Food Delivery: Bringing the Grocery Store Straight to Your Door
Food delivery is nothing new, especially in America, but what’s starting to fly off the shelves, so to speak, are food subscription and/or delivery services. Now you can get anything and everything delivered right to your doorstep: groceries, fully prepared meals, make-it-yourself meals, meals to suit your allergy and dietary needs, restaurant meals, and even snacks. You can get them daily, weekly, monthly, or in whatever configuration your refrigerator and stomach desire.
Whether you’re in the market for the whole kit and kaboodle as far as home food delivery goes, or you’re just looking for the bare necessities, we hope you’ll enjoy this new series where we dive into the land of food delivery. To kick it all off, today we’re going to talk about where it all begins: at the grocery store.
In order to actually make food at home, you have to have food, and that starts with a trip to the supermarket. But what if you don’t want to shop, you’re too busy to shop, or you just frankly want someone else to do the job for you? Thankfully, you can now “shop” from the comfort of your own home.
No more navigating aisles, no more steering the shopping cart that inevitably wobbles and squeaks, and no more waiting in lines; when you order your groceries online, they’ll be delivered right to you — sometimes in under an hour.
Pantry Delivery
Jennifer Kennedy, a captain in the Army Reserves, an Army wife, and a mother of three currently living in Hawaii, knows what it’s like to be busy, which is why she started getting some of the necessities delivered right to her doorstep, and she recommends it for the convenience factor. “Dragging all three kids to the store just for toilet paper isn’t fun; it’s so much easier knowing that these staples are already in your house,” she says.
Jennifer partakes in Amazon’s Prime Pantry and loves the savings she gets from the program along with the essentials she needs. With Amazon Prime Pantry, the more you buy, the more you save, so after she adds her pantry items to her cart (applesauce, popcorn, etc.), she typically adds on things like toilet paper to her order since there’s a price reduction. “Now I always have food for my son’s lunches on hand, and I never have to worry about running out of toilet paper.” Amazon does have a fresh grocery/produce element to its business called AmazonFresh, but it’s only available in select locations.
Grocery Delivery Across America
Another popular grocery delivery company out there is Instacart, serving close to two dozen states and hundreds of cities across America. Instead of having a warehouse where everything comes from, and trucks designed for delivery, Instacart uses personal shoppers and the groceries come from local stores, including places like Whole Foods and Costco. You can schedule your delivery up to six days in advance or have them delivered almost immediately — their fastest delivery was accomplished in only 12 minutes!
If you’re in the southeastern United States, Blue Ribbon Foods specializes in delivering beef, poultry, pork, seafood, and more. They’ve been in the business for more than 35 years keep things as natural as possible with their foods — you won’t see any added growth hormones, chemicals, preservatives, dyes or colorings in their foods. Instead, customers get sashimi grade seafood, organic veggies, grain-fed beef, and free-range poultry.
In a little more than 27 years, Peapod has delivered more than 23 million orders to customers across the northeastern United States. Customers can get everything from baby food and organic fruits and veggies to deli meats and cheeses added to their cart. Place your order up to two weeks in advance or as soon as next-day delivery — they even offer grocery pickup if that’s more convenient for you.
FreshDirect caters to New York City and the surrounding area, and it takes the hassle out of grocery shopping. Their website breaks down the challenge many people face when it comes to getting what they need: “It’s inconvenient to shop at, different stores for different items (deli meat from the butcher shop, fresh bread from the bakery, bulk-size packages from big box retailers, and local vegetables from weekend farmers’ markets). Solving for this challenge was the idea behind FreshDirect.”
Since they’re in the food biz, FreshDirect also realizes the unique position they’re in to help those in need throughout their community. That’s why they partner with different organizations who help bring hunger relief to those who need it.
Grocery Pick-up
Receiving bags of groceries without ever having to leave your house is a great deal, but if you know you’ll already be out and about, grocery pick-up can be just as convenient.
Amanda Wetter, a full-time dental student, doesn’t have a lot of time to spare these days to grocery shop. When she’s not commuting to and from school, she’s studying, and the spare time she does have is spent with her husband, which is why she gave Walmart’s new grocery pick-up service a try. “I would definitely recommend this for anyone who is busy, and doesn’t have time to grocery shop,” she says. “I think moms would especially like this service from Walmart, because you don’t even have to get out of your car! They greet you at your car, then load all your groceries in it.”
Amanda was hesitant to try it out, but when she got a flyer in the mail offering $10 off her first online grocery order, she decided to give it a shot, and the results were better than she imagined. “Everything in my order turned out great! They were out of a certain item I requested, so they substituted that item with one of greater value. I ordered dairy products, a couple produce items, and mostly items I ran out of in our pantry (cereal, pasta, canned items).”
While she says was happy with her order, she did mention she misses picking out her own produce, so if and when she orders again, she may skip adding fresh veggies and just grab those herself.
We’re excited to bring you more posts on food delivery — it’s a fun trend, and we hope this series will open your eyes to new possibilities. If you partake in any type of food deliver, we’d love to hear from you for one of our upcoming posts.
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