Grocery Delivery - Is it Worth It?
Okay. I always said if someone offered online grocery shopping where I lived, that I would absolutely do it. Well, there is a place here, Schnucks, that does it. I took my Walmart receipt from last Saturday and input the *same* items in to see how much of a difference. *same* items were not really all the same, though, because there is a completely different selection at Schnucks.
Some pros are: Only $7 to pick up in drive thru, and only $13 to have delivered to your home. That is AWESOME! The website is very easy to navigate.
Some cons are: Not very much variety on most of the things I buy on a regular basis (however, they did have many varieties of couscous mixes, but really, that does not make up for not having instant brown rice). Also, NO DIAPERS! Now that is just a sin! Frozen dinners - not very much variety and the ones they carry are very expensive. My husband carries these for lunch, so we're looking at about a $6 difference/week just in dinners. Not a big variety of drink mixes or diet sodas. And only their brand of milk, where I am partial to Swiss Valley. And no skinless boneless chicken breasts - fresh or frozen? Go figure.
And the funnies - They have a category labeled "Feminine Chemicals!" How funny is that? And to think I was searching for Pam Spray when that one came up!!
So here is the bottom line -
My Walmart bill was 156.55 after coupons
My Schnucks bill after coupons was 160.01 - but did not include diapers, 3.5 lbs of chicken, tax on non-food, and the pickup/delivery fee - so more realistically, we are looking at 188.82, which is roughly a $32 difference.
This, I don't think, will be an option for me right now - mainly because of all the substitutions I had to make. For example, at Walmart, I got sugar free grape drink mix and sugar free strawberry drink mix for $1.88/ea. I substituted on my Schnucks experiment some Crystal Lite Lemonade at (2 for $2 each), but in all reality, I would never buy that, because lemonade gives me indigestion. So that is something else I would have to buy somewhere else. I also substituted some boneless skinless I got at Walmart (the Trim & Ready, which I love) for some bone-in splits at Schnucks, which I would not really buy. Schnucks also only offered one whole wheat pasta, and no whole wheat english muffins. So all in all, there is really no comparison between the two. I know it would be different if I started from a fresh shopping list as opposed to doing it from a receipt, but I like having a selection (that's why I like the HyVee). But if you need Feminine Chemicals delivered to your door - then Schnucks would be the choice!