The idea of ordering our entire meal plan online and having it all delivered at one time... Sign. Us. Up.
Here's more info about signing up, straight from Amazon.
Typically we have to run to at least two different stores to get everything for our meals. We do the bulk of our shopping at Aldi and then go to Wal Mart or our local grocery chain for any items we have left over or aren't typically available at Aldi (here's looking at you, tofu).
I sent Cor a dinner meal plan and he did all the ordering over his lunch break. Here's a few things about ordering you need to know.
Orders of 40$ or more ship for free (not a problem for us). Other orders ship for $9.99.
The service costs $14.99 a month for Prime members but is FREE for the first month.
There's a $25 off your first order of $100 or more coupon out there in the universe. Google "Amazon Fresh Coupon Code" to find one.
Cheapest items will NOT show up first. For example, when Cor searched for carrots, the first to show up were rather expensive. He scrolled right on down and found a less expensive option.
Check out the size of items. Crackers were buy one get one free. The photo made it look like a full sized box, but it was a smaller snack box on sale. Check the ounce size on items.
Keep an eye out on when items are (or are not) available. Honeycrisp apples would have delayed our order for a few days. Gala apples would allow it to be delivered the very next day.
Other than that, ordering on Amazon Fresh was just as easy as ordering on Amazon. There's even specialty sections like "Kid Snacks" and speciality diet sections like "Vegan" and "Gluten Free." And the best part, our order is saved and we can quickly and easily reorder an entire meal plan worth of ingredients to add or subtract from in the future. Oh. Em. Gee.
Our order was sent and scheduled for delivery the next day. Awesome.
Everything came nicely packed and iced via USPS right to my doorstep (no more lugging grocery bags up my exterior stairs!) The kids were thrilled. As was I. Watch us unboxing our order on YouTube.
The quality of items was great too. Our grapes looked nice. And I was pleasantly surprised by the freshness of our vegetables. They even took care to package bread on top and (while we didn't order eggs) I noticed an old "Take Care: Eggs Inside" sticker on one of our totes (Amazon recollects these and reuses them to cut down on waste.)
We got to work unpacking the 4 Amazon Fresh bags (they're huge). We put everything out on the kitchen table.
I really wish Amazon included a paper inventory sheet with each order. We were warned to go through our order because some people have had items missing. A paper inventory sheet just seems logical for someone packing groceries to literally check off as they go, but maybe they still do this electronically. Technology, yo.
Anyway, I pulled up our order and realized TEN items were missing. That's a lot. I almost felt like maybe the USPS guy missed a bag, but ours were labeled 4 out of 4.
Cor was at work so I sent him an email of what was missing and he contacted Amazon. Customer service was great. They got back to us same day and provided a refund plus an additional credit towards a future order.
But alas, the convenience of ordering online groceries was lost. Cor had to run to the store after work and get the things on the list. He then had to go back a second time when we missed something in the original check. In addition to an earlier quick trip for items that weren't available for next day delivery when we initially ordered. Additionally, some Amazon Sale items weren't included in our order. So we lost both time and money. Woooomp.
We get that this service is VERY new to our area and that there's probably a lot that they need to work out. We'll ride out our full month trial (3 more shops for us) and see how it goes (and let you know too!)
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