I tried out the Walmart Grocery Pickup this weekend and I’m officially in love! For years I’ve heard about grocery delivery services in other cities like New York and LA and longed for something like that here in the Atlanta area. But it was just a fantasy. Sure there is Schwan food service but it’s pretty pricey and the choices are limited.

Now there are meal delivery services like Blue Apron, Plated, and Hello Fresh but you only get dinner. With two kids and three nephews (all teens) who visit regularly, my grocery needs are extensive. But I hate grocery shopping. In fact I hate shopping, period. But that’s another story.

Walmart Grocery Pickup is Here!

So I saw the grocery pickup flags waving in front of my local Walmart and I almost lost my mind. I made a mental note to try it soon. This weekend was the test. I was a bit nervous to try it but I went online to Walmart’s site on Friday. Since I already have an account I logged in and connected my account to the grocery pickup section and started shopping.

The home page featured a few of my favorites. Hmmm. How did it know what my favs were? I can only assume it was from the receipts I scanned into the Savings Catcher app. Pretty clever and a little scary. But no matter I added the items I wanted from the suggestions and watched the running total begin.

 

I added more items using the category drop down menu and the search. I clicked the quantity button under the item if I needed more than one thing.

When I was done I could see the total amount. I switched a couple of things out and made adjustments until I was happy with the total.

Now it was time to book my pickup. When I clicked the button I went to a scheduling calendar. Drats!!! Same day pickup was not available (only if the order is made before 10am). I could only schedule for the next day or beyond. I scheduled for the time slot of 8-9 am the next morning.

 

There was a review page the let me check the list of items again as well as let me decide if I wanted substitutes in case the item I ordered wasn’t available. It is set to automatically substitute so I went through and unchecked items that I did not want substituted. The checkout was pretty painless. I entered my card information and clicked purchase.

I received an email confirming my order and instructions for pick up. I would receive a call 15 minutes before my scheduled pickup time and I should call 10 minutes before I arrived. I got the call 10 minutes before my pickup time to let me know they were running 30 minutes behind schedule. I waited almost an hour before I called them to get the status of my order. They said there was a couple of more items they had to pull but that I could come on.

When I arrived I followed the orange pick up signs to the side of the store. I parked in front of the reserved spaces. I was greeted by an attendant who was finishing up another customer. He introduced himself and shook my hand then said he would be right out with my order. He came out and confirmed my name again then went back inside. A few minutes later he and another attendant came out with two flat carts that had the blue food bins carrying my groceries.

Stanley, my attendant introduced himself and told me about a few substitutions they had for me. I approved of them all and he started loading my car. He gave me the fragile items and the produce (there were category labels on the bags) to put in the front seat and the rest went into the trunk. He was very conscientious with everything and made sure I was happy.

When I got home I got a call from the grocery pickup service. They forgot to give me one item I ordered; a body wash. They said they would hold it until I could pick it up later that day. When I picked it up they gave me a cake from the bakery to make up for the inconvenience.

3 Reasons Online Grocery Ordering and Pickup is Amazing for Single Moms

With the exception of the grocery pickup delay I am pleased overall with the service. I can really see this being a regular thing for me. Reasons this may be a great shopping experience for you:

• You are a working mom,
• Have small kids or a baby and don’t want to go shopping or
• Want your significant other or someone else to pick up your groceries without the hassle of a list or money

Shopping this way also helps control your spending. You can see the total in the upper right of the screen and at the bottom right under the list of groceries.

There is a $30 minimum to use the service and you can order from a desktop or your phone.

Two Reasons Walmart Grocery Pickup is Not So Amazing

Two downsides of ordering online and picking up are:

• Walmart Savings Catcher is not available at this time
• Cannot apply coupons though there is a $10 off promo code (REALEASY) available until November with a minimum order of $50.

Overall I loved the experience and will definitely do it again. I’ll be looking for rollback prices to save money but I will enjoy the ease and sanity of letting someone else do my shopping for me!

If you want to give it a try here is $10 to get you started. Let me know how it goes for you.