Grocery Shopping on Amazon

Amazon has a grocery section with which you may be unfamiliar. I checked it out and was cautiously impressed with what I found. Obviously the products are non-perishables so you can’t do all your shopping there but, with a little effort and organization, you may find that you can save money on a lot of items you regularly buy. The majority of the items at which I looked were sold in bulk lots. In order to make this work, and not just be another place to spend money, you have to know what things cost in your area and you have to shop off of a list. There are a lot of items on Amazon’s grocery site and you can waste a lot of time if you just randomly browse, as opposed to looking for specific things. If you are randomly browsing you are also much more likely to buy things you don’t really need. In addition to regularly priced items, they have lot of mark downs. Most of the grocery items are available for Amazon's free shipping program.

Amazon also has a free subscription service where you can place your order for something and then sign up to have it automatically shipped to you every 1, 2, 3 or 6 months and save an additional 15% off the already lowered price. The subscription service is free. Once you set up your subscription, it appears you can go back in at any time and ask to delay the next shipment if it looks like you are not yet ready for it. I signed up for two items on the subscription service, one of which ended up being $4 per item less than I pay for it locally! The case I bought saved me $48 on an item I use daily. I signed up to have a case delivered every six months. I have marked it on my calendar and I’m going to monitor my usage and see if I really need another case every six months. I’ll put off the delivery if I’m not yet ready.

They also have a service where you can receive an e-mail when an item becomes available on their service. I eat Bob’s Red Mill thick-cut oats for breakfast every morning and felt like oatmeal really lent itself to this sort of service. They don’t carry it yet but I signed up for the e-mail alert service.

I also purchased some of my regular toiletry items at a much reduced price but did not opt to use their subscription service for these items as I am much more likely to change products in this area.

I have received the first shipment of my two subscription items. We’ll see how it goes but I am excited about this avenue of grocery savings.

I shop with a grocery budget so I will be doing some six-month cost averaging with these expenses.

I am struggling with the various eco-aspects of this type of shopping. On the one hand, buying things online and having them delivered means I’m not driving my car to the grocery store as often, which saves gas for me. On the other hand, UPS is delivering my purchases to me and their trucks certainly get worse gas mileage than I do. On the other hand, some big truck is delivering whatever I buy locally to my grocery store. On the other hand, I like to shop locally and support my local economy. On the other hand, my grocery store is not a little mom-and-pop type operation but a big chain, although obviously local people work there. On the other hand, grocery prices are VERY HIGH where I live and I have to look out for my own bottom line. YIKES!! What to do? An another note, because I live in a very small town in a rural area, selection is limited and grocery shopping on Amazon is a good way to find things that are not otherwise available to me.

Let me know if you are using Amazon’s grocery service and how it’s going for you!