How Much More Money Is Spent Using Shipt vs. Grocery Store

Last Updated on June 30, 2018

How Much More Money Is Spent Using Shipt vs. Grocery Store

Not having to leave your house to grocery shop sounds like a dream come true. (I swear I used to be cool). Back to my dream. I tried Shipt for the first time while on vacation. The free trial and appeal of not going to the store when I got to the beach was too appealing to pass up. After using it 3 times in a week, I was absolutely obsessed with the convenience. However, I wondered how much more money it cost to use Shipt vs. the grocery store.

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Convenience typically comes with a price. I just wondered how hefty that price tag was. Since the free trial was coming to a close, the question of how much more money it cost to use Shipt vs. the grocery store was becoming more important.

How Shipt Works

In order to use Shipt, you download their app or head to the website.

Monthly or Annual Membership

After a free trial, you have to choose to become a monthly member or you can pay an upfront yearly membership which saves money. It is $14 per month if you pay monthly or $8.25 per month if you pay the $99 upfront for the year.

Grocery Ordering

The ordering process is very simple and similar to shopping using the Walmart Grocery Pick up or Kroger Clicklist.

You search for the items that you would like to purchase, select the quantity needed and add it to the cart. Once you are finished, just complete the simple checkout process. You will also select a delivery time window to have the order delivered.

But how much more money is spent using shipt vs. grocery store? Each individual item will be marked up from the cost that you would pay if you walked into the store and purchased it in person. I found some items to be marked up only a small amount (cents) and other items had a very drastic pricing difference. The largest price variances seemed to be on perishables – Meat, Produce and Dairy.

When I was using the service, it was typically within an hour or two that the groceries could be delivered. I never experienced any extra long lead times.

Delivery Charge

If your delivery is >$35 there is no delivery fee. I can’t ever get to the grocery store for less than $35 so I did not have to worry about paying an additional delivery fee when using the service.

Shipt Experience

I really loved using Shipt. Every person that delivered my groceries was very polite. Every order was delivered within the specified time window. Substitutions were communicated with me while the shopper was at the store and I could choose an alternate item if something that I wanted was unavailable.

Every order that I received was accurate. There were no missing items or incorrect items delivered.

How Much More Money Is Spent Using Shipt vs. Grocery Store

The Shipt service was great. But my real question was how much more money is spent using Shipt vs. grocery store. I knew it would be more but I didn’t know if the fee would be manageable or too much for me to use on a regular basis.

Shipt vs. Grocery Store Case Study

I created my grocery list for the week and added it to my Shipt cart (I chose Kroger). I then added the exact same items to my Kroger Clicklist cart.

I wanted to see how much money on average that using Shipt would add to my food expense budget. Here is what I found:

Shipt Cost for the Week

Since we had been out of town for a week, my food stock was very depleted. This is a larger than normal grocery run for me but regardless the Shipt vs. Grocery Store runs were compared equally.

Here is a breakdown of the costs:

$153.19 Actual Food Costs

$1.90 Annual Membership Fee ($99 per year, Divided by 52 weeks – Assuming that I would get 1 delivery per week)

$5 Tip (the service will actually recommend a tip for you but I chose to tip $5 for each order)

$160.09 – Total Cost for this Order

Kroger Clicklist Cost for the Week

Here is a breakdown of the costs:

$129.18 Actual Food Costs

$4.95 Service Fee

-$1.50 Digital Coupon (2 Digital Coupons that worked with the items purchased)

$132.63

Cost Using Shipt Vs. Grocery Store Pickup

So how much more money is spent using Shipt vs. Grocery Store? On this order, I would have spent $27.46 more if I had used Shipt vs. picking up at the grocery store.

Annual Cost to Use Shipt

So if every week was similar to this week, I would spend an extra $1427.92 annually using the Shipt service. I really wanted to love the service. Really I did love it in all aspects except cost. I just can’t justify that type of increase just for convenience. I could find many other things to do with that kind of money!

Since the major grocery stores are now doing the grocery pick up service, I can still make my life easier by not having to shop with 2 little ones in tow but I can avoid these astronomical fees associated with grocery delivery.

Cancelled Membership

I only signed up for the 14 day free trial but I ultimately cancelled the trial before it was up. The cancellation process was smooth. Shipt did not have a cancellation option that I could find in the app. I sent an email and the cancellation was completed in a few hours.

Do you use a grocery delivery service? Is the cost worth it to you?

If you need a healthy and budget friendly breakfast idea for your next grocery run, don’t forget to check out my No Sugar Added Georgia Peach Baked Oatmeal.

Another budget friendly meal idea is this Quick Turkey Ham & Beans recipe. Even my kids eat it up!