Peapod

I don't know how Peapod gets reviews less than four stars. I have no.vested interest in this company except I continued to be amazed at the value we receive from their service. Even if you're on a tight budget you will surprised at how cost effective your delivery can be.

One strong point of Peapod's service is your ability to sit down for a few seconds, a few hours or even a few days to order from Peapod. It takes the pressure off the "did I get everything on my list?"

Did I mention the price? Okay they're not giving away stuff, but this Tiramisu was four lousy dollars...for two. That's supermarket prices and this Tiramisu was "mialior". (good!) How can tell you a really good Tiramisu? The taste...lady fingers drenched in rum? Yes, but not too heavy. If you hold your fork above your Tiramisu, prongs down, and let your fork gently drop without pushing it too much you have the right consistency. Peapod's partner in this awesome Tiramisu is none other than Palermo's Bakery in Norridge,IL.

We just got Buona Beef delivered by Peapod this morning. Believe it or not I have never been to a Buona Beef primarily because Al's and Portillo's are so good there just wasn't room in my head...nuff said. Since, I am trying Buona Beef's shipped product, like a good yelper I will go to a local Buona Beef and try them. I would be remiss if I judged Buona Beef just on frozen foods. However, I expect it to be good because Peapod has evidently made a commitment to quality foods not just service.

Oh, did I.mention that Peapod is locally owned? There you go...another reason to support your Chicago area businesses, as is Palermo's and Buono. Hmmm...something wonderful is happening...here.

Wait...I just checked. The buns are from Gonnella's in Schaumburg. They say "we bake to differ" and "over 125 years in the baking". Haha! That's awesome.

One of the earliest internet start-ups, Peapod came into being in the Chicago area in 1989 as a grocery delivery service. It has survived challenges from much better financed competitors (see WebVan debacle), and is presently held by the Dutch grocery company Royal Ahold. They are active in about a dozen cities and deliver groceries from their owned stores as well as warehouse operations. A more recent innovation is the company does the shopping only for you, and customers pick up their order at neighborhood centers.

Delivery fees max out at about $10, are less depending on the size of the order. The company has a very deep inventory of brands, including a house brand, and sell everything a modern brick and mortar grocery does, including meat, fish, produce, boxed goods, deli, pet food, beverages (including alcohol), and prepared meals. A separate category includes some hardware, household and office supplies.

Prices are close enough to regular stores so as to not hurt, and like your weekly grocery shopping, if you actually "shop" the Peapod website, you can save some money when you need to.

If there's a drawback to the current service, it is that the minimum order is $60; one of the great services in the space was Pink Dot, in Los Angeles, from which you could order something as small as a single bag of chips, and they were working 24/7. Pink Dot has survived, but not grown.

The Peapod website is easy to navigate, and like most web enterprises these days, it's intuitive, learns your preferences quickly, and has features like saved shopping lists.

You can receive delivery very quickly (at worst, by noon the next day), and there are delivery windows which offer discounts on the fee. You can specify whether or not you will be home for the delivery, and in that instance, the company packs perishables into cooler type containers.

I've used services like this in the past, Safeway had one on the West Coast for quite awhile, and I never had an error with them.

You'll receive a text prior to arrival, you can pick a two hour window. If you're on hand for delivery, the driver unpacks bags (separated by department) from sturdy cardboard boxes, and perishables from foam coolers within boxes. The driver doesn't put your groceries away, but he does carry them inside if you wish. Deli meats are available in 1/2 pound increments, sliced to your specifications, and delivered in zip-locs.

My first order was about 30 items; there were no errors. Thumbs up.

A twisted way to save money on groceries. Yes, you pay for the delivery (they usually have coupons) and yes the groceries cost more. But they have a little total that gets updated each time you add something to your cart! Imagine that at the grocery store! You wouldn't be tossing so much stuff in there.

Besides that, their stuff is ok. I got some green bananas when I specifically stated yellow and they were out of the Dove bars I wanted. The delivery times vary and it can be tricky getting the time that you want if you wait too long to order.

All in all, I would recommend it. It's a great feeling to have your groceries brought right into your house!

Thank you Peapod for the excellent grocery delivery service! I love the drive through bay in Palatine where I can just pull up my car and they load it in. Quick easy and simple.. especially after a long hard day at work. Happy Holidays!

Peace
Barb

The groceries are decent but Dave, the young man I spoke to on the phone, was not very pleasant. He seemed very irritable (and a little slow imo) and it sounded like he had youtube or something on in the background. Overall, an excellent experience wood shop again.

Be aware - they have recently implemented delivery cancellation fees and we were just charged FIFTY DOLLARS due to a cancellation (which was within our time of delivery window!). After several years of being a loyal customer, and now they want to charge us a cancellation fee, which I'd be fine with, but FIFTY FOLLARS!! Outrageous! NEVER AGAIN!!!

I've used Peapod several times now and I have absolutely no complaints. Their drivers are wonderful -. I've needed extra help bring my groceries into the kitchen after having surgery and they were most accommodating. Also their customer service seems to be excellent. Any problem that you have with A food item they will refund your money without question. Really like the feature where they will notify you when your delivery is up next. Worth trying especially if you are in a situation where who are housebound or strapped for time!

I've been peapoding since they opened. My family has mocked me for years until recently when some of them needed to go grocery shopping and were too tired and I placed the order on peapod instead. I made a believer out of em - right down to the fact that they were able to get wine and beer of their liking delivered the following morning! Excellent! No more mocking from the family!

If you are a city dweller, don't have a car, or have a car and hate to deal with weather conditions, traffic and parking, peapod is definitely the way to go. They usually pick excellent produce and everything is packed carefully and delivered to your kitchen counter. If you can't be home, or just don't feel like being sociable, you can pick unattended delivery and your groceries will be packed in coolers and fresh for you for up to 2 hours after your delivery window. And, if you get stuck in a snow storm on the way home from work and are going to miss your delivery window, you can call them and as long as there is a place for them to leave them (I imagine the sidewalk wouldn't be good) they will do so without a problem.

The slight problems with Peapod: As Stacey D said, you can place things in your cart and keep on shopping for days. I have started shopping, gone back, started again, etc. and then forgotten to delete the items I no longer needed or wanted before the change cutoff time (8pm for next morning delivery and midnight for next evening delivery) and ended up with 8 five pound bags of flour (I was experimenting with different breads and pastries) and 4 cases of iced tea because I was putting the sale items in my cart while deciding which ones to get and forgot to go back before cutoff. BUT, I was able to call and tell them, and they said I could give the driver back whatever I didn't want, and I wouldn't be charged.

And if you have a problem with anything, call and 4 out of 5 of the customer service reps will credit you back for the items or offer to have the items redelivered without question. Every once in a while you get someone snarky who makes you feel like you're stealing, but usually the reps are very pleasant and accomodating.

And if you go to use peapod, make sure to do a search to get the $20 for new customers.

Happy indoor shopping, and always remember to make those final changes before cutoff time or you may end up with a week's worth of cravings!! Oh, and if you shop the specials, it's probably less expensive than going to the store, and you can do it naked if you want!

Jooooyyyy! Some people pamper themselves at the spa, I feel all refreshed and rejuvinated when two hunky men shop for/deliver my groceries.

I used Peapod years ago, usually when getting ready for a party, but it's left my radar since. We got a $20 free groceries offer as part of the slew of 'welcome to the neighborhood' crap since moving. So yeah, worth another shot. They offer a pretty wide selection of brands and types of food, including kosher and organic.

The delivery dudes were super cordial and just within the delivery range. One item substituted for something nearly identical, one out of stock thing that I didn't really care about, one mistake (i.e., different brand than I ordered/not listed under substitutions - who cares). They gave me an extra red bell pepper, a few extra limes and sweetcorn for free, I think unintentionally.

Pros: produce is awesome, no doing the screaming brats at the store thing, no driving, saves a little time (it took a half hour to order online). Reliable drivers. Food kept in coolers while in transport. They take coupons. Accurate. Did I mention the hunky guys hauling my shit in the house as if I were some affluent broad?

Cons: prices for some items are steep.

The real reason I'm writing this is in hopes that someone in the company (that can make a change) actually sees it. Neither Customer Service nor driver dispatch really cared enough to try to make it right- they just wanted to get me off the phone and on to their next phone call.

This is my second attempt at ordering from Peapod.
I almost exclusively order through FD when I need groceries delivered, but I got a follow up coupon in the mail, so I thought what the heck. Here's the explanation for my *1 Star Rating*

- My first order with Peapod arrived late (with no phone calls from a dispatcher, even though I got the email confirmation explaining it would arrive during the window I specified). This order arrived with items missing (no explanation from the driver). When I called Customer Service I was informed that the items were out of stock! One, it was in stock according to your website when I placed the order, and two, if you prepared the order and the items were unavailable, don't you think you should let your 'valued customer' know before you show up to their doorstep sans items?!? Terrible experience.

- My current order had even more issues! The delivery window was 7am-9am EST. I got a call at 7:45am by an extremely rude thing named Priscilla. In THE most rude tone (as if it's NOT her job to call customers) she advised me that my delivery was instead going to be from 12pm-2pm EST. I advised her this was going to cause issues as I ordered the food early for a specific reason. This thing didn't even make an attempt to apologize! She advised that everything was delayed due to weather and would offer no other details. When I asked for employee info so I could identify her in later reports, she hung up on me! I promptly called Customer Service (spoke with a very nice man named Gary) who gave me further details as to the delay and even offered to take some money off the order.

TL;DR If you want your order to arrive fresh, complete, on time, and with none of the issues stated above, order from FD. Peapod seriously needs to step it up.