Grocery-Delivery Services Review - Day 3 - Amazon Prime Now & Randall's • FourPointsMom.com

It’s Day 3 of the Four Points Mom Grocery-Delivery Services Review!

As a quick refresher, I’m spending the week on a 5-day series walking through the available grocery-delivery and curbside pickup services here in Austin:

On Monday (Day 1) I told you all about my experiences with Instacart and the things I love and the things I don’t love about the service. Yesterday (Day 2), I shared with you my thoughts on Shipt and Burpy. By the way, a reader pointed out that some areas in Austin also can have Central Market delivered by Shipt. Even better! And, today I’m reviewing Amazon Prime Now and Randall’s.

Remember, this is a 5-Day Series, so be sure to check back in each day this week to learn more about the other available services and, of course, stop by Friday to see who the winners are!

Also, you should sign up for my weekly email to get a recap of these and all posts. This way you’ll never miss a post!

Let’s get to it!

Amazon Prime Now

Amazon Prime Now can also get you groceries delivered to your house within a couple hours. Plus, in May Amazon Prime Now started delivering groceries from Sprouts in Austin.

How It Works

You have to be an Amazon Prime Member to take advantage of the Amazon Prime Now service. Great news, though. You can sign up for a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime for just $3. If you aren’t already a member, I highly recommend it. We love the free two-day shipping on most Amazon item and our kids regularly watch episodes of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and Wild Kratts through our smart TV.

I actually thought you had to use the Amazon Prime Now app, but when doing research for this article I learned that you can now shop from your computer at primenow.amazon.com. That’s easy!

Time To Shop

You shop for items just like you would on the rest of Amazon, but you do need to make sure you are in the Amazon Prime Now section of the website to see the items that are available with this delivery service.

As you see, this looks very similar to the other grocery-delivery services. Under each item you’ll see whether your order is fulfilled by Sprouts or Amazon. This will be important once you get to delivery since there are minimum order requirements from each store.

Substitutions

The website clarifies that your Amazon Prime Now shopper will attempt to contact you if something is out of stock at Sprouts, but you can also let them know ahead of time whether to use a replacement or leave an item out if they can’t get ahold of you.

However, there is not a similar message for Amazon purchases, so you won’t have to worry about substitutions with those orders.

Product Prices

The Amazon Prime Now prices were either comparable or higher. For example, items like eggs, peanut butter, and cat food were priced lowest through Amazon Prime Now than through the other delivery services. But, for other items, like yogurt, ground beef, and bottled water, the prices were highest. For some of these more expensive items, they were typically items that could only be ordered in organic (from Sprouts) which is why they cost more. But, the bottled water, for example, was just much more expensive.

Order Adjustments

You can’t make order adjustments, but if you select a two-hour delivery you might be able to cancel the order as long as the order hasn’t entered the delivery process.

Sales and Coupons

I couldn’t find any sales or coupons when I was shopping on the site. I might have missed them, so if you regularly shop Amazon Prime Now let me know if I somehow overlooked them.

Checking Out

Click the shopping cart in the top righthand corner and you’ll be taken to your Shopping Cart.

One thing to note, you will have a $20 minimum order requirement from Amazon for Amazon products and a $30 store minimum from Sprouts. So, I recommend you pay attention to where each item is coming from unless you will be spending more than a combined $50. Otherwise, you can’t even check out.

Also, the turnaround time for delivery was incredible when I was checking out. At 8:15 am, I could have free delivery between 10 am and 12 pm from both my Sprouts and Amazon purchases.

Fees For Service

As I mentioned before, you do have to have an Amazon Prime membership to participate in Amazon Prime Now delivery. Amazon Prime membership is currently an annual charge of $99. This gets you free two-day delivery on most things you can buy on Amazon so if you regularly purchase things online, then this is a no-brainer.

There is no extra fee to participate in the Amazon Prime Now program. Woohoo!

Additional Fees

None! Did you read that? There are no additional fees. When you check out a recommended tip of $5 is added, but you can modify it if you’d like. You will checkout separately for Sprouts and Amazon purchases, so the tip will be populated each time. (I’m sure that’s because you’ll have two different deliveries.) You can go in and adjust the tip up to 24 hours after delivery. The entre tip goes to your courier (deliverer).

Amazon Prime Now Wrap-up

What I love: No extra fees! Since we are a house that regularly orders from Amazon, we already pay the $99 Prime membership fee.

What I don’t love: You can’t even check out unless you have met the minimum amount from each store. I wish you could just pay an extra fee like the other services in the event you only need a few things.

Randalls Grocery Delivery

If you love shopping at Randall’s, you will be happy to hear you can also get grocery delivery direct from the store. Personally, I don’t often shop at Randall’s because the prices tend to be higher than H-E-B. But, I wanted to include their services here in case this is your favorite store or you want to learn more about their service. H-E-B actually also offers grocery delivery in San Antonio currently, so I’m hoping they expand to Austin soon. Fingers crossed …

But back to Randalls …

How it Works

You go to Randall’s Grocery Delivery page. You’ll have to create an account.

Yes, it says Tom Thumb at the top. Don’t worry, you’re still shopping at Randall’s. Randall’s and Tom Thumb are both owned by Safeway and share the Tom Thumb’s grocery delivery platform.

Time To Shop

Okay, I’m not a fan of the website. At all. This is my least favorite website out of the various grocery-delivery and curbside pickup services I reviewed. The site just looks and feels old and is missing some of the intuitive user-friendly elements that are commonly found on today’s websites.

You can search by keyword at the top of the page, and those results are pretty spot-on.

But, I tried to search by category (or what the website refers to as “Shelf Matches”) for eggs and I was at a loss. I clicked on “Dairy, Eggs & Cheese” and then received a sub-menu for cheese, milk & cream, and yogurt & pudding. It wouldn’t take me anywhere else. Okay … I guess I’ll just stick with searching by keyword.

Substitutions

Randall’s provides you the most options through the site regarding substitutions. You can choose same brand, different size; same size, different brand, or no substitutions on a per item basis.

Of course, some of the other services will reach out to you while shopping to discuss substitutions and you have a little more control of the process that way. However, if you’re going to be busy or otherwise unavailable while they’re shopping you’re out of luck.

Product Prices

Similar to Amazon Prime Now, Randall’s pricing was sometimes lower and sometimes much higher.

For example, the cat food we get our cats is 90 cents at Randall’s and less than 75 cents everywhere else. That doesn’t look like much, but we go through 30 cans a month!

Order Adjustments

You can log back in and change your order up until 3:00 am on the delivery day if your delivery window is between 9 am and 3 pm. You can change your order up until 8:30 am on the delivery day if your delivery time is after 4 pm that day.

Sales and Coupons

It seems like you get the same Reward Card sales that you would find in the store which is really nice.

Checking Out

You click check out and then get to choose your delivery time. I was at the shopping cart at 9:30 am and there were not any deliveries available for the rest of the day. I could get free delivery the following day, but that’s not ideal for me because I’m typically wanting my groceries that day.

Fees for Service

The delivery fees are higher than the other services at $9.95 for purchases over $150 and $12.95 on purchases between $49 and $150 (as the minimum order is $49).

However, you can enter a promo code so that you have free delivery on your first order over $49. Plus, the website says that there are often discounts for delivery available. Since this was my first time on the site, every delivery option showed FREE so I couldn’t see any such discounts.

Additional Fees

Nothing at all. Seriously. And they don’t even let you tip the delivery driver.

Randall’s Wrap-Up

What I love: No extra fees. Plus, free delivery on your first order.

What I don’t love: It’s just not my store. I shop at H-E-B for most of my groceries, and the Randall’s website isn’t going to convince me to switch over. I do like some of the prices, but overall I don’t feel like it’s worth my time on the website.

Alright, tomorrow we’re switching gears a bit and talking about curbside pickup. I can’t wait to share with you my thoughts!

Here are the other reviews:

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Grocery-Delivery Services Review – Day 3 – Amazon Prime Now & Randall’s