The mention of Walmart brings one of two reactions:
1. Ugh. It's so huge; it takes me forever to get through the store.
2. Love it. Love the prices. Love that I can get everything (almost) in one place.
I side more with the second reaction, unless of course I'm toting along three youngsters. Then I'm more like ugh!
I've seen a lot of hype online about ordering household supplies from Walmart. Amazon vs. Walmart price wars has also been a headliner in the news. So I knew I had to check it out. I've been an Amazon Prime member for years. I've used the Subscribe & Save feature, the 2-day free Prime Shipping option, and Amazon Pantry.
Even though I was already familiar with the Amazon way, I really wanted to check out Walmart.com because I buy most of our household supplies and a few specific grocery items at Walmart every month. I typically head into town for one giant grocery shopping trip to Aldi and then drive South to the Walmart.
It's not such a bad gig if I'm alone or with only teens, but with the younger ones it pretty much adds up to misery. They want to sit in the cart, but there's no room. They don't want to sit in the cart, but they're getting into the way of other shoppers. They have to go potty. They're thirsty. They want ice cream and cookies and fruit loops and a papaya and yogurt tubes and, and, and.....
Two or three hours of shopping just isn't their thing.
Enter Walmart.com 2-day free shipping.
I've been placing orders since May, I think. And I have it down pat now.
Here's how I use Walmart.com to order our household needs for a family of nine.
Most importantly is I have an account that I stay logged into. Then instead of writing down items we're running low on, I just go straight to Walmart.com, shop for the item I need, place it in my cart, and then go about my day like nothing happened. Adding to my cart instead of writing on a list has revolutionized my shopping. I'm always watching for things that we're getting low on instead of waiting until we're out and running to the store. I've only had to make one stop at Walmart and that was to get a few meat items and some jeans. But, guess what? Now that I know what size, style, and brand works for Nick, I can just order him another pair of jeans.
Right now my cart looks like this:
When I have enough for free shipping, I hit the purchase now button and in a couple of days my items arrive at my front door.
I use scrip to support our church and this still works perfectly. I purchase our monthly Walmart budget amount in scrip cards and then use them to pay for my online order. It's so simple!
So that's how I've been ordering household supplies from Walmart. Here's a look at my latest shipment.
This last order was divided into a number of boxes. I do understand separating food from cleaning supplies, but this seemed a little over the top.
Box #1 - pretty full
Box #2 - huge box, not much in it, a couple boxes were squashed (didn't have any effect on the contents)
Box #3 - not too full
Box #4 - another big box for not a lot of stuff
Box #5 and #6 - Really?
Here's a look at what was actually in all those boxes.
A few squashed boxes, but nothing that hurt the product inside.
I buy most groceries at Aldi, but there's always a few things I can't get there like: coffee, Knorr seasoning, corn starch, bulk black peppercorns, self-rising flour (I'm reading the Rachel Yoder books to Peter and Maria, Rachel makes a birthday cake for her brother and the recipe is included in the book. They want to bake the cake so I bought self-rising flour)
Joseph and Maria packed it all back up and got it into 2 medium sized boxes. I'm sure Walmart has their reasons for separating it out into so many boxes and I still got free 2-day shipping. Ordering this way has been such a time saver. The closest Walmart is 30 minutes from home making home delivery quite a treat.
Shopping this way has also saved us money. The typical quick trip to Walmart for a few things can easily turn into a long, pricey excursion with endcap specials and unnecessary extras.
Have you made the jump to online ordering? Yes? No? Why or why not? Share your experiences with me and all my other readers. We'd all love to hear about them.
