Grocery delivery memberships range from $60 to $200+ a year in Boston. Below are some of the services available in the city -- by price.
Service | Yearly |
Thrive | $60 |
Mercato Green | $96 - $228 |
Walmart | $98 |
Instacart | $99 |
Shipt | $99 |
Shaw's (FreshPass) | $99 |
Star Market (FreshPass) | $99 |
Amazon Fresh | $83.88 - $139 |
Whole Foods | $83.88 - $139 |
Prices may change at any time. Last updated 3/25/24
Are There Grocery Delivery Services That Do Not Require Memberships?
Yes! If you're not a regular shopper, or simply aren't interested in the perks that come with being a member, the following companies offer the ability to pay per order.
UberEats
Task Rabbit
Roche Brothers
Stop & Shop (previously PeaPod)
Walmart
Are Grocery Delivery Services More Expensive Than In-Store Shopping?
Sometimes. Shipt says its customers spend $5 more on a $35 delivery. According to Shipt the added cost covers "picking, packing, and processing." For example, "a loaf of [bread] costs $2.29 in the store and $2.59 to have it delivered."
Can You Set Up Weekly Recurring Groceries?
Yes! Having a recurring schedule of groceries can help you manage your in-home inventory. For example, if you regularly run out of tea, you can add it to your recurring order at the frequency you need. This serves as a modern-day shopping list. Shipt calls it "Weekly Delivery, Thrive calls it "Autoship," and Amazon calls it "Repeat Items" and "Subscribe and Save."
Why Are There Order Minimums?
Grocery delivery requires many moving parts. To support the cost of this operation, most grocery delivery services require an order minimum. This means the smallest digital cart for the service to deliver to your home. This prevents the services from using a ton of resources to deliver one item, like a $7 jug of orange juice.
Other stores say it's more eco-friendly to have full orders on trips, versus one-off items.
How Much Time Does Grocery Delivery Save?
According to Mercato, they predict their customers save 100 hours per year. Here's the breakdown:
30 minutes traveling
5 minutes parking
43 minutes shopping
5 minutes for checkout
1.4 weekly trips
What Are The Downsides of Grocery Delivery?
The shoppers may not pick the best foods. For example, when you shop for fruits and veggies, you are browsing through the selection to find the best ones. Whereas a shopper may not care about bruised bananas, or a little mold on a jalapeño pepper. We've also received dented cans, barely filled sandwiches, and items that just seemed too close to their expiration date. A good delivery service will allow you to give feedback and even get a refund for damaged or subpar items.
Finally sometimes items are available in-store, but aren't available online. For example, we love a good salad bar, but you're not able to order a custom salad through grocery delivery. Also we've seen pancake mix in-store, but it wasn't available online.
Is Grocery Delivery Worth It?
It's super helpful for certain life situations. As a mom with small children the 10% - 20% increase on our grocery bill is minuscule compared to the extra hand it brings to our family.
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