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Bulk Grocery Shopping and Amazon's Subscribe and Save – HollyS?
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Let’s talk grocery shopping. I buy online a few items sometimes at Target and Walmart. We recently got a Sam’s Club card to order online once a month and my husband goes to pick it up – thanks to a blog post by pianogirl363:
https://wheremytreasureis.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/once-a-month-shopping/
But Sam’s doesn’t have everything. I am looking at Amazon’s Subscribe and Save and I wonder how this works. What if you don’t really need something yet that you have scheduled? Do all of the items in the month ship on the same date? We are not Prime members and I don’t want to pay more for shipping. What about getting the best price? Do the prices change and are you locked into the best price? What items do you order here? Thanks. I was thinking I read somewhere on here that HollyS uses this, so please share what you like with it.
Is there anywhere else where you buy bulk and save and not have to go shop at the store? We also buy from Vitacost online once or twice a year.
We have Amazon Prime, but I haven’t bought many grocery items from there. We mostly buy books, printer ink, birthday/Christmas gifts, or basic household items. I’ve been meaning to look into buying some grocery items in there…our local stores are really expensive. We are getting a Costco, but it’s almost an hour away (and by the time I load kids into the car, we don’t have room for many groceries)! I don’t think it will work for us.
I have used Soap.com several times. I used to get Charlie’s Soap and Ecover laundry softener from there since it’s hard to find locally. They carry bath & beauty items, OTC medicines, and pantry items, and have a joint cart with a couple other websites…I think one is pet items and another has baby items.
We have Amazon Prime, and I use S&S every month (our shipment just came in yesterday, actually!)
In yesterday’s shipment, we had some toiletries, Pull-Ups, vitamins, granola bars, and kids’ Ibuprofen. Next month, according to the schedule, are more vitamins, taco seasoning, and a few toiletries. I’m sure it will change as the month goes on.
Pros:
-ships for free
-when you look for the sales, you can find excellent deals
-you can change or delete items from your Subscribe and Save any time (up to three days before shipment). Even if you have only ordered an item once, you can delete it from your S&S.Cons:
-without shopping the sales, items tend to be more expensive than you would find at a bulk retailer
-if you don’t have five items in your S&S, the discount is only 5%, compared to 15%.
-your shipment comes only once a month, so if you run out of something before then, you’ll either have to wait until the next shipment or pay full price by ordering immediately.I fine-tune my purchase each month to make sure I am getting what we need when we need it, and that the price of the item is reasonable. I do use it a lot for toilet paper, shampoo, body wash, diapers/Pull-Ups, and on-the-go snacks. I do shop the sales, though, and delete a subscription if the price goes back up after my first shipment.
Hope that helps!
We are Prime members, but haven’t used the Sub & Save plan — it really seems that I get better prices from Walmart.com or by just going to Walmart (15 minutes away). Even the Prime Pantry doesn’t seem to be worth it to me (items seem more expensive and then the $5.99 shipping per box and the having to fill a box before it will ship).
In an effort to save money, I have started using Walmart.com a lot more – free shipping on orders $50 or more. So, for items that are the same price at our local store, it works out quite well. Not everything is the same price, though, so I do make sure I check before ordering.
I order from Vitacost about 5-6 times per year — the Coconut Oil (on sale) and the apple cider vinegar are cheaper than what I can get around here.
I am a big fan of putting items on my list at whatever website (or on Amazon’s wish list – Walmart and Vitacost both have a “list”) and that way, I can make sure the prices haven’t changed and order things I use to get up to the free shipping threshold.
(I haven’t used Vitacost’s Sub&Save program yet, either — I guess I should and then just manipulate it as needed to maximize the savings.)
jawgee, how do you shop the sales? Is that the coupons on there? Is there a good day to check for good prices? It sounds like your prices are not locked in and can fluctuate, right?
Yes, the prices can fluctuate month-to-month.
My favorite place to check for sales is http://www.slickdeals.net, but there are many others. Whenever I see something that we can use at a good price, I add it to that month’s subscription. If the price raises the next time around, I delete it from my subscription.
There was a coupon in our Sunday paper for jet.com, so I plan to use that to buy some stuff there. I’ve never bought from jet.com before, but on somethings, the prices were the same as Walmart.com.
Okay, I ordered from jet.com — and feel like I got a really good deal. There were several items that were the same price as Walmart or a bit cheaper (Palmolive dish soap, Snyder’s gluten free pretzels, Tinkyada pasta, Suave detangler, and coffee filters). Jet.com’s toilet paper was a little more expensive, but I figured it was saving me a trip and getting me to the $35 level to get free shipping, and I used a coupon code to get $15 off my first order — so it really worked out well.
I don’t know if I’ll use them again – there were some bad comments about shipping and customer service – but I figured that for the savings, it was worth a try.
I also did try a Sub&Save at Amazon – I do plan to cancel it after I receive the products…..I made the delivery setting for 6 month intervals so I would have enough time to cancel it.
My Jet.com order came today! One big purple box- pretty neat looking. Everything was very well packaged. The dish soap was in it’s own bag; the detangler in it’s own bag; the pasta in it’s own bag; the pretzels in their own bag. I was very pleased with the whole box.
I would consider shopping there again, depending on prices and what I need.
Thank you Karen. I checked the jet.com website briefly and will probably try them sometime. I also tried a S & S with Target. Thanks jawgee and HollyS. Thank you all for sharing.
I just ordered from Jet.com for the first time and saved 20% to the maximum $50, plus there are extra savings on many items. I did some Christmas shopping. I saved $90. I paid $210 for what would have cost me $300 or so at Amazon. I got some books, toys, dvds, and a few food items. I got a few toys to use for birthdays because of the savings, but mostly for Christmas. I am almost done Christmas shopping now!
I liked the savings, but I did not like how you could not see an itemized cost until the end when you print out the order you just placed. Otherwise, I do see a total savings and total cost, but it would be nice to see each item to compare. I do know the price at the time I added it, but can’t see the final price of each item in the cart. Also, there are no reviews or save for later areas in the cart like there is on Amazon. I did not see a S & S, but I might have just missed it since I did not buy much household items this time. I am cuious about my order since it will be coming in parts from seven different retailers, which you do not see until after the order has been placed.
I don’t remember seeing a Subscribe & Save at jet.com, either.
And I was also irritated that I couldn’t save things to a wish list of some type. That is one feature I use alot at Walmart.com and Amazon. I like knowing what items I use a lot so that if I need to pad my order, I’m at least buying things we need and use, not unnecessary things.
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