Grocery Delivery and Pick Up: A Short Guide to Life Change
Have you taken advantage of grocery store delivery and pick up yet? Seen the ads and special parking spaces but worried about additional stress or fees? Read on for a short guide that could change your life and your pantry.
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Local Grocery Delivery and Pick Up Options
2020 feels like four years long already – between a hectic family schedule, noisy politics, and so much sickness, it’s been a long two months. One bright shining light: my new commitment to entering the grocery store rarely, and only alone.
My weekly routine now involves ordering Walmart groceries before 8:30 am on Friday mornings and picking them up around 1 pm. I pick up other non-perishables, toiletries, clothing items, and birthday gifts through Target Drive-Up throughout the week. Target Pick Up and Drive Up an be ready in under an hour, sometimes even 20 minutes. Often I order in the carpool line, and swing by the store on way home, avoiding herding our crew (and myself) through in-store Target Temptation.
More stores are catching on to the appeal of online grocery shopping and food arriving on the doorstep, answering the cry of their customer: We want your product! We just don’t want to come in! Here’s a quick guide to the stores that deliver and offer pickup.
Walmart Grocery Pick Up and Delivery
Pick Up: Walmart Pick Up is free with a minimum purchase of $30. Often I can place my order 4-5 hours ahead of the first available time slot. Last week, when everyone was shopping in a Snow Panic, the first available slot was 7 hours from the time I ordered.
The Walmart app has improved in both design and ease and I appreciate that I can make changes to my order for the first two hours after placing it. Because I always forget something.
Delivery: Walmart offers Unlimited Free Delivery for certain areas. You can start with a Free 15-Day Trial and afterward choose to pay $12.95 monthly, or an annual membership of $98. Similar, to pick up, the app shows you available time slots for delivery which can vary depending on the day and time frame.
Target Pick Up and Drive Up
Pick-up: Target offers same-day pick-up and drive-up options. Using the Target app, you make your purchases. Instead of choosing a time slot or delivery window, you receive a notification when your order is ready and then have three days to pick it up or order is canceled.
I use the drive-up option constantly because no one has to get out of the car which means, shoes and appropriate clothing are no longer required for a Target Run with Toddlers. Enough said.
Perishable food is not available for pick-up and drive-up at Target, due to their lack of refrigeration capabilities in Customer Service. So, yes, you can get chips and salsa, but, no, you have to find your shredded cheese elsewhere.
Delivery: Shipt now offers Target Delivery through its separate app and subscription service. Through Shipt, you can get any grocery items you may need. A Shipt Annual Membership offers free grocery delivery for orders over $35, sometimes as little time as an hour. The annual fee for Shipt is $99. There is an upcharge per item on Shipt deliveries.
Harris Teeter Pick Up and Delivery
Harris Teeter’s online shopping service, ExpressLane, was one of the frontrunners in offering the shopper a no-shopping-needed experience.
Pick-Up: ExpressLane has a fee of $4.95 per order, or monthly and annual subscriptions for $16.95 and $99.95. Once you pay the fee or purchase the subscription, there is no minimum order. Drive up and grab your four bananas from the cooler. I dare you.
Delivery: Instacart offers Harris Teeter grocery delivery for an additional fee.
Harris Teeter has a four hour lead time on pick-up, but you can pick your time slot days ahead, and make changes within six hours of the pick-up window.
ExpressLane Members receive special sale items in addition to the Harris Teeter weekly VIC specials.
Kroger Grocery Pick Up, Delivery, and Ship
Pick Up: Kroger offers same-day pick-up for $4.95 per order, with no minimum order.
Delivery: This is available within 1 hour through Instacart for a $9.95 delivery fee
Ship: Kroger ships grocery orders in 1-3 days for no cost.
Whole Foods Delivery
Since Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market, Prime Members within particular zip codes can now take advantage of free 2- hour delivery. Additionally, there are daily Prime deals available on regular-priced Whole Food grocery items for members.
Now, if you live within 30 minutes of a Whole Foods, you can haveAmazon Prime deliver you groceries, without living in a busy metropolitan area. This grocery delivery service is a game-changer for the shopper already paying the annual fee for Amazon Prime, and partial to the Whole Foods Retailer.
But, Wait, There’s More.
Instacart, a third-party service similar to Shipt, will deliver your full grocery list from additional stores including Publix, Aldi, CVS, and Food Lion for a delivery cost.
Order online with Amazon Fresh and they provide free delivery within two hours for orders over $35. Again, zip code matters and only certain areas have access to this delivery service.
Thank YOU, Technology
I’ll be the first mom to tell you I’m overwhelmed by navigating the digital world. But Grocery Pick up had me at Hello. Ordering groceries online has helped me stay organized, on budget, and stocked with what I need.
So for every endless discussion about screen time, I will pause and remember that thanks to an app, I’m not hauling kids through the frozen food section saying “No” to the TGIFridays TV dinners. It’s a life change in 2020, and I welcome it.
