Webvan delivers groceries, fresh produce, medicines, books, CDs and more to your home within a designated one hour "delivery window" , after you select them and pay for them online. The time of delivery can be selected by you.

I started using Webvan after our daughter was born. My wife and I both have very demanding full time jobs in the Silicon Valley area and we were hard pressed to squeeze out time to do the grocery shopping. So, we decided to try out Webvan.

The website was surprisingly easy to use and we went ahead and selected a lot of items into our shopping cart. We knew then that Webvan delivered groceries, but I was pleasantly surprised to the amount of variety that Webvan has. It even has ethnic food and groceries (a must in the Bay area!) The items are organized well and are easy to locate because of the nested menu based navigation system that Webvan provides.

The prices were a little bit on the higher side, but not extravagant. Very rarely, you will find a few items on sale, but don't count on it.

After choosing the items we had to select a delivery window before checking out. To our chagrin, we found that the earlier delivery window available was three days away. That was a little bit of a pain, because we had to go back and delete some of the stuff (like milk etc.) that we needed immediately and buy them at a quick convenience store nearby, on our way from work. Nothing wrong with that except that it defeats the purpose of ordering from Webvan. If I have to wait for three of four days, I might as well order from some Internet grocery store and wait for them to deliver.

The delivery was prompt and I was very satisfied with the quality of the products we received. If the ordered amount is more than $75, the delivery is free and that is a good thing.

Webvan does not accept coupons, so you will pay full price for most of the stuff. However, Webvan will continually give coupons to use for your next order (like $15 off $75 and so on) which are not bad.

One hidden benefit with Webvan is that it reduces the unnecessary expenditure in the form of impulsive shopping. I have seen a lot of people buying more than twice the amount of stuff they have on their list, because sometimes when you see something on the aisle, you have to buy it. Also, people add a lot of small things once they are standing at the checkout line. This kind of impulsive buying can be reduced through Webvan, as we would usually start with a list before using Webvan.

As I have mentioned before, right now, we are extremely busy and tired, so we find Webvan to be a blessing. But, will we continue to use it after our life becomes less hectic? I am not sure. If I have the time, I would rather spend an hour searching for a lower price than sitting at home watching some dumb sitcom and waiting for the webvan man. Also, if I have to go out anyway for other reasons like picking up a rental movie, for example, I might as well do some grocery shopping too and save money.

In conclusion, if you are extremely busy and cannot really allocate time for grocery shopping, go the Webvan way. Otherwise, stick to the neighborhood grocery store for the savings.

Recommended:
Yes