The Peapod man is here!
Written: Nov 30 '00 (Updated Jul 20 '05)
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I started using Peapod when I got a $20 certificate for a grocery delivery service in the mail - 10 minutes later I was online spent $130 and had someone deliver it to my house the next day - what a pleasure it was not having to carry the 20 or so bags of groceries from my car into my house.
I live on Long Island and the two closest stores to me are Pathmark which is always crowded and dirty and on numerous occasions I have been stuck with food that has already molded over and the GU Fresh Market which is basically a smaller Grand Union in an upper crust town and I have had the same quality products, moldy, outdated and not very satisfied. I have tried another delivery service, Colorado Prime, which sells you groceries as well as meats and if you want to rent a freezer from them (for a mere $3000) you can - I used them for a year and cancelled because the quality of the meats was terrible. So for a couple of years now I have avoided using Peapod.
I have several friends who have used Peapod and have been happy with their service so when the $20 certificate came in the mail this past Saturday, I jumped at the chance and got online right away. There is a $5.95 delivery charge which is not too bad since someone else is doing the shopping for me and bringing it to my door. I always tip the delivery person an extra couple of dollars.
On Long Island, Peapod uses the Stop & Shop Supermarkets to get their food (which took over Edwards). So depending on where you live, the quality of the food/products could be different.
I figured a good test would be to order fresh fruits/veges, meats and dairy products and frozen food, as well as my regular grocery store items. They have coupons offered on their site for various items and they also let you know when the item is on sale by putting a red flag next to the price. You can also use regular grocery store coupons which come in the circulars in the papers on the weekends. Previously these coupons were applied as a credit toward your next purchase. Now (2005), if you pay by credit card, they coupon amount is deducted before your credit card is charged.
I ordered a total of 60 items, and was having an attended delivery, which basically means I'll be home to accept the delivery. I allowed substitutions (because they state they will not substitute with a different flavored product). In my whole order my Sunny Delight Citrus Punch (8 pak) was substituted with the Sunny D. Citrus Juice (8 pak) and a 2% lowfat milk cheese product was out of stock. The eggs I ordered were wrapped carefully in a heavy duty paper bag and carried to my door separately from other groceries. The frozen foods were still frozen - none had defrosted even a little as they do when I wait on the checkout line at the supermarket. I ordered 85% lean hamburger patties which were good and also perdue boneless/skinless chicken breasts which were also good. I also ordered cereal, ricotta and Kraft Cheese slices. Basically my whole order was good - the fruits and vegetables were fresh and tasted good considering it's not always fruit seasons, the seedless green grapes, a bag of red delicious apples, grapefruit, pears and bananas were all of good quality and not bruised. I also ordered fresh baked Italian Bread from their bakery, which was delicious.
I look forward to my next delivery from Peapod, as I will be using them to order items for Christmas Eve.
If you choose to have an unattended delivery you must make sure you return the plastic bins to the driver on your next delivery, otherwise you'll get charged $5.00 per bin.
At Peapod, if you select a morning delivery time, you can change your order up to 4:00pm the day before your delivery. If you have an afternoon delivery time, you can change your order up to 11:00 pm the night before your delivery. You select a 2 hour time frame to have your groceries delivered or a 3 1/2 hour time period which entitles you to $1.00 off your delivery charge for selecting that time. I spent about $80 less using Peapod because I didn't do any of the impulse buying I normally would have - we don't have extra bags of candy, cookies and unwanted chips lying around the house and I didn't buy the ice cream I normally would have - so if your dieting, which I am, this was a big plus.
After contacting customer service, I found out that the way they keep the frozen foods frozen is by using dry ice. In one my more recent orders, placed 4/2005 I had 2 broken eggs in the dozen I bought and the ice cream I bought (Starbucks) was melted - I contacted Customer Service and a credit for the 2 eggs and the ice cream was posted to my account within 3 days of my order. They were very apologetic and were going to look into the reason why the ice cream melted.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? fruit, veges, meat, regular grocery items.
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Epinions.com ID:
nortos
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Susan
Location: Hempstead, NY
Reviews written: 77
Trusted by: 171 members
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