Well, I broke down last night and ordered a grocery delivery from Walmart. You place your order online (I clicked on "no substitutions"), see what delivery times are open, select one and provide aa credit card. I made a pretty big list online (this was around 3 a.m. because I was wide awake) and arranged for it to be delivered today between 1 and 2 p.m. They charge you $9.95 for the shopping AND the delivery, and that includes bringing it into your house!
At 1:33 p.m. today, I got an email from Walmart saying my order was on the way with an ETA of 1:48 p.m. and they gave me the delivery person's full name and the year, make and model of her car. It also listed 9 items that were out of stock and for which I wasn't charged as I'd clicked on no substitutions though you could select whether or not you would except a substitution for each product if you wanted. A very sweet lady showed up at exactly 1:45 p.m. and carried all the bags of groceries (it was a $300 order) into our kitchen. She was sweet as pie, very kind and a pleasure to deal with (great smile and good sense of humor, too). When she pulled up, Brian moved our car from in front of the house so she could back up and park right in front. She thanked him profusely for doing so. He tipped her $10 when she left and she seemed more than pleased. She said she was grateful she didn't have to bring all those groceries up any stairs, which happens sometimes when she delivers to an apartment!
When I clicked on Walmart's email, I saw where you could leave a tip for the driver after delivery if you wanted and they would just put it on your charge card. Good to know in case one doesn't have any cash handy when a delivery comes. We will definitely be using the service again; we were howling as we unpacked all the groceries as Brian said he'd have paid someone $10 just to bring it all up our four front steps and into the kitchen, much less do all the shopping for us! They save your orders online, too, so you can just click to add all the items from a prior order to your current order and then delete what you don't want and add any new items, a good time saver.
If anyone wants to try it if your local store offers delivery, let me know. I can send you a link which saves you $10 (full disclosure: I would get a $10 credit off my next order too). I think a good portion of their stores will now shop for you and have it ready for pickup and I think that is available at no charge. You just set the time you want to pick it up and they load it into your car.
I hadn't been in a Walmart since late 2005 but went by a couple of weeks ago with Brian who had a paper Rx for a very expensive drug. We did some research on the computer and with a GoodRx coupon, Walmart was the cheapest place at $179 and would order it for us (lots of places didn't stock it or wouldn't order it and the ones that would wanted about $250 or more to fill it). We just walked to the pharmacy area and left but on the way out, I checked out the produce section and it was not only much larger and nicer than it was years ago but they had a lot of really nice looking produce and a much larger selection than they used to carry years ago. That's what made me decide to try out their delivery service.
After the items were delivered, I got an email with a receipt which I simply read over after I put everything away and there was only one mistake. I ordered three 6-packs of Carnation Breakfast Essentials (Brian is underweight and so he drinks one or two of these a day to supplement his diet and they're chock full of vitamins and protein, too) and only two were delivered. You just call the Customer Care number on the receipt, give them your order number, tell them the problem and they credited my charge card. A totally pleasant experience and we will surely be doing it again.
Our local store Rouse's we shop at also offers delivery by two services, one for a flat price and one by paying an annual subscription for many deliveries. But the items they offered for sale online were substantially higher in price than the store sells them for so I decided against it unless we REALLY had to resort to that. We might have to pay more one day but I found Wal-Mart's prices pretty reasonable, and $10 for shopping, delivery and hauling into your kitchen was a bargain! I got a couple pounds of ground round and a pack of pork chops, too, which ended up being cheaper than the quoted price online as, of course, they're sold by weight in the store. The shopper picked out beautiful pork chops anf ground meat, too!
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