hi friendssssss. i have a secret to share.
i don't think i've been to a grocery store for a full on grocery shop experience in…. months. MONTHS. isn't that crazy??
sure i've been to the grocery store to pick up a couple things that i need off hand, but i haven't spent more than ten minutes in a grocery store at a time in MONTHS!
here's why: i discovered freshdirect.
(just so we're clear. this is NOT a sponsored post, but ALL of the links to freshdirect (affiliate link!) are referral links. if you use my link you'll get $50 off your first two orders, for a total of $100 off & i will receive a $25 credit. thank you for supporting the Pike Place Kitchen and helping keep it up & running!)
with freshdirect i order my groceries ONLINE. and it's wonderful.
basically, it works like any normal online shopping experience. you browse and choose what you want and put it all in your cart. at the end you pick a specific time slot for delivery. a time that you know you'll be home. and that's it! you're done. now you just wait! how fun.
and now i'll tell you why i love it
1) they package all my groceries up and DELIVER THEM TO ME. duh. the convenience factor alone is worth it to me. also, avoiding listening to frankie complain and whine about having to get up and go grocery shopping is getting really old (but i need him with me to help carry them). i think the time/convenience factor is the biggest reason i love freshdirect (affiliate link!). also the delivery time slots have been super accurate. the deliveries are always prompt for me. oh and also, the turnaround time is SO FAST. if you order by 6pm on Monday you can have your groceries delivered anytime Tuesday. order by 11:58pm on Monday and you can get them anytime after 2pm on Tuesday.
2) we haven't had a bad experience yet in terms of quality!! (i wouldn't be writing a whole post about it if we had) this was the biggest worry that i had and the reason i waited so long to bite the bullet. i wish i hadn't waited because i had nothing to worry about. i thought i was going to miss the experience and the ability to pick and choose which ingredients are the best… but i don't. at all. it's sort of refreshing because it takes the guess work out of it. i don't have to wonder if i should have gotten that other pineapple. ?
3) HEALTH. i've got to say, when i'm ordering my groceries online, i'm not searching for unhealthy items. my boxes are always filled with fresh produce/meat/necessities. it's easier to avoid that pull to buy something “off plan” if you're not surrounded by the smells and the glitz/glamour of it all. it creates this atmosphere of “okay ash, if you REALLY want that cookie you have to get up and go to the grocery store to buy it. is it really worth that effort?” (tbh, the answer is usually yes because i'll beg frankie to go get it. but i DEFINITELY give it more thought before asking ?)
4) money. this one really surprised me. but ALL of my orders, even with the delivery fee ($5.99) and optional tip have been under $100. To be fair, i had a discount code for my first few. but even the order i placed last week fell under $100. i chalk this one up to two things. first, being able to see my options and easily decide if a sale will help or hurt me. and second, having a running total! the cart at the top of the website tells you what you're at so far every time you add something to it. at the end, if you feel like you've spent too much it's easy to make changes to the quantity or remove the items all together. plus i'm not spending money on a bunch of crap that always is super expensive (chips, cookies, etc.)
5) variety! i haven't had an issue finding, really, ANY of the items i wanted to have. there are several options in terms of quality for most things – i.e. organic vs. raised without antibiotics, etc. (also, i've found i'm more likely to buy organic/better quality when i'm shopping online… go figure!)
6) meal planning is SO easy when you have the recipe open in one tab and the grocery store open in another. just sayin. it's a game changer.
ps. Cassie i'll let you know what i think of this chocolate popcorn after i try it out!
7) whole30 peeps! i love love love the ingredients feature. it makes it easy to check what the ingredients are in the products they sell to determine if it's whole30 compliant or not. and alsooooo it takes away that temptation being in the grocery store brings.
8) there's a “reorder” feature and you can always go back into your past orders to buy products you've purchased previously without struggling to remember what you had! so simple.
9) a huge bonus here is that it keeps frankie happy. which sounds like a crazy reason to order groceries online, BUT let's just go with it. he does so much for me and i know he hates taking 2 hours out on a sunday to go to the grocery store and deal with all the people and then carry them all back (the groceries… not the people. we don't carry people from the grocery store home). i'm not crazy about grocery shopping in manhattan either so this seems like the best solution for all of us.
10) BEST IF USED BY DATES. ugh thank goodness. they clearly mark the guaranteed fresh dates for fruit, vegetables, flowers, meat, fish, dairy goods, etc. and the dates are timed from DELIVERY. it takes the guess work out for me. so if i buy something and it says it would be fresh within 3 days, if i try to use it and it's not good i can get my money back!
now that i've told you all the reasons i loveeeee freshdirect. let's chat about their delivery areas. they're currently only located in a few states, but you never know when they'll expand – i really encourage you to check i out every once in a while if they're not in your area already! here's their websites list of current delivery proximity:
- New York: Brooklyn, The Bronx, Manhattan, Nassau, Queens, Rockland, Staten Island, Suffolk, Westchester
- New Jersey: Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Union
- Connecticut: Fairfield
- Pennsylvania: Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Philadelphia
- Delaware: New Castle
- Jersey Shore (summer only)
- Hamptons (summer only)
anywho. thanks listening and i hope you check it out! clearly, i'm obsessed…
plus… my fridge has never looked so good ?
