Any Peapodders out there?

I did a search and was surprised that there weren't any real posts discussing Peapod.

My wife and I are new to Chicago, and are both looking to be pretty busy when our jobs start next week. While we love going to local grocery stores (Harvestime has emerged as the favorite) and the Asian markets in the Broadway/Argyle area to pick up the odd ingredient, we wouldn't mind a grocery delivery service if it:

1) Delivers good quality staples and fresh produce
2) Has a nominal/reasonable delivery fee
3) Can deliver at odd hours (late evening)

Peapod seems to be the only solution. Anyone care to chime in with their experience?

Treasure Island (at least the one on Clybourn) will probably deliver to you for a low/no charge. Worth finding out, since not only will you pay peapod's markup, but you'll also pay their delivery fee otherwise, and the produce you'll be getting will probably be pretty poor.

We use peapod at our office to get staples delivered... coke, milk, that type of thing. Not for real groceries.

The Treasure Island on Broadway will deliver as well. I looked at Peaqpod a gfew times and found the average gracery costs to be extremely high.

Chicago has so amny great markets from Fox and Obel to inexpensive independents like Tony's Finer Foods or the various ethnic markets (everything from Mexican to Chinese with a fair share of Thai and even some Brazilian mixed in), that it would be a shame not to get out and know them all very well

Partly thanks to falling under the influence of Costco, and blessed with a pantry in which to store things, I buy more and more of the boring stuff in bulk. No searching 2 or 3 Jewels for Weiman's stainless steel polisher or unscented Ban roll-on, if it's not at Costco I just go to Mybrands.com or Drugstore.com and order a case at once. The result is that my shopping energies are freed up for thinking and hunting down the stuff that really matters when it comes to freshness, individual selection, etc. I don't begrudge the time spent at Whole Foods-- or Green City-- when it's short and mostly spent getting gorgeous produce and the like, not checking off an endless shopping list of cleaning supplies, etc.

I am my own Peapod.

First of all, welcome to Chicago, pcharrig! Hope you enjoy our city. I have been doing the Peapod thing for several years now. I don't shop with them on a week to week basis, but I'd say that they they make a stop at my house at least once a month. I have nothing but positive things to say about the service. It definitely helps me to be a more disciplined shopper. I like that when I log into Peadpod, I spend more time actually planning menus. Really cuts down on the impulse buying or the buying one thing at one place and another thing at another place. I personally find Peapod's prices to be similar to my Dominick's and Jewel. They accept newspaper coupons and have their own sale items as well. I've saved quite a lot by utilizing one or both of those things.

Around the holidays, especially since I cook Thanksgiving, is my favorite time to use Peapod. It's great to have the delivery guy show up a day or so before I want to start cooking with everything I need and I've avoided the horror of the store. I get my turkey at the butcher and have my flowers delivered, so I'm good to go.

One more thing. On the occasion when I've gotten a tomato that is past ripe or box of berries with some mold forming in the middle (each of these things happening only once), all I had to do was call their customer service number, tell them what happened and they gave me a credit for that amount on my next delivery.

I used Peapod a couple of times. I was pleased with the quality of produce and the timeliness of the delivery. I agree with the person who said they planned more and had less impulse buys. I think their prices are the same and sometimes higher than what I would pay in the store. I would use them again. I didn't continue using it because it doesn't seem a necessary service at this time for our household.

My guess is that I rank near the top of the LTH list of utterly obsessive compulsive food shoppers. Life sometimes seems like an endless shopping trip to Paulina or F&O for specialty meats, Cermak, Lincolnwood,or Stanleys for produce, Mayflower market in Chinatown for beautiful head and feet on chickens, Bari and D'Amato's for Italian, Athens Market for French feta and olives, Isaccson and Stein or Rubios for seafood, Whole Foods for cheeses and certain produce items, Kauffman's for deli, New York Bagel and Bialy, the list goes on. It never ends.

It isn't easy, in a 14th floor apartment in a building with no parking. My list is already long enough, so I let Peapod take care of all non food items and more. My most frequently ordered items: any type of cleaning product, cat food and litter, diet coke, paper products, anything bulky or heavy. Even flour and the occasional canned item. The prices for non food items are slightly higher than let's say, Target, but in line with the chain groceries, and my stress factor is zero. I'll sometimes add on a few basic produce items such as bananas, onions, lemons, romaine, bunch carrots, and the quality has been consistently great. It works for us.

I went through a phase a couple years ago where I did Peapod a couple times a month. It was okay, but the expense coupled with the hit-and-miss quality of the produce they picked for me drove me back to the stores.

Like Mike G, my Sam's Club and Costco memberships put me in the habit of buying my staples in bulk, so trips to the local grocery or produce markets aren't as daunting these days.

On a tangental topic, I just ran across a bunch of old Webvan grocery bags. Maybe I'll eBay 'em.

As others opine, Peapod's great for non-food items: I get bleach, detergent, etc from them. They also have decent specials and the odd product(Soup Nazi frozen soup) that I really like and haven't seen anywhere else. The produce is generally very high quality tho' I prefer to choose my own at an actual store...I had some beautiful, but bizarrely "green" tasting jalapenos from Peapod that I didn't care for...they tasted of freshly mown grass and nothing else, but other than that, no bad produce.

The deliveries are quick and depending on time of day, discounted.

I live near Treasure Island (on Broadway) and shop there quite frequently, and it's always been my impression that they'll *deliver* for you, but you have to come to the store to do the actual shopping. Am I wrong?

From reading pcharrig's post, I get the impression that he wants a service to both shop and deliver for him. (And correct me if I'm wrong there, too.)

Amazon has just started to sell groceries (mostly in bulk). They have a special running through 8/31 where you can get $10 off a $50 order. Plus, the normal offer of free super-saver shipping on orders over $25 applies at all times. Obviously, this wouldn't work for your fresh produce, but is good for staples, particularly if you have space to store bulk purchases.

Peapod is great for the basics. I hate going to grocery stores so I use Peapod when I can. Reliable, reasonably priceds, and it saves me a ton of time.

That being said, I don't buy meat, fish, fruit or vegetables there. For those we have Fox and Obel and Whole Foods.

I shop Peapod often. As some one else mentioned, if you are an impulse buyer this will curb your impulse purchasing and keep you within your budget (and waistline). The bad: The produce is hit or miss and pricing is tricky; at the brick and mortar groceries you typically pay by the lb, but with PP you usually pay by the piece. However, whenever I've been dissatisfied with anything I've gotten a credit to my account. The good: Wonderful variety of organic items, lots of Amy's Organic and Wild Oats products, great if you don't feel like dealing with the crowds at Whole Paycheck. More good: I was turned on to their meats in a cooking class at the Chopping Block. Before then I'd never dream of buying meat or seafood online. However, their filets, ribeyes, tenderloin, pork chops, burger, scallops, frozen crab legs, and chicken breasts are top notch. NEVER had a bad cut of meat. Prices are typically similar or just slightly higher than the stores. Pretty good organic dairy and some nice cheese selections also. I definitely recommend them for the staples, meats, and dairy, go to Stanley's or Jewel for produce. BTW-has anyone else noticed that Dominick's meats in the past few years have been really awful...

Its not exactly the same is peapod but my office has been using Mother Hubbards for about a month now for food and grocery delivery, it may be worth checking out. Right now their deal is exclusive to da jewels, however the owner informed me that Trader Joes and whole foods are close to jumping on board, if thats any help.

http://motherhubbardexpress.com/index.php

A couple years ago I looked into Peapod since I was laid up with a knee injury and couldn't get around easily. I gave up on them mainly because of their produce department. Many of the items I wanted just seemed "missing," and they had some anal policies like you could buy slices of watermelon, but not a whole watermelon. Also, some of their pricing makes Jewel/Dom look like a bargain. If you absolutely can't get to the store, or don't care about cost, I would rate them as "adequate."

Mike G wrote:

I am my own Peapod.

Something about that sentence just stikes me as being almost zen-like. :>

Peapod to shut down grocery delivery in the Midwest and cut 500 jobs

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business ... story.html

Besides Instacart and other options, Mariano's also delivers. You don't have to join Instacart to get Mariano's delivery. You can go right to their website and there is a way to do it from there.