Groceries Delivered

[INeedAVacation]

www.harvestingamerica.com

I bought a membership which is $15 a month. They offer non-parishables with FREE shipping on all your orders. The prices seem a little lower than my local grocery stores for most of the items. Any thoughts on this?

[Tico]

I wonder how long it takes from order time til I recieve it.....

That would be the only drawback from the local grocery store...

[zippyjuan]

They said 2-4 days to process your order and 1-7 for shipping. Our local stores deliver (including perishables) for about $10. SInce you have joined, have you seen their other prices or just the teasers on the website intro pages? It is a very difficult business they are trying to get started. At these prices it will be hard for them to make any money. Especiallly with free shipping. Remember Homegrocer.com? (I think that was their name). They went bust before very long. They had to pay for warhouse space and trucks, gas, insurance, etc. Also it is hard to get the volume discounts that larger stores can get. The grocery stores have the warehouse- they just pull from their stock at an existing store. The delivery fee covers most of the other expenses.

[INeedAVacation]

I'm pretty interested in the whole concept, logistics, and cost effectiveness of the idea of having groceries delivered to my door. If HomeGrocer.com was still in business, I'd love to keep using their service. They had great products, especially their meats and produce and offered fairly competitive prices (with non-sale prices at my local grocery stores).-Free delivery offers and coupons definately made them even more attractive of a service.

Some of the downsides with HarvestingAmerica.com are that they only have non-parishables. That not so great when 65-70% of my regular shopping is for perishables like pizzas, milk, tv dinners, burritos....you know, all the food groups.
An upside is that the items which they do offer, the other 30-35% of my regular shopping, are mostly at competitive prices. There is a "specials" isle with about 10 items like cans of starkist tuna for 29 cents, and another brand of tuna for 19 cents a can. They curently have oreos for $1.99. So, the prices don't seem spectacular but they do seem a little lower than going to the store. I placed an order for about $30 which would have cost me $10 to ship at NetGrocer.com. So, I have basically already nearly had my membership paid for with the amount my first order would have cost me to ship from somewhere else. I'll be making more orders and will definately get my moneys worth (at least when compared to other online delivery companies such as NetGrocer.com or MexGrocer.com). If you do want to have access to all grocery items (perishable/non-perishable) you may want to see if WhyRunOut.com is in your area. They shop at Stater Brothers Markets and delivery to your house.

[ugotcarrie]

www.peapod.com is in New England.

[Dman33]

NYC Apexers can take advantage of FreshDirect. It rocks. Averages 10% less than the grocery store even after the $4 delivery charge. Always is delivered inside the 2-hour delivery window. No problems to this date.

[whitak24]

yeah, freshdirect is the bomb, as long as you are ordering $50 worth of groceries or so at a time

[Dman33]

yeah, freshdirect is the bomb, as long as you are ordering $50 worth of groceries or so at a time

That's right, there is a minimum... $40 to be exact. Which is not hard to do since FD includes produce unlike a lot of the others.

[INeedAVacation]

Yeah, FreshDirect looks a lot like HomeGrocer did. If they were here in San Diego I'd probably use them, especially if, like you said, they are about 10% cheaper than regular grocery stores-from cyberspace to my door within the scheduled delivery time, what's not to like?
But, alas, they aren't in San Diego so I'll stay with Harvesting America for all my 'dry goods' needs.
By the by, anyone know how FreshDirect and Peapod are doing financially? I'm curious seeing as how HomeGrocer/Webvan and so many other smaller versions didn't make it.

[INeedAVacation]

I just notticed the updated HomeGrocer.com website. Who thinks they will still make a comeback several years after they've been gone?

[pointaholic]

I would like them to make a comeback. I used their service a couple of times and was pleased with it. The only downside is you don't get to hand pick your meat and produce. But if you are short on time, it's a great option.

[kei2]

65-70% of my regular shopping is for perishables like pizzas, milk, tv dinners, burritos....you know, all the food groups

Are you a college student or something?

[INeedAVacation]

Are you a college student or something?

Believe it or not, no. Actually, I think if you really consider your shopping needs, you'll find a very high percentage of your groceries is for perishables. Basically, anything which requires refrigeration along with fruits and vegetables are all perishables.

I have been buying more canned items now that I have the Harvesting America service now than I would previously buy. I think I've saved a little more than if I bought all my HA items at my local grocer (including the $15 subscription charge). I know it must be pretty expensive for them to ship my orders, especially my recent 65 lb order so, for the service alone, its a good deal.

But, I still am hopeful that HomeGrocer will return. They had excellent inventory (fruits, meats, etc.) and decent prices with no delivery carge (with a minimum order total).

[ski]

What kei2 was saying was that 3 out of your 4 perishables you mentioned were "college student diet" foods.

[INeedAVacation]

What kei2 was saying was that 3 out of your 4 perishables you mentioned were "college student diet" foods.

They are staples in my house.

[INeedAVacation]

They are staples in my house.

A non-perishable, which they have is macaronni, which they have. So I ordered a lot-another staple in my house.

[jusfonzin]

anyone know if freshdirect still has the $50 of free food coupon?

[cbrady]

interesting sites!