Amazon Grocery: Death of Retail Stores?
Today, we’re excited to present a review of Amazon Grocery, by guest poster Angie Carlson.
What ever happened to good old fashioned retail therapy? With today’s incredible lack of customer service, identification checks, long lines, and hurried customers, it’s no wonder why so many people are turning away from brick and mortar stores. Add a couple of children into the mix, and you’ll wonder why you ever left the house in the first place. Oh, yes, that’s right — you are on your last roll of toilet paper.
So, imagine my delight when I discovered the launch of Amazon Grocery over my morning cup of coffee. Within minutes, I was searching through their selection of more than 10,000 non-perishable grocery and household items and starting my virtual Shopping List. I found browsing confusing, and ended up utilizing the search feature to find my desired products.
The selection of food products is wide, ranging from household staples and big name brands, to quite an impressive selection of smaller, specialty and organic foods. The chocolate category was quite depressing with only twelve items, three of which were vegan. Most of the prices in my sampling matched or undercut grocery store sales prices.
The catch? You must purchase products in wholesale packaging — large units, or cases. Shopping at Amazon Grocery is much like shopping at Costco or Sam’s Club. While there were many wonderful products, I did need to consider the fact that some of the items were not practical for my family to purchase in bulk; it would take us a decade, or more, to use, for example, a dozen jars of garlic salt. One essential piece of information was missing for making such a decision — the approximate shelf-life for each grocery item.
Nearly every household product that our family consumes, is available for purchase on Amazon Grocery. I found that prices varied much more in this category. Some items could be found at a great bargain, while others, such as large and heavy packages of diapers and toilet paper, were more than I am accustomed to paying. However, the convenience of Amazon Grocery would not remove these items from my consideration.
The best part about Amazon Grocery is that they offer Free Super Saver Shipping with all orders of $25 or more! (My order totaled to $56.54; I paid no sales tax, and according to my invoice, I saved $23.89 on shipping.) Amazon Prime members ($79 annual fee) receive free second day shipping.
I decided to place an order to see if it could hold up to my online shopping standards. My order consisted of four products, from various Amazon Grocery categories, all stating that the product “usually ships within 24 hours.”
Shipping notifications trickled slowly into my inbox — unfortunately, much slower than I had expected. A variety of shipping methods were employed over the next week — the first package shipped via USPS on day 2, followed by UPS (day 3), Airborne Home (day 4) and FedEx (day 6!).
Upon opening the first package that arrived, I discovered the corner of the internal manufacturer’s box was crushed and two of the twelve units were damaged. I sent an email to Amazon Grocery. Within 8 hours, I had a reply from customer service, as well as a shipping notification for a replacement package! I was impressed.
Today, on day 13 of my test, I am still waiting for the last package to arrive — oddly enough, it was the first item to ship, via the US Postal System.
All products shipped separately and were tucked inside one of Amazon’s signature boxes. All of the cardboard is daunting and has become the largest drawback of online shopping.
Amazon Grocery taunts me with what the future may hold:
Because we only carry products when we can offer great prices and free shipping, we don’t carry everything (yet!). For example, we don’t currently offer perishable items such as milk, fresh meat, or peaches, because we can’t ship these for free. But, we work on improving our selection every day, so check back often to see what we’ve added.
Perhaps one day I will never have to set foot inside of another store.
To get $10 off your $50 purchase at Amazon Grocery, use the coupon code GROCERY2.
Some other reviews of Amazon Grocery:
Angie Carlson’s Weblog » Blog Archive » Amazon Grocery: Death of Retail Stores? on July 3rd, 2006 7:52 am
[...] My review of Amazon Grocery is up at Business Opportunities Weblog: What ever happened to good old fashioned retail therapy? With today’s incredible lack of customer service, identification checks, long lines, and hurried customers, it’s no wonder why so many people are turning away from brick and mortar stores. Add a couple of children into the mix, and you’ll wonder why you ever left the house in the first place. Oh, yes, that’s right — you are on your last roll of toilet paper. [...]
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