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Grocery Shopping
Online grocery shopping has gained popularity in the past few years, especially when it comes to busy parents eager to save precious time throughout their hectic week. Several Wilmington-area grocery chains now offer families the convenience and ease of shopping for groceries from the comfort of home. Parents can then simply schedule a time to drive by their local store for pickup, meaning they spend a few minutes of their week grocery shopping instead of a few hours. Wilmington mom and photographer Jenn Fullagar is an avid online grocery shopper. "It's not just about saving time, but it allows us to better plan our weekly meals and stay on a budget with the added bonus of knowing what products are on sale,” says Fullagar.
Walmart, Lowes Foods, and Harris Teeter all offer online shopping options for their customers, each with their own unique policies and benefits. Below is a summary of what to expect from these area stores if you’re ready to give online grocery shopping a try!
Harris Teeter Express Lane
www.harristeeter.com/welcome-to-expresslane#/
- Costs: $4.95 per single order (fee waived for first time customers), $16.95 for one month unlimited shopping, or $99.95 annual membership. Delivery option is available to select zip codes, and fee varies by store.
- Harris Teeter Express Lane App offers customers a mobile way to shop. App allows users to search for any item and view details like price, size and nutritional information, scan items in home pantry and add them to the mobile cart, shop from up to 6 months of past purchases, or add items to cart directly from the Weekly Ad.
- Customers can give special instructions to their personal shoppers by adding either general order comments or individual notes to each item as it is added to the cart
- If an item is out of stock, Harris Teeter’s substitution policy is to offer that same item in the closest size at the same or lower cost, in most cases substituting a national brand product for national brand and generic for generic. Harris Teeter will always call the customer to confirm any substitutions. If the customer is not 100% satisfied with the substituted product or any other item, Harris Teeter will arrange a refund or credit.
Lowes Foods To Go
- Costs: $4.95 per single order, $16.95 for one month unlimited shopping, or $99 annual membership. Delivery option is available to select zip codes, and fee varies by store.
- Unique online shopping search options include Switch & Save (a list of Lowes Foods private label products,) Gluten Free, Organic, and Sales and Circular which allows users to shop using an online version of the weekly ad.
- Customers can create and save shopping lists for future use.
- Users can add grocery items to their online cart all week, then check out later for pickup.
Walmart Grocery
- Costs: Pickup is free of charge. Walmart does not charge any monthly or annual subscription fees for their online grocery service.
- Customers can easily reorder past items by simply clicking on the “Favorites” link, which shows a list of all past purchases and allows users to quickly add them once again to the cart.
- Walmart’s Freshness Guarantee allows customers who are not satisfied with a product they receive through Walmart Grocery to either return it to a local Walmart store or call Customer Care for a full refund.
