain, using instacart. This means I can shop the sales and apply coupons. In addition to doing this electronically, when they bring the groceries out to the car they ask if I have any additional coupons to apply and will do it right there before finalizing the bill. Bonus that it remembers my list if I have a majority of repeats (always at my house) saving me time shopping online, too. I can also use the grocery store gift cards used as fundraisers for our school.

Picking out fruits and veggies: This is the part that I was initially skeptical about. They do a great job. For me, the selection of produce is always better at my grocery store than at Wal-Mart, so I am not overly surprised by this, but also, the folks that are filling the orders do a great job.

Substitutions: this is rare for me. When there has been the need for a substitution, I generally get an email or text (depending on my preference) stating what item cannot be supplied and what item is the intended substitution, at that point I can accept or reject. When there has been a substitution, even if I accepted it, the person delivering to my car shows it to me and re-confirms it's okay. If it's not, they remove it from the cart and the bill at that time.

Our grocery store is insane. It and the parking lot are ALWAYS chaos. There are too few grocery stores in the region so it is serving too large a population. Maybe because of that, their food is always fresh and reliable because the turnover is so high? That being said, it's hard to get a parking spot. Ever. They have 10 spots open for this service and there is generally one available. Woohoo! Navigating a crowded store always takes me over an hour and the checkout lines are LOOOONG. Let's pretend this is an average shopping trip of 1 hour (I wish, it's a time suck and not a good one). Would I pay $6 to get an hour back in my life? You bet I would. I do.

Thanks for the reminder, I'm going to go start my cart now. I like to let it sit for about 24 hours and announce it to my family so they can throw on any additions once it's percolated a little bit. This helps me with the "multiple trips" reduction.

The store I use also offers a delivery service, you just select pick up or delivery, but I think the delivery is $12 and I'm up in that area getting DH prescriptions at least once a week anyway, so that's not worth it for me.

Try it. The first time is harder trying to navigate the site and find exactly what you want. Second time is easy peasy. See if they have coupons for the fee. If you don't like it, you don't have to use it again.

HTH!

[SnuggleBuggles]

I’m sure you have Instacart available for delivery.
I have done curbside and delivery. It’s nice because you can check your house to see if you actually need something vs trying to remember.
I mostly do Whole Foods Prime. I save $ because I don’t impulse buy.


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[bisous]

Hmm. Maybe I should try it? I really want to make Sprouts work for me. I love it there but somehow it’s always an annoying trip!

When I put my zip code in for Curbside Pickup for Walmart the nearest one was over one hour away NOT in traffic and that’s just not going to work for me. I wonder if it’s glitchy? Walmart just doesn’t have the same status in CA that it does elsewhere in the country I think.

[newnana]

I just looked up my closest Sprouts website. They have instacart shopping and the first 14 days are free. See if your's does? Search google for your Sprouts> Click on the website option under the map> bottom left of the page under the Store Services section> mine says Delivery: Powered by Instacart. Click on that and a window opens for your zip code. In the window after that it tells me, *Free Delivery 14 Days with Express

Maybe yours does, too?

[MSWR0319]

I think you start by meal planning with a detailed list. The friends I know who use it shop at Kroger and Walmart and they love it. It’s a huge time saver for them and saves money preventing impulse buys. We have quite a few food allergies and limitations so the subbing out wouldn’t necessarily work for us so well and I do love to stock up if I find markdown deals on in store items.

We also have food allergies so I do not allow substitutions. I wish there was some place where I could type in what brand I would allow for substitutions. Last time I tried it I didn't get hamburger buns because the ones I had picked were out. So then I had to go back to the store to get hamburger buns. Not ideal, but we were able to at least eat dinner that night and I could run to the store when I wanted.

[DualvansMommy]

Hmm. Maybe I should try it? I really want to make Sprouts work for me. I love it there but somehow it’s always an annoying trip!

When I put my zip code in for Curbside Pickup for Walmart the nearest one was over one hour away NOT in traffic and that’s just not going to work for me. I wonder if it’s glitchy? Walmart just doesn’t have the same status in CA that it does elsewhere in the country I think.

You should try it with your local sprouts store! Nothing to lose by trying it out. If you don’t like it; then you know and try again another time.

For me; it’s so worth it. My Wegmans do text me substitutions, so I can decline to pick out my own alternative or slip item entirely.

I have Walmart near me; 5.5 miles away but I never shop there even though I pass it by indirectly to my work commute. I’ve better choices closer to me that makes it easy for me to skip Walmart completely.


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[SnuggleBuggles]

When you do Whole Foods on Prime, they text you to confirm if a substitute is ok. They send the other product info. I didn’t know others didn’t do that.


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[bisous]

When you do Whole Foods on Prime, they text you to confirm if a substitute is ok. They send the other product info. I didn’t know others didn’t do that.


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Wait is delivery free from Whole Foods if you're an amazon subscriber or is that an additional cost? We don't shop at Whole Foods much ours is not conveniently located and it tend to think of it as expensive but I kind of want to check it out again. I haven't ever tried shopping it for sales. When our whole family was gluten/casein free we shopped there all the time! (That was a long time ago and we've moved since!) That might make me reconsider a prime membership.

All these cross connected benefits!

[AnnieW625]

I have never done it. For a while I think Sprouts was available through Amazon Prime, but I think that was before they acquired Whole Foods, but from my understanding Whole Foods pick up works exactly like SnuggleBuggles says.

I ended up starting Blue Apron about 6 months ago and then switching to Hello Fresh (and might and even try another service maybe Home Chef) though meals are delivered and I get three meals a week for four people I still feel like I am spending the same amount of money as I was grocery shopping weekly and I have less waste because I am not overbuying and I don’t have to meal plan because it is all there. I still go to the market about once every two weeks for staples like bread and fruit, and about every 6 weeks for Costco. I also sometimes add extra meat or veggies and then have enough for lunches during the week.