Giant Pick-Up Service Review
I was intrigued when I first saw the signs and flyers for Giant Pick-Up service at my local Giant food store. I’ve used their Peapod grocery delivery service before, but have a hard time paying extra for grocery delivery when I live so close to the store.
When I received a coupon for savings off my first order, I decided to give it a try.
How it works: To use Giant Pick-Up service, you order your groceries on-line through the Peapod website. When you are ready to check-out, instead of selecting a delivery time as you would for Peapod, you select your pick-up location (a local Giant food store) and time window. To get your groceries, you pull up in the specially marked pick-up area, and a store clerk retrieves your items from a refrigerated locker, checks your order, loads your groceries into your car, and has you sign a receipt.
Sounds great, right? Well …
Six Reasons Giant Pick-Up Service Doesn’t Work For Me
1. It didn’t save me any time. I spent a lot of time on the Peapod website browsing the sale items and figuring out what we needed for the week. The Peapod website has a number of time-saving features that work better with more frequent use (like the Guess My Order® function that puts your most frequently purchased items in your shopping cart and the My Lists feature that put the items from your last order in your shopping cart), but since I hadn’t used it for a while, I couldn’t really take advantage of them.
2. The groceries cost more. Even though the Giant Pick-Up service is free, the regular prices on Peapod are slightly higher than they are at my local Giant food store, at least on some items. While I can overlook spending a few pennies more on some items, the price differential on Chobani® is too much to take on a regular basis. ($1.39 on Peapod versus $1.25 in-store.)
3. Peapod doesn’t have the same sales as my local store. Peapod has weekly specials and special offers, but they are not the same as the in-store specials. I happened to try Giant Pick-Up the same week that Chobani® was on sale for $1 in-store, making the price difference that much more painful.
4. Peapod doesn’t carry all the items I can get at my local store. The selection at Peapod is extensive and includes many of my favorite specialty items, but it doesn’t have everything that I can find at my local Giant food store, and it usually lags behind getting new items. When I couldn’t find my favorite ice cream bars on Peapod, I knew I would have to make a trip inside the store when I went to pick up the rest of my groceries.
6. I still ended up having to go grocery shopping. Maybe I could have done without my ice cream bars for a week (or found a suitable substitute on Peapod) and maybe I could have paid the Peapod price for Chobani® just once, but I forgot to order a few more essential items, and didn’t remember until it was too late to update my order (the afternoon before my morning pick-up time). So, I still ended up having to park my car, go inside, and shop for a few more things.
Overall, the Giant Pick-Up service didn’t work for me because it didn’t save me any time and cost me a bit more money. If I used it more frequently, it probably would end up saving me time, and if I weren’t so loyal to my favorite brands and items, I could keep my grocery bill down by shopping the sales. For now, I’ll stick with my weekly trips to my local Giant food store, where I can save a bit of time using the Scan-It tool to scan (and bag) my groceries as I shop.
Have you shopped for groceries on-line?
Do you like to use self check-out systems?
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YES YES YES
SO many people tell me to do grocery delivery but, while I caint stand the parking situations here :-), I would really rather do it myself.
faster
easier
less money!
I did grocery delivery a few times when I had a newborn. Otherwise, I can be so fast at the grocery store, I’m sure I could get it done in 1/2 the time. As it is these days, I typically get my basic shopping done on my lunch hour (and still have time to get home, dump the groceries and get back to work) – see, I’m fast 🙂
I want to hear more about the scan/check-out thing while you shop – that’s cool.
And yes, I almost always self-check out.
Oh, I love the self-scanner. It really does make me loyal to that store. You scan your items as you shop and then at check-out you scan a barcode at the register that loads your order, and all you have to do is pay. I bag my groceries as I shop so I can keep things organized and then once I pay I am done. 😉
doesn’t sound great at all. Although, I wish we had those scanners in the stores in Florida. That did save time when we went shopping. And, I agree on the reusuable bags, crazy how many plastic bags you get at walmart. BTW, they are not reusuable bag friendly here at all!
That’s interesting, Jo. All stores here sell their own resusable bags and give you 5 cents off for each bag you use.
Woah. I just had one of those “you are really sheltered living in Vermont” moments, haha. I had no idea that grocery stores offered pick up OR delivery. And those scanning things? Never heard of it! We are very fortunate that we live 2 minutes (walking time!) from a really nice co-op. It is expensive, but convenient for produce and last minute things. Other than that, it’s the weekly trip to the grocery store. I really enjoy the act of walking up and down the aisles…it may be the one “chore” I don’t mind!
Ha! Yes, I can see how this business model might be harder in a more rural setting. I also don’t mind the grocery store too much – I like to see new products and compare the labels.
I have tried Grocery Gateway (a grocery delivery service here in Canada) and pretty much had the same issues as you – I forgot to order things I needed, the prices were too high, and not all of my favourite bbrands were available. That said, the staff picking my orders picked WAY nicer looking produce than I have ever found at the store.
I have just recently tried a meal delivery service – they do the meal planning, and send me the groceries and the recipes, all I have to do is cook it! Now that’s a service I will definitely use again – the review will be up on my blog tomorrow.
Oh, I will check that out. I hate meal planning. These days I don’t even have time to cook dinner, but that craziness should end soon!
We live in a low-tech place I guess – we don’t have those options but I can see from your reasons that I would probably not really like the service either.
We use Peapod and love it, and have now used the Pickup service once. It was great – definitely saved us tons of time. But I use the Peapod website a lot so shopping on it is super quick for me. Or it’s something I can do over the course of a couple days, or late at night, and then just submit the order when I’m ready and schedule a delivery time. So it saves me loads of time since I am in work all day, with kids at night, so my only grocery shopping time is late at night or on the weekend. Loved the pickup – I could send my husband to just go get the groceries.
You are so right. If you use it regularly and have your “lists” down, it can be very convenient. I’m just not that organized with my meal planning and grocery shopping.
Oh, the other thing is – it does save me money! Because I don’t impulse buy like I do in the store. I always throw tons of things in my cart that aren’t on the list when I’m in the store. On Peapod I stick to my list. 🙂
Peapod is dirty and gross I worked there
I picked up my groceries from Wal-Mart and my cheese and milk were WARM AND my strawberries were molded.