Well. I needed Kleenex Pocket Pack Kleenexes badly. So, I ordered them from Amazon! See below . . .

[progree]

59. I do as much shopping locally as I can, but with no car, I use Amazon plenty, and have used ShipT for groceries

Last edited Mon Jul 1, 2024, 10:39 PM - Edit history (1)

I put a very high premium on saving time. I can do drugstore and groceries within walking distance (9 - 11 minutes), and hardware (about 30 minutes).

I am desperately short on exercise, and for months about the only exercise I can force myself to do is walk about an hour to a different food store that is an hour's walk away (I take a bus home when I'm loaded down with a backpack full and 3-4 heavy bags of groceries, but still have to walk about 2/3 miles from busstop to home loaded down with groceries). So that's where I've done my grocery shopping lately. It also supports local businesses, one of my both selfish and altruistic goals.

I'm due for a grocery trip tomorrow, I hate, but the exercise and food are both imperative.

I used to use ShipT (very similar to Instacart) for groceries when I was sick (for months) and still have a few months left on the annual membership fee (they also have monthly membership). I'm quite satisfied with their service, and would love to have several heavy bags of groceries show up on my porch, but one shopper left the receipt in a bag and it showed I paid an average 16% markup. Plus I was tipping 15% so that totals about 31% more, which is enough to bother me. I also saved very little time if any other than transport time, and the saved transport time is a non-factor because the walk is needed exercise.

(Edited to add: well, waiting for the bus and the bus trip (for the return trip), though short, consumes about 18 minutes, and I would avoid that wasted non-exercise non-productive time by using ShipT, End Edit)

I haven't tried groceries from Target via ShipT. Target owns ShipT and supposedly charges no markup to the on-the-shelf Target prices, so may check that out sometime.

Whether from Target or elsewhere, ShipT doesn't charge a delivery fee for orders over $35. They make their money from the annual $99 membership fee (more if done on a per-month basis), and from marking up non-Target grocery prices.

Given transit limitations, and I can only walk so far, Amazon shopping fills the gap for a lot of non-grocery products, particularly hard-to-find ones.