Review: Sweet Pea Delivers for Busy Parents
By Alexa Johnson Anderson
There’s a new service in town that will deliver groceries to your front door for a minimal fee or (if you spend enough) for free: Sweet Pea Grocery Delivery!
As a busy mom, this sounded like a dream come true. I can’t tell you how many times I have brainstormed with friends about grocery stores having a drive-through service that allowed you to buy maybe 5 items from a list of 40… or something like that. When I saw that Columbus had a new delivery service in town, I thought that I would give it a try. I have lived overseas and while in England I had my groceries delivered fairly regularly rather than walk a mile to the store and Sherpa our way back with tons of groceries. I was curious to see how a U.S. company would tackle a service that is pretty standard in England.
As a general disclaimer though, let me describe how I do my own shopping. First off, I am a Publix girl. I love Publix and grocery stores in general. I am a huge fan of their Buy One, Get One Free offers and of the weekly sales. I am also a lazy couponer. I’ll cut them every few Sundays and sometimes the stars will align and I’ll actually make out like a bandit between the coupons that I have remembered to bring with me and the items that are on sale. I also love grocery shopping. The possibilities are endless when I walk through the sliding doors into the cool refrigerated produce section.
Now, let’s get back to the delivery service. There are three phases to this whole grocery delivery service.
Signing Up for Service
The first part is actually signing up. As I tried to sign up, it seemed a little less than user-friendly. When I clicked on the read the terms and agreement button, it completely deleted all my personal information that I just typed on my tiny mobile device. Which meant that I had to RE-type this information. It was kind of a kill-joy.
Creating Your List
The second part is logging in and actually putting in your grocery list. The items are organized by topic, with some topics very comprehensive and others less so.
Navigating through the website was fairly easy; however there were some things that just rubbed me the wrong way. For instance, if you add an item to your cart and click “Continue Shopping” the website takes you all the way back to the home page and from there you have to start over. Me? I’d personally like to go back to the page that had all the dairy items so it would more closely resemble my personal shopping experience. It’s like having to go back to the front door of the grocery store every time you put an item in your grocery buggy.
However, one great thing about the site is that you can save your lists. I imagine that after the first time you go through and add items to your shopping cart, it gets easier since you can go back and bring up some of your common items.
The items that you can buy are fairly standard and there is an option to suggest items. I struggled with the item lists because I always want more. For those of us who shop online (especially at Amazon), I tend to expect that I am going to have every option available under the sun. They don’t have that level of variety, but they have quite a bit. And I am confident that you could make a special request for anything that they don’t have.
Scheduling Your Drop-Off
Once you finish your list, all you have to do is schedule the drop off of the groceries. They do not deliver on Sundays, but they do deliver from 8 A.M. until 8 P.M. and if you order by 5 o’clock you can get your groceries the same day.
The day of my delivery went very smoothly with only a small hiccup. The driver called about 10 minutes before she arrived and confirmed that she was on her way. Sweet Pea charged seven dollars for the delivery and I added a tip for the driver on top of that – it’s not too expensive, but this was definitely a luxury spend for my bargain-hunting self. Ham was my hiccup. When I ordered, I ordered the deli cut ham and they delivered the pre-packaged stuff. It wasn’t the end of the world, but it was a tiny error. I quickly emailed Sweet Pea about it and received a very gracious note in return within an hour asking what they could do to make it right.
The Verdict
I’m torn. I loved the convenience of having my groceries magically arrive at my house (with more accuracy than if I had sent my husband to do it) – I really did. And I’m sure that Sweet Pea will continue to streamline its website as it grows and more people use its services. But the very core of my being is thrifty. I comparison shop; every other week or so I cut a coupon; I look for sales. But, sometimes a girl just needs some help and I would definitely use Sweet Pea when my day comes.
How to Contact Sweet Pea
You can find Sweet Pea at www.sweetpeadelivers.com.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here are the views of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Muscogee Moms LLC. This is an unpaid review. Neither the contributor nor Muscogee Moms LLC received any compensation.
