Have you ever considered grocery shopping online instead of in store? Here are our reflections on the good and the bad of home grocery delivery and how it affects our family footprint.
How We Got Started with Online Grocery Shopping
When we relocated to our new home and new town, I tried online grocery shopping. I was time poor coordinating activities at the new house and I had a coupon for free grocery delivery, so decided to give it a try. I’m fine with online shopping, but I’d always been leery of having someone else select my groceries. Would I be frustrated with product expiry? Smallish per item goods? Sad wilted and dinged produce? What will the packaging be like? Is it actually more efficient? I took the plunge into grocery delivery and haven’t looked back.
Grocery Delivery Pros and Cons in a Nutshell
Online Grocery Shopping and the Family Footprint
- The footprint benefits: Less individual travel, lower vehicle emissions, reduced home food waste.
- The footprint disadvantages: Potential for increased packaging/bagging, may increase shopping frequency with unlimited delivery (although unlikely given minimum spends).
Online Grocery Shopping Personal Considerations
- The personal benefits: Convenience, shopping for unit value, less impulse shopping, healthier product selection.
- The personal disadvantages: Missing exploring the aisles, less likely to visit other stores due to subscription loyalty.
Online Grocery Shopping Broader Considerations
- The broader benefits: Still shopping at a local business, extra work supports increased local in-store employment (may not be the case in all areas).
- The broader disadvantages: Less interaction in store/community, may risk centralisation, less likely to support to other local shops when shopping from home.

Quality and Convenience
Product Quality
Quality has always been great. I think this is essential for suppliers looking to maintain happy customers, but even more so when they are selecting your food items. Trust is key. Quality was my number one concern about trying grocery delivery. My experience has always been positive.
Order Completeness
Unless an item has been omitted due to availability (in which case, it isn’t charged), completeness has been great. Occasionally, an item is unavailable during picking. The local shop is exceptional about making quality/quantity substitutions (an option with buyer permission). Substitutions have actually helped us discover some great new products. Win win!
Convenience of Ordering and Scheduling
Efficiency and Environmental Considerations
Transport vs. Delivery
Our old home was within easy walking distance of several grocery stores. It was quick and convenient to stroll down regularly for a few items, punctuated by occasional full shopping trips. Delivery can’t beat walking, but in our new location (as it is for many folks) walking isn’t a reasonable option.
Delivery is the public transit of grocery shopping. It can be much more efficient than everyone making their own trip. In reality, that’s only true if your delivery is moving locally along with deliveries for a large volume of other customers in the same local area. Different grocery delivery models have different travel distances, times, and packaging constructs.
Bags and Other Packaging
Our personal grocery shopping was carried in reusable packaging, like fabric shopping bags and mesh produce bags, or skipped all together. I no longer have control over the packaging; however, the store has made significant headway in reducing their packaging since I first started shopping online.
Local delivery allows quick movement in chilled trucks with minimal packaging and transit time. The driver delivers to the door in heavy-duty crates which stay with the truck for return and reuse. Our groceries come in large paper bags, and any big or bulky items are left loose. Very decent. Way better than many other types of online shopping at present, unfortunately.
I save the paper bags, unless they are damaged (or stolen by one of the dogs) in which case they’re completely recyclable or can be shredded into compost. I reuse the bags to deliver garden produce and other goodies to friends and neighbours.
Economic and Community Considerations
Employment and Local Business Considerations
The Wider Community
The Price of Convenience
Shopping Smarter for Value and Savings

A Footnote About How and Where We Shop
I currently buy my groceries from a large national chain. Groceries are supplemented with speciality goods from local markets, shops, and online. The latter has been particularly helpful for buying bulk goods like dried pulses and speciality flours. Many of these are either not readily available from our local grocery store or are better from elsewhere due to packaging, quality, and/or cost.
When this post was written, being vegetarian had deterred me from experimenting with meal planned subscription food delivery programs. Vegetarian options in most of the programs operating in our area were limited. I also wasn’t sure that following a scripted dinner plan would work well for us, but thought it could be neat to help bust occasional food rut boredom. Since then, vegetarian options have started to trickle into mainstream programs but the packaging is still a prohibitive factor.
