This service could be good or bad depending on your needs
Written: Jun 07 '06
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The concept behind this service is a great one. The execution in some respects, however, is a bit inconsistent. The answer to whether or not you should use them probably depends on what kinds of things you plan on purchasing on Peapod.
Delivery & order accuracy:
I've placed a couple dozen orders with Peapod in the past year and a half and, so far, they have always delivered during the time frame they said they would. The accuracy of the order has also been wonderful. The delivery drivers always seem to be in a big rush, though. Once they drop the bags down on your kitchen table, they're outta there. This doesn't give one much time to at least spot check the order. At the same time, I've never seen them deliver the wrong product. Prices are generally the same as you would find in the store. You are charged a delivery fee whose amount depends on how much you spend. There's a $50 minimum order and you can save a few bucks on delivery fees if your order goes over $100. You aren't charged for out-of-stock products.
Food quality:
I had one pretty bad experience where they delivered three products that had all passed the printed expiration date on the package. However, when I called the up their customer service number, they asked no questions and promptly credited me for all of the expired items. They didn't ask for the product or at least the packaging as proof. They have not delivered any expired packaged items since.
If you like to order fresh fruits and vegetables, you need to pay close attention to what they give you. They've never delivered fruits or vegetables that were actually bad, but they have delivered some fruits & vegetables that went bad just a day or two after the delivery. This happens in about 15-20% of the cases. The rest of the time, the produce they deliver lasts an acceptable amount of time.
Selection:
The whole reason I started shopping at Peapod is because I saw Peapod trucks in the parking lot of my local grocery store and figured that they must do their shopping at the store and then deliver them. Makes sense, right? This is actually not the case, and if you look carefully enough on the web site, they say that the food comes from a separate inventory and not the store itself. So, how does this affect the service?
First, they have the tendency to deliver items that are closer to their expiration date than items you would find in the store. I'm guessing that if a lot of customers don't order a particular product on Peapod, then the product sits around the warehouse and you could be the unlucky one to order the product that happens to expire next week.
Second, the selection isn't nearly as good. This is a complete guess, but I'd estimate that my local Peapod carries anywhere from 35-45% of what the local store carries. If you like making recipes and need to find a particular spice for instance, you probably won't find it on Peapod unless it's very common. If you are picky about the specific brands you buy, Peapod might disappoint you because they sometimes carry a limited number of brands online, even though the local store carries much more. Even if they carry your brand online and you actually order it, they might substitute something else for it if the brand you wanted was out of stock.
If you don't order mainstream products, you stand a greater chance of an item being out of stock. For instance, my local Peapod hasn't carried whole wheat bread for the past 2 deliveries, but they always deliver the white bread. I've noticed that the healthier products are frequently out of stock, probably because few people want them.
One section of their web site allows you to place your request for particular products to be carried by Peapod in the future. So far, I've requested only a couple products and they haven't added either of them. I request one of the products every time I place an order.
Out of Stock Items:
I find that out-of-stock products are the most problematic part of this service because out-of-stocks happen too frequently considering the already limited size of their inventory. The way I see it is this: if I have to get in my car and drive down to the local store to pick up an item that wasn't in stock on Peapod, then as far as I'm concerned, Peapod has failed their mission. I realize that some people don't view it this way, though. If this doesn't bother you then you may be a good candidate for using this service.
When an item is out-of-stock, you have the choice of whether you want them to substitute the item with a similar one, in accordance with their substitution policy. However, that doesn't mean that they will always do the substitution. Two deliveries ago, my order had 4 out-of-stock items, 2 of which were supposed to have substitutions but they never delivered any of the substitutions. I wound up driving to the store to pick up 4 items. While they don't charge you for out-of-stock items, Peapod doesn't really have much incentive at the moment to reduce the number of out-of-stock items in the future. If they subtracted a dollar from your order for each out-of-stock item, I'm pretty sure this out-of-stock item phenomenon would probably disappear pretty quickly. I usually order about $75-$100 worth of items per order and the running average of out-of-stocks items is about 3-4 items per order for me.
Overall:
The general business concept of delivering food to your home to make grocery shopping more convenient is a good one, and there is great potential for this service to be outstanding. Right now, it has some logistical issues that might be a problem depending on what kind of products you usually buy. If you order mostly "normal" products (soda, steaks, rolls, paper towels, produce, TV dinners, etc.) and aren't too picky about brands, then this might be worthwhile. If you need a lot of specialty items, organics, cooking spices, new products, health foods, international foods, or anything that a typical household wouldn't order on a regular basis, then you'll probably be disappointed. If you do encounter any problems, I've found their customer service to be very helpful. They usually deliver when they say they're going to deliver.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Typical grocery store items
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Epinions.com ID:
cjp75
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Reviews written: 7
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