Pros and Cons of Grocery Curbside, Pickup, and Delivery

It’s recommended that you feed your family multiple times a day. You also probably use toilet paper, soap, and a slew of other household items. But that means that someone (ahem, you) has to do the grocery shopping! We’ve been trying out a few options at our house lately, and I’m here to report back with the pros and cons of grocery curbside, pickup, and delivery.

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Going to the Store

The first, and most obvious choice, is just physically going shopping yourself.

Pros:

• This is great because you have control. You’re physically choosing your own bread, meat, produce, etc.
• You’re also able to use coupons or pay in cash, which usually isn’t possible on the other options.
• Physically getting an original store receipt also allows you to use apps like Ibotta which give you coupons and rebates. (Learn more about all my favorite money-saving apps here.)
• You can use reusable bags! Check out my easy hacks for how to save the planet here.
• And hey if you have to shop with kids, check out my helpful tips so that you all have fun and don’t go insane.

Cons:

• It sucks because you have to do it and it takes time.
• I’ve also found that I tend to spend a bit more, particularly on fresh produce, if I go shopping myself. I can’t really say that it’s impulse, per se, but I do notice a difference in our budget! Oops.
• You probably need to have a meal planning system. Feel free to learn about mine here.
• If you’re hauling kids (particularly babies), dealing with a stroller or a carseat can be really cumbersome. I will say that babywearing saves the day in instances like these.
• Finally, you don’t get your steps in (which I actually look forward to), and no free samples. Damn!

Grocery Delivery: Shipt

Shipt is a service that has a person take your order, shop for you, and deliver it to your door.

Pros:

• Amazing that you don’t even have to leave the house. We used this when all of us were sick.
• We’ve always had good luck with really nice shoppers who were excellent communicators (via text).
• You can create custom items in your order for things like house-made sushi, and your shopper can go specifically request them.
• Delivery is free on orders over $35 pre-tax; if not, then a $7 delivery fee is added on, too.
• Shipt has a great app – it’s easy to use and quite efficient. (You can also use your browser.)
• They can shop for you at lots of different retailers.

Cons:

• Fees! Most grocery delivery services charge a lot in fees. Some people can justify those costs because of the convenience factor, but for a stay-at-home mom that wasn’t sustainable at all.
• A “membership” is $99/year or $14/month, then there’s an upcharge for the items you buy and a fee per job. And you’re expected to tip your shopper. So it’ll end up costing you a lot more money than you just doing it yourself, or doing grocery curbside pickup. Check out their explanations on pricing here.

Curbside: HEB

Our grocery retailer, HEB, has recently started a curbside pickup service that we use about 50-75% of the time now. Ohhhh man, us southern Texans heart our HEB, lemme tell you. This place is life-changing!

Pros:

• Lots of pros here! Every item is pretty much available, and you can customize with comments like “Please make sure that you pick bananas that are a little green” or “Please get a package of chicken that’s 1-1.5 pounds”.
• The website (or app) also saves those comments, so the next week you buy bananas, your suggestion remains. It’s awesome.
• You can favorite items and clip online coupons right from the website, too. And you can allow (or not) substitutions, if your selected brand isn’t available or something. For example, I don’t care if they pick another brand of white vinegar, but I do only want my one brand of pizza crust mix.
• And in regards to those substitutions, or an item you ordered being out of stock, you get real-time text messages as the employee is shopping for you. That gives you time (in theory) to tell them “Hey, nevermind I don’t want it then” or “Can you get this brand instead?”
• I also like the scheduling: you can pick a 30-minute window which is really convenient. And you just pull up and text when you’re there.
• The employees are always really kind and they’ll load your car for you, though I always try to hop out and do it myself.
• Finally, there is regularly either a freebie, like a cookie or a new scented dish soap, and HEB frequently waives that $4.95 fee. I think in the last six months, it’s been waived for two of those months. $4.95 isn’t going to break the bank (especially if you’re saving money by not buying stuff on impulse, amiright?), but it’s also nice for them to do this on the regular.

Cons:

• The only real con is that there’s a bit of an upcharge for you to not do the shopping yourself. It’s that $4.95 fee plus the per-item 2% charge, which doesn’t hit us too hard but technically it’s there. (I do find my costs are still lower by doing this grocery curbside, rather than shopping myself.)
• Additionally, if you’re like me you just hate the thought of someone else picking out your meat, selecting produce, etc. No offense, but ain’t nobody can pick bananas like Mama.
• In concept, you’re supposed to get a text while they’re doing your shopping in case something is out of stock or they have to make a substitution (which, remember, you can customize as you’re building your list).  I’m going to say here that if you set an order for first thing in the morning, you don’t always get those texts. I’m not sure if they’re just in a hurry, or it doesn’t go through, or what. I’ve complained but it’s something I deal with if I pick that 7:30-8am slot. Sigh.
• Also with that early time slot, you won’t be able to buy things like a fresh rotisserie chicken or their handmade sushi. So just be warned of that.
• I don’t like the HEB app at all. I only use it for searching in-store for an item I can’t find (it’ll tell you the availability and the aisle). So for shopping HEB grocery curbside, I use my browser.

Curbside: Walmart

Another option for grocery curbside is Walmart.

Pros:

• The main thing for me is that their price point is lower than other stores like Target or HEB.
• They have no grocery curbside fee; only requirement is a $30 order minimum.
• My particular location has always been on time and the employees are sincerely kind.
• They have one-hour time slots, which might be more flexible for some people than a standard 30-minute window.

Cons:

• I mean, it’s Walmart. I hate giving money to this corporation (which is why we don’t use this anymore).
• Their produce and fresh meat is limited, and in my opinion a lower quality than all the other grocery options.
• They are also missing a lot of things that I use, like bihon noodles, fresh tortillas, fresh cut deli meat, etc. Some of those things are available in-store, but it’s not a grocery curbside option.
• Their time slots are in one-hour segments, not 30-minute segments, which might be good for some but is more stressful to me!
• You won’t get any communication about substitutions or unavailable items until you pick your things up, which can be stressful too.

Imperfect Produce

Imperfect Produce just recently became available in our area and I had to check it out. The concept is this: “ugly” or surplus produce, regular and organic, is selected and delivered to your door. (Side note: We tried this service and cancelled because we didn’t feel it was saving us any money, but I really love the concept and hope to use IP again once our budget isn’t so tight.)

You can see my separate detailed review of IP, including lots of delivery photos and a sample order with pricing, here.

Pros:

• I love the concept of trying to save food from being wasted! Who cares if your carrots are a bit crooked? (Euphemism?)
• The produce we got has all been usable and fresh. Nothing had to be thrown away.
• The website gives you a ton of flexibility as far as what size box you want delivered, if you want weekly or biweekly, if you want to skip a week, and the opportunity to hand-select various fruits and vegetables.
• It also saves automatically and you can choose up until the Sunday before your delivery. (It’s also updating the available quantities of stuff in real-time, so log in and snag early before they start running out of stuff.)
• There’s no obligation so you can cancel at any time.
• You can sign up and get waived fees if you get others to sign up with your unique code. So share share share!
• It’s a fun way to get produce you may not normally use, like jicama or beets.

Cons:

• I tried this service out hoping that it would save us some money but it really doesn’t.  Some items like celery will be cheaper at first glance, but when you add up the other fees, it’s negligible.
• The fees are there. It’s $4.99/box which isn’t included in your item total, so it’s a bit misleading. Their pricing can be found here.
• They’re not available everywhere, so check the website first to see. (But you can sign up anyway and get alerted when they start delivering in your area!)
• You can’t choose your delivery day nor time, but it will be the same every time.

Shopping in Bulk: Costco

Ahhhh, Costco. We just went there this morning for our monthly trip!

Pros:

• They have monthly sales, which are usually quite good, and you get a mailer that tells you what’s coming up. (Those sales are also specifically labeled in-store so they’re a bit easier to find.)
• It’s a great way to try to save money long-term on things that you know you’ll eventually use, from dish soap to toilet paper to granola bars to string cheese.
• There’s a bit of everything, from produce to alcohol to dog food to prescription glasses.
• The Costco brand, called Kirkland, is really reliable and I have no problem using their stuff.
• If you’re an Executive Member ($120/year), you’ll get a check back every year valued at 2% of all eligible purchases you made. Wahoo!
• Holy hell, their fresh pizza is gigantic. And amazing. (So are their cakes, and their cookies, and their rotisserie chicken…)
• Free. Freaking. Samples.

Cons:

• Membership is gonna cost you at least $60/year. There are two member options and two business member options, which you can read about here.
• Oh, and you MUST be a member to even go in. You have to show your membership card. Not a member? You can’t hang at the club.
• They rearrange the store to an extent every month for those sales: in our location, for example, frozen stuff on sale is moved to the end caps of the frozen aisles. So it can be a bit jarring that you think you know where something is, but…
• Our location doesn’t open until 10am on weekdays which I hate.
• There’s no grocery curbside or delivery option, so you gotta go in.

Dollar Tree

I wanted to put a quick blurb on here about Dollar Tree because I’m always pleasantly surprised at some of the items they have! Dollar Tree is one of the retailers who truly has everything at $1, so there’s no misleading on price.

Pros:

• They have things like toothpaste, soap, canned vegetables, seasonings, soups, chips, salad dressing, and bottled drinks for $1 each.
• This would be a great place to add on a rotation for once or twice a month; I don’t think you’d have to shop here weekly for your regular grocery items.
• They also have really great stuff in regards to school supplies, holiday decor, party supplies, and kitchen stuff like cutting boards and hand towels.
• There’s a free reward program that you can sign up for on your receipt, that’ll send you offers and coupons.

Cons:

• While it’ll save you some money, it’s one more place you have to go to get all you need. For some people, that extra trip may not be worth it.
• Dollar stores normally have very little refrigerated and frozen goods, and no fresh produce.
• You’ll sometimes be going for off-brand items in order to get the savings.
• My specific Dollar Tree is pretty good about being consistent and well-stocked, but other locations can sometimes be inconsistent on which items they have at a given time.
• Beware the impulse buys! The whole “Meh, it’s only a dollar” adds up quick, especially if you’re shopping with kids!
• Their return policy requires you to have the receipt, and then it’s exchange-only. No cash back or return to your bank account.

Whew! I hope that this exhausting list of all the shopping options has been helpful to you. Grocery curbside is the way we go about 75% of the time now, because it saves us time and money and because I heart HEB. Let me know in the comments what works for your family, and thanks for sharing this out!