I usually shop at Walmart for groceries and household items, because in my smallish town, the choices aren't as varied as they are in larger cities. I like that they have low prices and have pretty much everything my family needs to keep us fed, our house clean-ish, and our lives manageable and fun. A friend told me back during Christmas about how if you spend $50 or more on Walmart.com, then they will give you free shipping. I started to roll this idea around in my mind for several months thinking that if I could order a lot of my non-perishable items on Walmart's website, then it may come down to only having to go into the store for fresh dairy, eggs, meat, and veggies! And I knew I would have at least $50 for a month's worth of non-perishables.
Toward the end of May, I considered making my first attempt at this new shopping method, but I needed several non-perishable items that first week of June and wasn't sure how fast the items would be shipped to my home. So I opted to wait until the end of June to purchase items for July.
So when the time came to start prepping for July, I went through my usual menu and shopping list making process. But the day before my planned shopping trip, I sat down at my laptop with my list to buy the non-perishables online. Right away I was disappointed, because not all canned foods were available for purchase online. So my dream of literally only shopping on the perimeter of the store in half an hour was shattered by the reality of the randomness of what was and was not available for online shopping. I was able to purchase all the non-food items that I didn't need right away, which was nice! My dream then became reborn, but altered as only shopping on one side of the store - the grocery side - and still saving some time!
I was also pleasantly surprised to find that while many food items were not available for purchase online, many times larger sizes of food and non-food items were available that were NOT available in-store! So in some cases when I usually have to buy two or three of a food item for one recipe, I was able to order on the website an economy size! I only use Walmart's brand for diapers and wipes to save money (and after 2 babies and now toddlers, in my opinion, they are quality products), but what was so exciting is that they sell a Super Saver Box of diapers online that is not offered in-store! My son wears size 4 diapers, and the largest box in the store is 124 diapers for $20. The Super Saver Box was available online only, giving me 180 diapers for $28! It also means fewer boxes and plastic wrappings to open as well!
Also, I was able to find common items online that usually are all sold out at the store when I shop. My hair gel, shampoo, and unscented baby wipes are almost always all gone when I go to the store! By shopping online, I was guaranteed that I wouldn't have to smell a scent I hate or miss out of having just the right hold on my dried curly hair! That feature alone might make it worth the online venture!
When I had gone through my entire shopping list and had purchased everything that was available from it online, I had managed to take care of about 20 items on my list. But since I only shop once/twice a month for groceries, that was only about 1/4 of my total list. I was a little let-down by that, but was hoping that I would really see the benefits in the time spent in the store.
So the next day, I went into Walmart with my list, my checkbook, an ink pen, and my two kids. We shopped, checking things off the list, and totaling numbers as we went. I realized about halfway through my shopping trip that I still had visited every aisle that I usually do, and I didn't feel like I was saving a lot of time. We did our usual "good behavior at the store mechanical horse ride", this time for both kids since Keegan is such a big boy now (14 months, can you believe it?!)! As we walked out the door, I looked at my phone and was greatly disappointed realizing that I spent almost the same amount of time as I usually do in the store. Even though I did mark some things off my list before our store trip, I still had to visit both sides of the store and most of the aisles on the grocery side.
The great thing is that I only had to wait 2 days for most of the items to come in, even though the projected arrival date said 3 days! The first shipment that arrived were 3 boxes, 2 of them being quite large... but when I opened them...
The boxes were practically empty! The size of the boxes looked ridiculous compared to the minute amount of items in each one. And there was a lot of packaging paper and bubble wrap-type pouches. I was a little overwhelmed by all the trash now piled up in my kitchen and bewildered by the small cluster of items sitting on my counter!
I will say that I was impressed though with how well all the liquid items were packaged for shipping! Each one was wrapped in these huge ziploc-type baggies and each lid was taped as well!
The rest of the items came a few days later, cutting it very close with the diapers! I had 3 diapers left in our entire house when the 180-count box showed up! I would have been very upset if I had to go back to the store just for an emergency pack of diapers!
So, I'm really not sure how I feel about the success or failure of this attempt. I did not save time in the store, which was the entire point, but I did score some economy-sized items not available in-store and finally got my favorite scents and kinds of items usually scarce on the shelves!
Will I do this again? Maybe one more time just to see if I could get better results next time, but I will be honest in saying that I'm not sure it will be better next time. As a mother, though, sometimes it is good to get the opinion of the kids before making a final decision...
Well, it looks like they approve! I'll take it into consideration :)
No comments:
Post a Comment