Hate grocery shopping after work and on weekends? Try home delivery.
You don’t have to wait for Walmart or Amazon Fresh to expand service in order to get groceries dropped at your door right now. Several services already are available to Snohomish County residents.
Perhaps most
notable in recent upgrade and expansion is SPUD.com. SPUD absorbed Seattle competitor Pioneer Organics in 2008. Last year, Jones Soda founder and SPUD customer Peter van Stolk took over.
“Had you got our box six to eight months ago, you would notice a complete difference to the box today,” he said. “It’s a completely different product that is completely based on quality.”
Van Stolk has put an emphasis on local products and farms and has significantly expanded the grocery offerings. Most of SPUD’s customers have been attracted by the organic produce, but you don’t have to add it to an order.
SPUD carries standard grocery items. One of its latest additions is Mighty O Donuts, a Seattle company known for producing less guilt-laden treats.
Customers can log on to SPUD each week to order. There is no commitment for how much or how often you buy. Delivery is free for orders over $43 and less than $5.50 for smaller orders.
The delivery day for most of Snohomish County is Friday. Groceries are left where the customer specifies. Frozen foods are packed with dry ice. Customers don’t have to be home to sign for delivery.
Like SPUD, Stanwood-based Klesick Family Farm (www.klesickfamilyfarm.com) allows customers the freedom to choose what they want each week or select a standing order. Contents of a default harvest box are listed each week so consumers can decide whether to go for the pre-packed produce box or select produce individually.
Klesick also carries local baked goods and grocery items. Meat is pre-ordered in a “share” but beef and pork shares are sold out for the next few months.
Delivery is free from Klesick on orders of $37.50 or more or with purchase of a standard harvest box order (priced starting at $18.50). Otherwise, smaller orders are charged $3.50.
Snohomish County delivery days vary by city. Boxes are left on the porch and you don’t have to be home to sign for it.
If variety in products is more important than local and organic products, Safeway.com might be more to your liking. Online customers can shop by aisle, picking up almost anything you can purchase at a Safeway store, including wine and beer.
Although Safeway will deliver daily and within a customer-selected time frame, there are drawbacks. First, the minimum order for delivery is $50. Fees for delivery are $4.95 to $10.95 based on whether the order is under or over $150 and the requested delivery window.
The delivery window is important because an adult must be home to receive the delivery. Also, although Safeway is a same-day delivery service, customers must order before 3:30 a.m. for orders to be delivered between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. the same day.
Full Circle Delivery in Carnation began as a community supported agriculture subscription service. Like SPUD and Klesick, the company offers a box of organic produce. But at Full Circle, the produce box forms the base for an order on which customers can add bread, meat, dairy, eggs and some staples.
Although Full Circle does not require a commitment, a membership box will be automatically delivered to the customer’s location unless it is cancelled before the close of the delivery window.
One perk is that deliveries are made overnight and are on customers’ doorsteps by 6 a.m. It’s also possible to make your workplace a designated delivery site.
Other product delivery services for Snohomish County include Smith Brothers Farm for dairy, eggs, bread and other items.
Schwan’s has fruits and vegetables but mostly is known for ice cream, meats and prepared foods. It carries a new LiveSmart line of lower-calorie prepared foods.
Smiley Dog, a long-established free delivery service of pet foods and supplies, now delivers orders in Snohomish County at a home or office.
The fact that megaretailers such as Walmart now recognize a viable market for home delivery suggests that smaller companies may need to offer something more to appeal to local consumers.
For van Stolk, that is a sustainable recycling program called Upcycling with TerraCycle. Rather than send the reusable SPUD delivery bins back empty, customers can send certain difficult-to-recycle products back with the driver. These are then turned into TerraCycle and proceeds are donated to a charity.
According to van Stolk, staying relevant to the community it serves is the key to business success.
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