Walmart has joined many grocery chains by adding online shopping to their menu.
The big-box retailer provides thousands of options from the store with the goods boxed up and ready to take home. Walmart is now offering grocery picks up at three locations in the Valley: Sacramento's Antelope Road location, the Riverpoint Court in West Sacramento and Pleasant Grove Boulevard in Roseville.
Curbside grocery pickup is nothing new in Sacramento. A number of grocery stores in the Valley already offer this service. We wanted to find out who uses it and how well it works, so we spent the afternoon with Raley’s E-Cart worker Suzee Cook.
"I typically get orders for around $150," Cook said.
The shopping expert keeps pretty busy, especially on Mondays when they have lots of sales.
"As of lately, its lots of families making orders,” Cook said. “Families that have numerous kids. It’s hard to bring them in the store."
Finding the exact items you want in a grocery store can be times consuming. Especially when Raley's carries thousands of items. When you use a curbside pickup service, items can be put into a shopping cart at home then picked up and paid for at the store.
"Every customer with e-cart gets special treatment," Cook said, adding many times the produce or meat is pulled from the coolers in the back of the store where the products are fresher. Customers can even personalize their shopping list with specific requests.
"A lot of times people tell me to get a specific date on the expiration," Cook said.
Cook is a pro at finding the best of the best, but when something is out of stock, the customer wins.
"I have to upsell. The price difference is a dollar so I will give a dollar off on the name brand," Cook said.
All items are scanned into a computer so they match the customer’s exact order. And if there is a problem, Cook says she texts the customer to alert them. Many online grocery services even let you use coupons.
We took a deeper look at other online grocery services. Amazon Fresh is only for prime members which costs $27.00 plus the prime member account. They offer a 30-day free trial and same day or next day delivery. Safeway delivers to your home. There is no membership cost, but there is a delivery charge and minimum purchase. Safeway delivery charge is around $7 to $10. Wal-Mart has no membership cost.