North Pole - various times
North Pole - various times
North Pole - various times
North Pole - various times
North Pole - various times
North Pole - various times
North Pole - various times
NYC Online Grocery Shopping Smackdown: FreshDirect vs. Peapod
When it comes to most things to do, NYC beats the suburbs hands down. Grocery shopping? Not one of them. Supermarket-deprived neighborhoods, walk-ups and lack of a parking (or even a car) make city shopping a challenge. For a long time FreshDirect has been a game changer for NYC families, but now there's a new option for online grocery shopping. This year, Peapod brought suburban grocery shopping to the City and I put it to the test.
Read on to find out how Peapod's new service in NYC stacks up to FreshDirect and how you can save a lot of dough on your groceries.
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Website: The Peapod website is not as pretty as FreshDirect's; many items don't have photos and the site is boxy looking. But underneath its ugly exterior, the Peapod site is actually much easier and faster site to use, letting you put items into or out of your cart with one click.
Stock: FreshDirect's website tells you immediately if the item you want is not in stock. Peapod does not seem to know if they have an item in stock or not. Occasionally they will show up with a substitution (which you don't have to accept) or nothing at all. Not great if you were counting on the item.
Selection: FreshDirect does a great job of catering to their NYC customers' tastes. Local wild littleneck clams, got 'em. Double cream goat cheese, check. Organic kabocha squash? You bet. No matter what's on your menu, you can usually fill your whole order from FreshDirect. Peapod also has a great selection of products, including fresh produce, meats, and organic products, but you may find you need to look elsewhere for certain items.
Quality: I have had no complaints about the quality from either site. They both offer good customer service and will credit your account if you have an issue with anything you receive.
Cost: I have compared FreshDirect pricing in the past and FreshDirect came out about the same as similar quality NYC supermarkets. FreshDirect vs Peapod... Are you sitting down? Inputting identical orders into both sites for a week's worth of groceries showed almost a $100 in savings from Peapod. Some products were as much as 30% less on the Peapod site, a jaw-dropping difference.
Delivery: Peapod is has recently added more zip codes to their delivery routes, but they still do not deliver to many parts of Brooklyn and upper Manhattan. FreshDirect has expanded to Westchester, Long Island, NJ, Connecticut, and covers more of NYC, but still won't hit all NYC neighborhoods. You can check for your zip code on their respective sites to see if they deliver to you.
Delivery Fees: FreshDirect charges around $6 for delivery, depending on where you live. Peapod charges $6.95 for delivery of orders over $100 and $9.95 for orders less than $100, but free delivery for the first 60 days. After that you can get $1 off by linking your bank account for automatic payment. Save $2 by accepting a 4 hour (instead of 2 hour) delivery window.
Scheduling: Both sites offer next day delivery within a two hour window. 7 days a week from around 6am to 10 or 11pm. Peapod does not delivery on Saturday afternoons.
Eco-Friendliness: People have always complained about all the boxes you get with FreshDirect. Peapod sends their groceries in heavy plastic shopping bags. Sure you can reuse them, but that's a lot of bags. Pick your poison. Both companies offer green delivery slots where you can batch your delivery with others in your area to save fuel.
The Verdict: Let's face it, unless FreshDirect delivered my groceries with Brad Pitt in the box, there's not much they could offer that would make up for such higher prices. As it is, the Peapod website is faster to use and everything else is pretty much on par. I will still use FreshDirect to order the items I can't get from Peapod, but this one is an easy choice: FreshDirect you've been b-smacked.
Use this link to get $10 off your first order from Peapod. Enter TRYPEAPOD10 on the checkout page. Or order from FreshDirect.
