Meleyna Nomura
·9 min read
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Shopping at new-to-me grocery stores is my idea of visiting a museum. While scanning the aisles to pick up inspiration is key to how I gather new ideas and workshop recipes, I can’t lie about one unfortunate truth: Doing your actual weekly shop in person can often be, well, a drag.
As a former grocery worker myself, I know firsthand just how little of my one wild and precious life I’d like to spend in an IRL, brick-and-mortar grocery store. The good news? Doing a weekly shop entirely online is getting increasingly easier with each passing year — no pit stops elsewhere required.
Any one of us can now do a whole week’s shop in the comfort of our pajamas while sitting pretty on the couch. But that’s just where the perks begin! Many online grocers now offer quality items at prices that just might out-perform your everyday staples. Here are eight of the ones worth swapping for your usual stop.
KT Online Groceries 2023
Thrive Market Membership
Thrive Market
$59.95
Let it be known: For those who might be on the fence about shopping for meat online, the convenience and quality of Thrive's meat offerings convinced a staff writer at The Kitchn to deviate from her usual grocery store. While Thrive started out shipping natural and organic pantry essentials, the grocer has expanded into home-care staples, sustainable meat, frozen foods, wine, and more. There is an annual fee, but prices reflect up to a 30% discount compared with many major grocery stores, so you'll likely save more than what you paid (plus, Thrive also price matches and offers 5% to 10% off auto-ship items!). You’ll also find specialty brands as well as Thrive's own private label, and can browse by preferences like keto or low-FODMAP.
Price: Annual $60 subscription fee (or you can pay $12 per month), plus the cost of your orders. First-time annual members can cancel anytime within 30 days for a full refund.
Shipping cost: This depends on your type of order because of Thrive’s shipping schedules. There’s free shipping on grocery orders more than $49, otherwise a $5.95 fee; free shipping on orders of frozen food over $120, otherwise a $19.95 fee; free shipping on wine orders over $79, otherwise a $13.95 fee.
Delivery area: Available in the 48 contiguous states; currently doesn’t ship to P.O. boxes or APO/FPO/DPO addresses.
Misfits Market Box
Misfits Market
$35
Becoming a primarily online grocery shopper absolutely began with delivery of my first Misfits Market box. First introduced as a produce subscription service, Misfits Market focuses on saving irregular or surplus organic products. (It will offer conventional products if it means saving them from waste, though.) Subscription boxes include a mix of produce, bakery items, snacks, beverages, and/or pantry staples of your choosing. The company also offers a membership tier where Misfits Market will prefill a box of your usuals for you (meaning you can make sure you get your honey BBQ salmon fillets before they sell out). Boxes can be customized to fit your needs and are delivered weekly or biweekly on an assigned day designed to reduce carbon emissions. You can skip weeks as needed. Delivery workers will also pick up used boxes for recycling when they drop off your next order.
Note: Misfits Market acquired Imperfect Foods last year and has plans to combine the two brands under one label in the long run. The services, prices, and offerings are essentially identical at the time of publication.
Price: No subscription required, although it does offer an auto-filled cart for its “upgraded” membership plan. Order minimum is $15.Shipping cost: $5.99 flat shipping, with free shipping on orders over $60.
Delivery area: Available in the 48 contiguous states; currently doesn't deliver to P.O. boxes.
Weee! Grocery Delivery
Weee!
If you love the selection of Asian and Latin groceries, but find it hard to locate your favorite items on other popular sites, Weee! is about to complete your online shopping experience. As America’s largest online Asian supermarket, Weee! packs in all the fun of an H-Mart stop. (Do not skip the food court.) You’ll find plenty of staples, like organic milk, fresh meat, and a huge array of produce, in addition to fresh noodles, frozen dumplings, and dozens of specialty condiments. There's a lot to see at Weee!, so you might want to read up on how best to shop it here.
Price: No subscription required. There's no minimum order either, and you can place orders at any time.
Shipping cost: Free delivery for orders over $49, or a flat $6 for smaller orders. (Tipping your driver is suggested.)
Delivery area: Available in the 48 contiguous states.
Vitacost
Vitacost
Vitacost is one of the more obscure online shelf-stable grocery retailers on this list (that also offers amazing deals of supplements and vitamins), but a big hit with those in-the-know. Frequent shoppers like the variety of organic and eco-friendly products for your entire home (like well-priced supplements, snacks, specialty diet essentials, and bath and body items). It feels a bit like browsing a local supermarket mixed with your favorite corner store, but with really competitive pricing — and, of course, the convenience of being online.
Price: No subscription required, so it’s just the cost of your orders.
Shipping cost: Free shipping on grocery orders over $50 in contiguous 48 states, otherwise shipping costs are calculated based on your delivery address.
Delivery area: Available in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, as well as more than 150 countries worldwide.
Amazon Fresh
Amazon
If you’re looking for a traditional grocery shop experience, Amazon Fresh offers grocery ordering very akin to what you could expect stepping into most major supermarkets, with a huge selection that matches a full-service brick-and-mortar store. The site offers (almost) everything you’d find on a typical grocery run, like meat and produce, pantry staples, and household cleaning supplies. Plus, you can choose from most major brands as well as Amazon's own private label. Perhaps best of all, same-day shipping is available for some areas, so it’s great for those last-minute shops, and the service accepts SNAP and EBT benefits. Those looking for ease of shopping and a wide variety of groceries might have to get creative with reusing packaging materials, as Culinary Producer Kelli points out in her review.
Price: Available exclusively to Amazon Prime members. An annual Prime membership at time of publication costs $14.99/month or $139 annually.
Shipping cost: Free delivery for orders over $100; otherwise fees differ depending on your order and delivery area.
Delivery area: Available in select cities. As always, tipping your driver is suggested. Check your zip code for availability here.
Walmart+ In Home
Walmart
$19.95
A favorite of The Kitchn readers,
Walmart+’s online grocery deliveryis a hard-to-beat option (especially as the retailer reports you can save 90-plus hours and $1,300 a year by using the service). Along with the competitive pricing and selection you’d expect from this powerhouse retailer, Walmart+ does one better and offers
InHome,a service where deliveries can be made straight to your fridge. So your almond milk won’t have to hang out on your porch for too long if you’re not home while the delivery is dropped off. If this, too, sounds like a delightful future, note that InHome is an additional flat fee of $7/month or $40/year to Plus Up to your Walmart+ membership.
Price: Membership is $98 annually (or $12.95 monthly).
Shipping cost: Free delivery with no order minimums.
Delivery area: Available in all U.S. states and territories.
Hungryroot
Hungryroot
$65
Ever wish your fridge just magically filled itself with fun and exciting products that are tailor-made to your preferences and dietary requirements each week? And wouldn’t it be great if that same service handpicked items that will also help you get dinner on the table lightning fast? Hungryroot is essentially the Fairy Godmother of Groceries, as the service does just that. A personalized grocery delivery service, Hungryroot will take your dietary considerations, personal preferences, and desired quantity, and pack it all into a fridge-filling, convenient weekly delivery of groceries like fresh-cut produce, meats, and pantry staples. The most magical aspect of the service has to be that each box is packed with ingredients and products that match with the easy, fast, chef-crafted recipes Hungryroot includes in each box.
Price: Plans start at $69 per week.Shipping cost: Shipping is free for orders over $70; otherwise a $6.99 fee
Delivery area: Available in the 48 contiguous states.
Boxed
Boxed
Love a bulk-buying giant but perhaps don’t want to make the trek or deal with lines and pesky membership fees? Boxed is an excellent bulk shopping alternative that doesn’t require a warehouse membership for its most basic program. Boxed carries many nationally known brands, as well as its own private label, and its selection rivals that of traditional grocers with essentials like frozen meats, pet supplies, and cleaning products.
Price: No subscription necessary; orders must be at least $29 to be able to checkout.
Shipping Cost: Free delivery for orders over $75; orders between $29 and $75 will have a flat $7.99 shipping fee. Additional fees for some oversized or heavy size items.
Delivery Area: Available in the 48 contiguous U.S.
How I Rated the Online Grocers
Shopping experience: Is it easy to search for items? Is the selection wide-ranging (so you can make fewer stops at other stores)? Perhaps the retailer offers helpful recipe inspiration or weekly deals? Is the customer service attentive and helpful? Bonus points if grocery shopping on the site becomes an ultra-delightful task, rather than merely a chore.
Service locations: I opted for online grocers who are available for delivery in at least the 48 continental states. Also, please note this is a list of online grocery retailers, rather than delivery services for grocers, like Instacart, Shipt, and FreshDirect.
Cost and quality: Some shoppers value cheapness as the most important quality in their shop, while others value ingredient quality or a wide selection of items. Ideally, we’re looking for a nice mix of all three.
Don’t see your favorite online grocer on the list? Tell us about it in the comments below.
Further Reading
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