Why Aren’t You Ordering Your Groceries Online!?

Friends, on Saturday I went to Hy-Vee and spent $200, but I never even went inside!  I spent 5 minutes in the parking lot and went home with a trunk crammed full of groceries. Yes indeed, I ordered my groceries through Hy-Vee’s Aisles Online program. The only regret I have is that I did not know about this service sooner!

If you order at least $100 worth of items, the Aisles Online service is completely free.  And if you’re lucky enough to live within their delivery radius, they will even bring your groceries to you for free!

Here’s a quick rundown on how it works:

1. Login to your Hy-Vee account. If you don’t have one, you can register for free.
2. From the Aisles Online homepage, you can either browse items from the category menu at the top, or use the search box to find the items on your list.  I love using the “Search for multiple items” tool in the search box to quickly enter my entire grocery list.
3. As you add items to your cart, you also have the option to add them to your favorites list to make future orders easier and faster. You can also create multiple lists, which is a great tool for meal planning. 
4. You can click the cart icon in the upper right at any time to see a total that includes estimated tax and fuel saver earnings. You can specify whether you want your personal shopper to make substitutions if something you order is not available.  Your total may change a bit depending on actual weight of meats and produce as well.
5. You can also load digital coupons into your account from the Hy-Vee coupons page, and those will be applied to your order. Store coupons that are in the paper circular ad will also be applied.
6. Once you checkout with your credit card and specify the day and time that you would like to pick up or have your groceries delivered, you will receive an order confirmation email.
7. When your order is ready (My orders have been ready on time every time), you will get a notification email.
8. If you are picking up your order, you park in a designated parking space, call the phone number on the sign at the parking space, and a Hy-Vee employee brings your groceries to you!

I really, really love this service.  It’s so much nicer to do my grocery shopping from home. The interface of the online shopping system is very easy to use and if you do have questions, there’s a very comprehensive FAQ, as well as a live chat. Here are the pros and cons I see from using the program:

Pros:

• I can more easily compare prices between similar items. For example, if I search for peanut butter, I see everything peanut butter related on one screen.  However, if I was in the store, I’d have to look at the “regular” peanut butter section, and then go way over to the natural food section to look at the organic peanut butters.
• I don’t have to “double back” for items I missed as I would have to in the store.
• I also don’t have to haul my kids through the store with me. That alone is worth so much!
• No impulse buys.  I use a grocery list app on my phone to keep track of what we need. When I place my order, I go straight from the list.
• All the pros above culminate into lots of time savings!
• I save money. Being able to look at digital coupons and the circular coupons online helps me maximize savings.  I don’t want to mess with trying to keep track of all that while I’m on the move in the store.

Cons:

• You can’t use paper coupons from Sunday ads
• You can’t use reusable bags.
• Some items aren’t available, but not many that I’ve found.  Most notable – green chilies and some types of frozen vegetables.
• Sometimes meat measurements vary from what you order. For example, this week I ordered a 5lb roast, but I recieved a 7lb roast.

So, for me, the pros outweigh the cons by a long shot! I did try out the online shopping option for our other local grocery store, but I found it very cumbersome to use, and it is not free. HyVee’s Aisles Online program is my new favorite thing for the new year – I highly recommend!

Disclosure: I did not receive any compensation of any kind for this post.  I just really like this service and wanted to share!

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