I’ve been reluctant to try online grocery shopping. I actually don’t mind grocery shopping at all, which is probably one of the reasons why it’s taken so long to try it. But, problems arise when I have to take all three kids along, or we make it a family affair, not to mention my lack of spare time these days. So, after surveying in my Insta Stories a few weeks ago + getting so many messages about how life changing getting groceries delivered to your doorstep is, I talked to Mark and we decided to give it a try.

 

The Options

Trust me, we’ve done research on the different options for online grocery shopping and have had many people share their opinions with us. We also have a Consumer Reports issue that describes them all too, so at some point, it just comes down to picking one.  A friend of mine told me how amazing it is that Prime Now delivers to your door in two hours, so I decided to start there. After trying Prime Now, I jumped to Amazon Fresh because it seemed like a natural next step for comparison sake + prices were lower than some of the other grocery services we looked into. I’m providing a review of our experiences with both Prime Now and Amazon Fresh here with a price comparison of some basic grocery items.

 

Getting Started

A few notes for beginners:

• Even though I do meal plan, I have never been a grocery list maker so it was more difficult than I expected to think through all of the things I normally buy. I’m so used to just walking through the aisles in a certain way in order to get everything I need that typing them all in a search box did not come as easily to me as I would have liked.
• It gets easier. You can look back at previous orders and just click “reorder”, so from week to week you may transfer your usual list + build upon that or switch items out as needed.
• Shop sales. In Amazon Fresh specifically it’s really easy to browse through what is on sale!

My Shopping

Prime Now

• Prime Now doesn’t deliver to all areas, but thankfully it does to ours.
• I downloaded the app and it was very user friendly. Easy to search and easy to order.
• There is no subscription fee.
• There is a minimum order of $50 for free delivery. You may add in an optional tip, which I did.
• It was entirely convenient that it was delivered on our doorstep in less than two hours.
• A little pricey, especially for produce.
• Our Prime Now is sourced through two different vendors. This made things tricky. I could see which items were sourced from where, but as I was price shopping, I just picked budget friendly items as I was going along (not particularly from one vendor). When I got to my cart, I realized it was broken down between the two vendors and BOTH of them have an order minimum for free delivery. My total order met the $50 minimum for free delivery, but one of the vendors (Whole Foods) didn’t. So, I went back and swapped items out to keep them all from the same vendor and in the process ended up paying more for certain items just to do so.
• Item selections: I noted there were a few items that didn’t have a great selection to choose from, especially for different price points. One example was a block of cheddar cheese. There was really only one or two to pick from and both above what I would typically pay.
• Produce selection: I didn’t feel the produce that we received was of the greatest quality. I would have picked better myself. Our apples were quite brown and on the verge of becoming rotten. Our sweet potatoes were all shriveled up.
  • Note: Ripeness. There was an option to buy a ripe to use avocado for a higher price. Other fruit or vegetables were picked and packed for us.
• Returns: SO easy. Note items above — of course I wanted to return them. I went into my order, clicked return item under each the apples and sweet potatoes, selected the reason why + immediately the amount was credited back to the card I used to purchase the grocery order. No items needed to be physically returned.
• Packing/Delivery: Delivery was on time (so quick) and the driver put all the bags inside our door when we opened it. Everything was packed well in large paper bags. The fresh items were kept cold with some insulation and frozen water bottles/dry ice. Our eggs were placed on the bottom of one of the bags + we were grateful they did not break. Nothing was smashed or broken or damaged in any of the packages (loaf of bread and all).
• Conclusion: I would definitely try this again, but more so if I wanted something to be delivered right away. For example, a friend of mine shared that she was home with all of her sick kids + needed Tylenol, popsicles for sore throats, those types of items, but didn’t want to leave the house with all of them to do so. Prime Now delivered it all within two hours! Now that is something I could see myself using this service for in the future for sure.

 

Price Comparisons of Some Basic Grocery Items:

 

	Prime Now	Amazon Fresh
Almond Milk	$3.49 – 64 ounce	$5.02 – 96 ounce
Whole Wheat Bread	$3.19	$2.99
Cheddar Cheese Block	$5.89	$2.99
Dozen Eggs	$3.99	$2.99
Strawberries (1 lb.)	$4.39	$2.50
Bananas (bunch)	$1.99	$1.49
Shredded Wheat Cereal	$4.49	$4.29
Goldfish Crackers	$2.19	$2.09
Peanut Butter (16 oz)	$2.79	$2.49
Greek Yogurt (4 individual)	$3.99	$3.99
Avocado	$1.09	$1.49

*Items were compared as similarly as possible. If an exact match was not found, the most similar replacement was made for price comparison purposes.

Amazon Fresh

• This is an Amazon subscription service for $14.99/mo. There is a free trial option which we took advantage of.
• There is a minimum order of $50 for free delivery. You may add in an optional tip, which I did.
• Delivery is scheduled in two-hour time windows. It could be same day, depending what slots are still available and you have the option of selecting an attended (you’re home to receive it) or unattended delivery.
• Some of the item prices were slightly less, or generally produce was less than in Prime Now.
• Item selections: It seemed there was a wider variety of selections for different items. As in the block of cheese example above, there were far more brands, sizes, price points, varieties to choose from.
• Produce selection: We had more produce in these orders than in our Prime Now order and all of it was great quality. It was selected how I would have chosen myself had I shopped at the store.
  • Note: Ripeness. Everything was ripe to eat (not overripe, ex: bananas were yellow), except for the avocado (unripe).
• Returns: We didn’t have to return any items, but I looked into it and the process was just as simple as the Prime Now return process.
• Packing/Delivery: Delivery was within the time window we were given and all bags were brought right up to our doorstep. Everything was packaged nicely, nothing missing from the order. Again, the fresh items were kept cold with some insulation and frozen water bottles/dry ice.
• Conclusion: We have now used Amazon Fresh twice. We’ve been happy with the selections and the convenience.

 

The Future

It’s hard to not feel like we are over spending based on the fact that our primary grocery source has been Aldi prior to this online shopping trial. With that said, sticking to only buying items we need + checking our cart total as we add items in our online cart allows us to easily monitor our budget before checking out. I also think the value of my time saved by having the items delivered is SO great. The convenience has been huge!

In conclusion, we will sign up for the Amazon Fresh subscription service after our free trial ends and continue to use it. We will also continue to shop at Costco to get bulk items – fruit, too, because we consume so much of it weekly. We’ll monitor our grocery spending as we get into our new rhythm of online shopping and make sure it fits our budget long term. And, if I start missing the actual act of grocery shopping, I’ll surely just make an Aldi run. ☺

As someone who wasn’t a first adopter to this type of grocery shopping, I can say that I would speak highly of the experience. I would definitely recommend it to others. Seriously, if you are looking for a way to save time, simplify some tasks in your life or just take one thing off of your plate, order your groceries to be delivered! (And read  about the power of outsourcing.)

Try Amazon Fresh’s free trial to get a feel for it. Right now if you use code FRESH25 you can get $25 off your first Amazon Fresh order of $100 or more.

Here’s to living simple, happy, healthy lives by taking one thing off of our to-do list!

 

XO