HyVee Wins the Back At Home Faster Award!

     Why are we tempted to drive thru for dinner? Meal planning takes time. Just grocery shopping alone consumes over 250 hours a year. Preparing and cooking a meal is not very complicated once everything you need is on hand and ready to go.  How do you think Rachel Ray whips up those delicious meals in less than thirty minutes? Someone else went grocery shopping for her!

     The next best thing to having a personal shopper is shopping online and either picking it up or having it delivered. When I first investigated online grocery shopping several years ago, it was cumbersome and I quickly gave up on it. But with advances in web designs and online databases I thought I would give it another try. Here is my review of some of the online services available today.

Price Chopper has a great online site linked to your price chopper shopping card for planning your trip to the grocery store. It lacks however in online order options.  Online ordering is limited to specialty packages from the deli and bakery including game day catering and signature pies. What it lacks in actual ordering and pick up options it makes up for in planning tools. You can make  a personal online shopping list divided into store departments for easy shopping when you get there. You build a list before you go and print it out as well as save it for future use. There is a section with recipes ideas. Choose the recipes you like and save them to your personal recipe box and easily transfer the ingredients to your shopping list. Quick links include their weekly ad, shopping list, my rewards (with your fuel rewards and how much you spent at each visit- if you used your card), recipes, and a Kids Club. My Coupons is a nice savings funcntion that let's you browse and clip online coupons and then print them out before you go. No more drawers of expired coupons to clear out during spring cleaning!

Amazon.com has a grocery and gourmet section on line. The site offers an easy to use database; type in what you are looking for in the site's search engine or following the links down the left hand side. Many items come in bulk quantities such as packs of 4, 6, or 12. However if you look hard enough you can find single items at reasonable prices. For example, Iberia Frijoles come in a 12 ounce bag for $1.25. Most items are eligible for free shipping if your spend enough or using your prime amazon free express shipping upgrades (a prime membership costs $79/yr). Be aware of special shipping alerts. I have seen special alerts that include additional processing days to ship, extra shipping, as well as subscription requirements on bulk items. You can opt out of subscriptions but you must do that before you put it in your cart. Don't let that scare you, I only saw a few of those on certain gourmet items.  Subscribe and save approximately 15% on reqular automatic delivers of items you use regularly or choose one-time delivery options. Pricing seems to be very reasonable on many items but check the price before you put it in your cart. Some items seemed over priced but remember you are buying in bulk. Figure out a per item cost and decide if it's reasonable. You can order just about anything except fresh produce and meats. All items will be delivered to your front door at little or no additional cost!

 HyVee: "Whether you order your groceries on your computer at work or from your car on your way home, you can order up to seven days in advance, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for one low fee. For $10.00  you can pick up your order at the store and for an additional $10.00 we will deliver them for you in the Kansas City Metro or Lawrence area." See their website for pickup and deliver hours. You must register with Hy-Vee to see their ordering site. Have your rewards card available when you register. Ordering is divided nice into "shopping aisles." You can point and click and enter coupon values as you shop. When you select an item nutritional facts pop up with a  picture of the item. A nice feature on the HyVee shopping page is My Order totals in the bottom left corner. The search engine is conveniently located just above the Shop Aisles list for specific items you are looking for. This is the best online shopping experience so far. The shopping experience was very user friendly, fast and informative. I could easily keep track of my totals, my shopping cart contents, and quickly got a visual of my item along with their nutritional information as I put them in my cart. There was clearly a lack of working extra functions such as a shopping list or recipe box. Although they do not deliver to my little rural town, it would be worth the $10 to swing by and pick up my order at my closest store,  freeing up more time to do fun things while we are in town.

I found Walmart's online grocery shopping clunky and inconventient. Let's order a can of Campbell's chicken noodle soup. Select to browse in the grocery department, then select canned goods and soups, enjoy several ads and featured categories, select soup from the side menu, click on the nice image of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup for $1.98. So far so good. ADD to cart. Pop up appears with entire pictorial list of cart and how much more you have to spend to qualify for free shipping. Then you can go to the cart and go down the list changing the quantities if you actually wanted to by more than one can of chicken noodle soup.  Change the quantity to 2 and click on update. Here you can continue shopping or proceed to checkout. Let's continue to shop. We add a can of Green Giant: Cut Spears Asparagus and go to our shopping cart. We can select to have our items shipped to our home or be picked up in the store but surpise! the items will arrive on seperate days. As with any other shopping experience at Walmart the only convenience is that you can order from any department. Go ahead, throw in a new shirt or DVD with your grocery order. Another major inconvenience is that fresh produce and meats are only available instores. You can not add them to your order even if you choose the pick up at store option. You can check the stores availability but you will have to run in and get the item yourself when you go to pick up the rest of your order.

Netgrocer.com is another national online grocery shopping venue with shop and ship functions. Again very limited on fresh produce and meats. However, well stocked on prepackaged (including some produce) and frozen entrees. The shopping tool was adequate. A drop down, expanding menu and a search tool above the main page provide fairly quick access to items. Pictures of items accompanied their description, price, price per oz, and an add to cart button. A quantity button was available on the right under the view cart when you add your item to the cart. However, you need to be quick to scroll over it or an ad pops up and blocks your

view of the cart. Your cart totals are always in view on the right-side of the top bar. You must order a minimum of $35 of frozen and seafood items to include them in your order. Orders are shipped by fedex in accordance wtih their regional rates based on the total of your order.

Stores in our area that did not offer online ordering: Dillions, Aldi, Hen House, Whole Foods (no midwest locatons), Country Mart.

     To get  your groceries and get back to home fast, I recommend online ordering through the HyVee online store and either picking it up at the store or spending the additional $10 to have it delivered to your front door. Use the price chopper shopping lists, recipes, and planning tools to help make your list and keep track of your grocery inventory. Once you have your list, log in to the HyVee store and place your order. You can't beat a personal grocery shopper for $10 even if you have to pick it up yourself. In the long run, this will save you hundreds of  hours of grocery shopping time that can be used at home preparing fun and healthy meals for your family.