In early 2011 the popularity of online grocery stores began to rise and currently families and individuals have a handful of ways to obtain their grocery items. Whether it involves home delivery or rapid pickup, several companies have made in-store food shopping a thing of the past.
Following are several local and national companies assisting residents with obtaining fresh ingredients for home-cooked meals.
BLUE APRON
If you’re not the best chef and often find yourself wandering around your local grocer searching for dinner ingredients, Blue Apron delivers fresh ingredients needed to make delicious meals in the right proportions. Blue Apron associates do all of the meal planning, cooking and shopping for you. Two plans are offered with no commitment and no fees which include: the 2-Person Plan, priced at $60 per week, where customers will receive one delivery a week, with three delicious recipes and the corresponding ingredients pre-portioned for two. Ingredients are customized based on dietary preferences. Relatively new is the Family Plan, priced at $139 per week, perfect for feeding a family of four. Customers can chose to receive all four recipes at once or two per week.
The company prides themselves on the ability to deliver fresh-farm ingredients in refrigerated packaging for less than 60 percent of traditional grocery prices. Blue Apron also has a mobile app for iPhones.
For more information, search “Blue Apron” in the Apple App Store or visit Blueapron.com.
GREEN BEAN DELIVERY
If you appreciate shopping for family-owned businesses with core community values, Green BEAN Delivery may be your go-to for home shopping. The company stands for Biodynamic, Education, Agriculture and Nutrition; systems that address our community’s greatest food challenges.
Green BEAN Delivery has an order minimum of $35 for members and has a no risk/commitment policy. Shoppers get started by signing up for the service and selecting a produce “bin” where all quantities and varieties of fruit, vegetables and herbs are customizable. A schedule is then set on how often deliveries are made.
Outside of offering home grocer services, the company operates two certified organic farms in Sheridan, Indiana and Mason, Ohio, which supplies some produce to customers.
For more information, visit Greenbeandelivery.com.
INSTACART
If you’re in a hurry, it is possible to have groceries delivered to your door within one hour. Sounds too good to be true? Instacart recently announced it has expanded its one-hour grocery delivery service to Indianapolis. Local retail partners include Whole Foods Market, Costco, Marsh Supermarkets, Georgetown Market and Petco.
Customers can go online or open the Instacart mobile app, select their city/store, add items to a virtual cart, and then choose a delivery window (within one hour, within two hours, or some scheduled time in the future) and check out. An Instacart personal shopper accepts the order on his/her smartphone, uses the mobile app to guide them through shopping, and then delivers the order to the customer in the designated delivery timeframe.
New customers can open an account and receive free delivery on their first order of $10 or more. The vast majority of Instacart customers select two-hour delivery for a charge of $3.99. One-hour delivery is also available, for $5.99. The minimum order size is $10.
For more information, visit Instacart.com/Indianapolis.
KROGER
Recently Kroger, one of Indiana’s premier grocers with 136 locations in the Central Indiana area, launched an online ordering system. This new process allows customers to order online, choose food items, a pick-up time and a store location. Items chosen by the customer are handpicked by a Kroger associate who stores them in appropriate temperature zones until the customer retrieves them.
As an introductory offer, the $4.95 service charge is waived for a customer’s first three orders. Specific locations will be offering the service over the next couple of months.
- 3100 Meridian Park Drive, Greenwood
- 4800 Hazel Dell Crossing, Noblesville, by mid-September.
- 150 W. 161st St., Westfield, by mid-September.
- 5810 E. 71st St., Indianapolis, by mid-September.
- 8745 S. Emerson Ave., Indianapolis, by mid-September.
- 7272 Fishers Crossing, Fishers, by end of September.
- 7108 N. Ind. 267, Avon, by end of September.
For more information, visit Kroger.com/onlineshopping.
PEAPOD
Peapod, founded in 1989 has grown from a small, family-run shopping and delivery service in Illinois to a leading Internet grocer delivering more than 23 million orders across 24 U.S. markets.
Customers are able to choose produce, natural and organic items, national and local store brands and health and beauty care items all from their home.
Delivery fees vary depending upon the zip code of the home or business location. In the Indianapolis area, residents can expect about a $6.96 delivery fee for orders over $100, $7.95 for those between $75 and $100 and $9.95 for those totaling less than $75. To place an order for delivery, orders must total over $60. Customers can choose to have their items delivered the next day up until two weeks. Peapod believes their prices are comparable to most grocery stores and shoppers can take advantage of weekly sale items as well.
For more information, visit Peapod.com.
