Grocery Delivery: EcoNOMical?

So wow, right? It’s been a couple years since I published anything here… even forgot whether this blog uses first person; think I dabbled with third person “The Agent” at some point, heh.

I tend to focus on silly nit-picky things (like first vs third person) as a response to stress, and hoo-boy is there a lot of stress in the world these days. While anyone reading this (i.e. with an internet-connected device and power source) is probably doing ‘ok’ in the greater scheme of things, many trappings of the developed/comfortable world can trip us up in times like these – yet some can help us thrive.

Since this is getting filed under EcoNOMical, grocery delivery is the main topic – but as part of the greater “get a handle on spending” concept of this site, my analysis will include other household items I’ve added into my As Important As Food category. It’s no shock that toilet paper and paper towels are heavy hitters here, along with cleaning supplies and, as of today, drain clog clearing goo.

Even before my quest to be more strategic about my spending, I had a habit of avoiding most stores between Armistice Day and the New Year. This not only forced me to plan holiday gifts well in advance, but eliminated a lot of crowd crunch and impulse buying at the most psychologically vulnerable (and duly exploited) time of the year. I did not develop this habit out of some philosophically enlightened state – it was more a survival mechanism after a few years of going overboard and suffering financially as a result.

This habit did not initially extend to grocery stores; however, in my quest to limit shopping to essentials >95% of the time and reduce impulse buying opportunities, I prepared for the 2018 and 2019 holiday seasons the same way I used to prepare for annual hurricane season in Florida. TJ’s run in early November for all the canned goods my reusable bags could hold, ditto the local Kroger variant and Fancy Grocery Place for dry goods and enough frozen and shelf-stable stuff to cover a couple months.

The method was particularly useful in 2019, because I found myself with some nasty bronchitis just before the New Year – having soup at the ready was wonderful. The crud hung on for a couple weeks into January, and since I’m kind of a germophobe* I decided to try grocery delivery. The idea was to protect myself from Germs at Large, and everyone else in the store from whatever I was packin’ (funny how this no longer seems as extreme as it did just a few months ago). I loaded an online cart with some ready-made standbys, then threw in some avocados and… a dozen eggs. Wild! Would the avocados be past their prime? How many eggs would make it to my door unscathed? Grocery Roulette!

Well, it turns out there’s more than one type of grocery delivery. Around here most of the stores use in-house shoppers rather than third party – and that can significantly impact one’s experience. In my case, the results were AWESOME. The avocados were varying stages of almost ripe, and had come from the back of the store, rather than the pre-squeezed ones in the stands. The eggs were mindfully bagged and all intact – I would have likely picked a carton with a farther out sell by date, just because it’s my habit, but they were still a totally reasonable week+ out.

That’s where I learned my first grocery delivery lessons – about convenience, choice and – because this is a financial review – cost. (I’d call them the 3Cs but that’s already been done.)

Convenience: 5/5 stars here. In my region/experience, that has deteriorated only slightly since grocery shopping became a risky/harrowing experience. For the first five weeks of quarantine, delivery windows and stock were in short supply, but most things were still obtainable within a week or two.** By the end of April, things seemed to have returned to peak-normal – as in, I could reliably get a delivery window each time I placed an order, but both window and product choice was limited… leading to the next point.

Choice: 3.5-4 stars, depending on world events and individual stores. Again, this is just one person’s experience in a relatively large city in the western United States. If your only option is a third party/personal shopper service, you may have greater choice/control over substitutions, etc. than I have here – but even with a yes/no toggle on substitutions (with food allergies, that’s a hard pass for me) I’ve found grocery delivery to be almost as effective as going to the store myself. There’s a level of patience and maybe even stoicism I had to get to, but luckily I started down this path before it became a matter of health and safety. I have learned to pad my orders with multiple meal variants, in case something does not arrive – and get creative when multiple things are out of stock. I have also found some grocery stores will deliver small packs of toilet paper and paper towels, along with dish soap, laundry detergent, and even the aforementioned drain clearing gel. Hand soaps and sanitizer are still hard to come by, as are larger packs of paper goods – but a certain online ordering behemoth occasionally stocks economy sizes as well as commercial variants that, while unwieldy, are way better than nothing. Also, bidets.

Cost: 5 stars as far as I’m concerned. Some services are free, most encourage at least a $5 tip, many have membership models and/or minimum order requirements. It appears most third party services apply their own markup to certain items, which makes sense as a business model, but may not make financial sense to someone already struggling to keep their family fed. Certain items (eggs and dairy are two I noticed) did get a price hike at the beginning of 2020 – if you have multiple delivery options, it pays to comparison shop. That’s the unsung cost hero of grocery delivery: the opportunity to research and compare prices and availability, and the real-time calculations that eliminate checkout-time sticker shock. In the past two months, I have spent about 20% less overall on on groceries, while tipping $5-$10 for each delivery.

Overall I am incredibly grateful that most of us in more urban areas have these options, and I am hoping we see more stores include a curbside pickup option at least, to minimize risk without having to scale up a delivery crew. Tarzhey in my area has pickup, but this does not include perishable items. If quarantine has you jonesin’ for a stapler and a new vacuum though… 😉

If you have the funds and storage space to order in bulk/directly from the brand, that can be a more efficient and cost-effective way to get things like tortilla chips, nut butters, flours/baking mixes. You may even have local brands in your pantry already that you didn’t know were around the corner – if you are in the mid-Atlantic, for instance, you have an amazing peanut butter company in Saratoga Springs! I found them on Instagram by chance, and received my order in just a few days – a full month before the bulk sunflower butter showed up.

Speaking of locavor..aciousness? i.e. Shop Local, we’re getting into prime CSA season right now. With farmer’s markets closed or indefinitely postponed, it’s more important than ever to ensure our own local supply chains for produce, grains, meat if that’s what you’re into – the nice idea of “knowing where your food comes from” is dwarfed by the very real concept of “knowing your food is coming” over the next several months. Farmers operate on tight margins and end up doing most of their work on spec – we can all benefit from supporting our local farmers right now in the planting season, so we have produce at harvest time. And with a CSA, you can get fresh produce (and other goodies) delivered to your door on a weekly basis – no contact, all deliciousness and nutritiousness. Search for CSA (community-supported agriculture) + your area.

Alrighty! Analysis, ideas and bandwagon all covered. Think it’s time for bed. Be kind, be well, be financially savvy!

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*before you worry about how I’m handling the world now (how sweet of you!), rest assured decades of germophobia pose a surprising advantage during a pandemic, since I already employed all but the most extreme sanitation methods in daily life. The New Normal for me is only a minor change from the Old Normal. It’s even somewhat comforting that now everyone freaks out when someone coughs… I feel very not alone 🙂

**Privilege check: I could have some benefit of seniority since I had already used the delivery option at my local store, so I may have been able to get delivery windows when others could not – I am not sure. From mid-March to mid-April, I would stay up until about 1am to secure a delivery window three days out. Sometimes that window was 6-8am on a Saturday, sometimes it was 10pm-midnight on a weeknight. I recognize the privilege to work my own hours and be flexible with those varying delivery times without risking my livelihood… along with the funds to pay more for the premium goods when those were the only available options. I have been sharing my spoils with those around me (and family far away) who are less fortunate. I suspect most of the views on the blog are search bots, but just in case somebody stumbles upon this and feels the need to know these things.