I Paid Amazon 76 Cents to Ship 45 Pounds of Groceries to my Door
I recently tried Amazon’s new benefit for Prime members – the Prime Pantry box.
Fill up the box with PrimePantry eligible items, up to 45 pounds. Then they ship it to you for $6.
Amazon has so many different shipping methods and plans, it’s dizzying. I envision an army of actuaries devoted to number-crunching and plan-engineering. You can’t argue with results, though.
Cereal: the Best Deal
Those actuaries know what they’re doing. Who buys a lot of cereal? Who loves ship-it-to-me convenience?
Yep. Moms. And this mom fell right for it. Four boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios cost $11.88, cheaper even than the generic “Honey O’s” I normally buy at ShopRite for $16.32.
Four boxes of Special K Red Berries: $14.72; at ShopRite: $18.36.
Two boxes of Shredded Wheat: $8.38; at ShopRite: $10.86.
Good news for our family as cereal starts almost all of our school days.
The Other Stuff: a Comparison
I added up the contents of my box and how it would compare if I bought the same items at FreshDirect and my local ShopRite. First, here’s what I bought:
- Special K cereal x 4
- Honey Nut Cheerios x 4
- Shredded Wheat x 2
- Motts apple juice x 3
- Hidden Valley Ranch x 2
- Nutter Butter cookies
- Chips Ahoy cookies
- Nutella x 2
- Heinz ketchup x 4
- Energizer D batteries x 12
Results: Amazon still delivers best value and convenience
Total: $101.14
Goods: $95.15
Shipping: $5.99
Total: $136.80
Goods: $130.30
Shipping: $6.50
Total: $108.63
Don’t Forget Prime Membership
Of course, to take advantage of PrimePantry you have to be an Amazon Prime member, and that cost $99/year or $8.25/month. Add the monthly membership fee to your order, and the total becomes $109.39.
Which basically means I paid Amazon 76 cents to pick, pack, and ship right to my door 45 pounds of groceries that I’d otherwise haul home from the local ShopRite.
I call that a good deal.
Paws up! If you decide to go for maximum convenience and use our referral link to sign up for FreshDirect, you’ll earn $50 off each of your first two orders and we earn a $25 commission. Our total earnings are summarized here, and at year’s end we add any income from this blog to our annual support of the Delaware Humane Association.
Amy @ Frugal Mama
05/21/2014 at 10:14 amHi Samantha,
It’s great to hear about this new Prime service, which I hadn’t known about before. I too love anything that makes my life easier, and when you can save money at the same time, it’s the best.
Thank you for crunching the numbers and giving us this report!
Amy
Samantha
05/21/2014 at 11:12 amAmazon was appropriately named – it brings a veritable river of goods to my door! Thanks for writing in, Amy.
Jen @ Jen Spends
05/24/2014 at 10:01 amI don’t know how I missed this new service, but I will definitely need to check it out. Getting to the grocery store is such a chore these days. I always wish we had grocery delivery in my area. This is a good start. Thanks for sharing!
Samantha
05/24/2014 at 8:08 pmHi Jen, thanks for commenting 🙂 I’d say give it a try. Only one item was more expensive at Amazon than the local store (D batteries) but even then only slightly. And the other deals more than made up for it.