Latest / Life. Money. You.® Podcast / S3|E15: Convenience Creep & The Real Cost of Grocery Delivery

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S3|E15: Convenience Creep & The Real Cost of Grocery Delivery · Life. Money. You.® Podcast

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_03: Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Life Money You Podcast.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm Danny, program manager, and your podcast host.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_03: And today we're diving into something that's quietly become part of a lot of our everyday lives, and that's grocery delivery.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_03: Now, a quick reminder before we get into it.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_03: This show works because of the real life perspectives we all bring.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_03: So today, we're keeping it conversational and looking at this from a few different angles.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: We're also pulling in a consumer reports article from late 2025.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_03: So if you want to dig deeper, you can find that linked in the episode description show notes.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_03: But here's why this all matters.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_03: Roughly 80% of people have tried grocery delivery at some point.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: So whether you're using it every week, occasionally, or avoiding it entirely, you're probably thinking about it.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_03: And that's exactly what we're breaking down today the convenience, the hidden costs, and what's really going on behind the scenes.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_03: So you can decide if it's actually helping your life or quietly hurting your wallet.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_03: Let's get into it.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: Warren, why don't you introduce yourself to our listeners first?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: Hey everybody, I'm Warren with Life MoneyU.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, hi everyone.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_04: I am Kim with Life Money U, the coach of the coaches.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_04: Super excited to get into this fun topic today.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm gonna kick us off today.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: The USDA and Capital One both had a stat that said one in five people had ordered groceries online in the last 30 days, which is huge.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: That means that about you know 20% of us regularly are ordering groceries, and that was two years ago.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you look at the internet now, just kind of do a quick Google search, you'll see about 80% of all folks in most surveys have used the service at least once.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: So to me, that says that just about everybody has tried using this already, which I to be honest, I didn't realize how big it was to be personally.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, you just reminded me, thank you, Warren.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: But let's break down really quick just the topic, right?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: So, what's the difference between grocery delivery, meal delivery?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_03: And then there's a third one that I'm forgetting.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um the the meal preps, like like those, you know, where you get like the ingredients, but then you got to put them together.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, exactly.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: So that's like factor meal, blue apron, those sort of services.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_03: So what is the difference?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: Warren, break it down for us.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean, the the ones that we just talked about last, uh the meal prep, the you you get like the portioned ingredients, but you've got to physically cook it yourself most of the time, I think.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the the uh the the the meal delivery, that's the one we all like.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: That that's that's where you get like, you know, like I'm you know, my my pad tie, my weekly pad thie that I get delivered to my door.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's hot, it's delicious, it's like asparagus, yeah.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it tastes a way that I can't cook at home.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like I've I've tried watching YouTube, my pad thai never tastes as good.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh and then but what we're talking about today, grocery delivery, where you get, you know, just the raw, you know, ingredients right directly from your grocer.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: And there's two main ways that this happens.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: You can get the service directly from the grocer, or you can go through a third-party provider like an Instacart.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and something to note with grocery delivery is people don't just get it for groceries, they get it for all kinds of things.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like I used Walmart uh over the weekend, and I'll I'll tell you guys about that later.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, like a good example, you get pounds of kitty, kitty litter delivered.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to carry, you know, a 30-pound bag of kitty litter if I don't have to.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I was thinking the same with like the cases of water, right?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_04: Like I do appreciate spending my time inside of the grocery store, though.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_04: I am somebody who is don't take my grocery store time away from me because I savor and favor that time in the grocery store.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_04: But I think about like the water cases that don't, you know, we've got stairs here at the house.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_04: I don't want to have to go and lug up my water all the time, even so much as the groceries.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I don't want to have to pick up and bring all of my groceries and do all of that also.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_04: But um it also is really good to like stick to your list, right?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_04: You don't have to veer off of your list when you are ordering for grocery delivery, also.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Prior to this episode, I really thought that this was just something that my bougie friends did because that that's who I heard about it the most.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like, but then we started asking around the office, and uh we we uh the Life Move team has an as an intern this summer, and uh his story was was super interesting.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: So, Chris, if you could quick tell us just about your use.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, sorry, we caught you two and two if you want to take a second.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, I didn't mean I didn't know you were eating.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, Chris.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_04: Welcome back, Chris.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: All right, yeah.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so regarding me and my grocery server, being a college student, of course, there's a lot of resources that we have and we do not have access to.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I don't have a car on campus, so it's hard to get it to and from certain places, certain grocery stores, and everything on campus is often very jacked up in price.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I use Walmart Plus, which is uh a grocery delivery app, which gives me groceries directly to my house.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And for$5 a month, I can get whatever I want to my house directly to my door without me having to go a single foot out of my house.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very convenient for me.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and it's very affordable too.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: And you you you said that there's like a fee waived for for college students, like the delivery fees waived or something.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: So any order over$35, I get the entire delivery fee waived, all the other fees are waived for me too.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just paying the price of the product and of course the tax after that.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it's very convenient and it just gets rid of all any additional expenses that I might incur if I go through other delivery apps like Doordash or Uber Eats or something like that.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_03: I wanted to just touch on just the convenience.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_03: So we're all talking about why it's just so much more convenient for us.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_03: And apart from right, carrying kitty litter or water bottles, there's also right avoiding the lines.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: I think, Warren, you had pulled data, but we spend on average 52 hours a year.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_03: That's more than two days gone every year, just walking up and down aisles within a grocery store.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: How else is it really convenient for us?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: For me, it's just I I'm I like Kim.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: I like grocery store shopping.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's like my zen time for some reason.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: I like I like touching every piece of produce, making sure that it's just the right amount of ripeness for me.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: But what kills me, it's it's the waiting in line.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's standing in checkout, unloading my cart, reloading my cart.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, Kim, what about you?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_04: Well, and even the commute, right?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_04: The commute to the grocery store is a big thing, also.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm in San Antonio.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_04: I have this one grocery store that we all like, my Texan people will know which grocery store I'm talking about.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_04: But my favorite one is this big one that's about 25 minutes away.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_04: So I also kind of plan on what hour of the day I'm gonna go to the grocery store so that I can avoid traffic and then also avoid like the traffic inside the actual grocery store also.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_04: But on those days where I'm like, you know what, I'm not even gonna worry about the commute.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_04: I don't even want to spend the time getting in there.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_04: I'll just do the grocery delivery because it makes more sense.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_04: You pick your time, kind of like Krish is mentioning certain stores also.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_04: If you spend over a certain dollar amount, you'll get the delivery for free.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_04: So I will totally maximize on that if I'm planning for a certain event.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_04: I'll say this weekend the Spurs were playing Saturday morning.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_04: I wanted to make something really good for dinner.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_04: So I went in and went into the Walmart app and made my order for what we were gonna have for dinner that evening.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_04: I'll also say I really like that particular store as well because I'm not limited to groceries.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_04: So we got a couple of extra things that you don't get at the regular grocery store.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but convenience on time saved as well.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_04: So I was able to prioritize going to the gym and not needing to um, you know, go to the grocery store that day.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_04: So it it was super helpful in that sense.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: So my sister lives in a real community.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: I was asking her, she it saves her two and a half hours round trip uh every single grocery week.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean, I every month that 10 hours saved.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that that's just crazy to me.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I know, I know we want to talk about some of the cons too, but there's so many good things to talk about.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like we like we talked about um well, because like some of the other things that I like to talk about is food equity and accessibility.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you read and hear a lot about food deserts.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: This gets food to people that that couldn't otherwise that that that don't necessarily have access.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it can also help people spend more time.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's what I was gonna say is you know, you stick to your list and you don't veer off in the cookie section or the extra areas that you know if I can stick to my list, you stick to that budget, you stick to that price range as well.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I really like the conversation of sticking to your budget where you have your set amount, let's say mid-year check-ins coming up.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_04: I know we've got that event coming up soon.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_04: You're revisiting your budget.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_04: You know, this week I'm only allowed to spend$200.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_04: You can really stick to that plan when you are doing delivery versus when you're in the store, also.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I was reading that there's even free delivery for SNAP recipients, uh, that this can help uh disabled people.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like I was mentioning the kitty litter earlier.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: If if you have, if you know, if you've got some mobility challenges, this can really make it much easier to help caring for your pet.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Just little things like that that I just didn't realize.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then something that I kind of didn't like when I was when I was doing some of these services is the tipping.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this show, I'm I'm pretty sure, Danny, that this show is a gig, a gig economy-friendly show.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we we we like you know, letting people make money however they want in a way that works for their life.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, I'll be honest, you know, tipping is not my favorite thing to do.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about how, you know, some of the negatives with this.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like on the one hand, you're giving people jobs, but on the other hand, you're you're pipping to do something that we've done, you know, we we've all done every week for the for all of our lives going grocery shopping.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: So let's let's get into it.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_04: How do we know if we're tipping enough or too little, right?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_04: Like, so I think about me selfishly saying, I don't want to carry the waters this grocery trip.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm gonna go ahead and have it delivered.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_04: But then also because I feel bad in wanting to avoid carrying the waters, I've got like six steps to walk into this house.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_04: So I kind of tip a little bit extra.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_04: But then, like Warren said, I sit back here after the whole experience and I'm like, that really wasn't the smartest financial choice.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_04: I could have just gone to the grocery store, got my waters myself, and then put one of my kids in charge of bringing the waters in.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: I I've got a thing about meat and cheese and and dairy that's just sitting out too long.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: And so I don't like the idea of this person that I don't know just carrying around my chicken.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: How long is it sitting in the cart for?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: And then and then it sits in a fridge at the store, and then it sits in a car that's unfrigerated.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, I'm overthinking it, but no, we're totally not.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_04: And then when we get it and it's like a little bit more inflated than it usually is, I say this because I've had an experience like this where this is super weird, but like frozen um breakfast sausage, right?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_04: It cut it got to the house and it was like balloonish.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, oh, absolutely not.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_04: I had to then drive to the store to return it for a freshly frozen item because I was worried about like, you know, fro freeze ick.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know, like if it was still okay for my family to eat.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and then I have a story about returning too.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like it was not easy to return something.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like normally you just go in with a receipt, you get it done, but not not with the app.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: You've got to go through an app, you've got to submit the return there, then you go to the store, then you scan the QR code, but it like it was it was not as straightforward as I wanted.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: And substitutes, right?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_03: So if you um try to purchase an item and they don't have it in store, that deliverer, that driver is um full reign to choose what they think is best for you.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes it's not what you want.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: I know Drew likes a very specific type of, they're called Yasso bars and he likes a certain flavor.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_03: And when they don't have his flavor, they try to get another one.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, dang it, I never want to do this again.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_03: They always get the wrong flavor that I want.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_03: So that's another thing is you know, having it up to them to pick out your substitutes.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: And when I go grocery shopping, so I went grocery shopping yesterday, I counted seven people that were working for some kind of a grocery picking or delivering service because they all had these giant carts with seven different bins.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: They're taking up my space, I'm taking up their space.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like I it's uh it, I don't know.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's there's a lot going on in the grocery store these days.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_03: Warren, tell us about that case study.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um, just basically with some of the grocery delivery and just things for us to watch out as consumers and pricing.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: So that that's what sparked my interest in this topic was consumer reports at the end of 2025, they had some people all shop for identical items at the same location via Instacart.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then they compared what the total price was.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: And what they found was that some of the there was there's price differences between the uh the different users, even though they were all shopping at the same time at the same location.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: So what this was just showing was that Instacart was basically testing how they could uh make make small changes in prices to maximize the amount of money that that they could get from each one of their users.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: I will have a link to the article in our show notes.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: Consumer reports reached out to Instacart and you know that it was already kind of publicly available knowledge that the things were going on like this.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: And to be honest, the more I did the more I dug into it, retailers have been doing this for a long time.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like this is this is not something that's new to Instacart.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like when I thought about it, Amazon has probably been doing something like this for that like in my shopping cart when I think about something.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: And that this this dovetails into another topic, which is phantom discounts, which is something that Instacart, this, which is something that consumer reports found, and something that I've just found.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm sure we've all been to one of those department stores where you walk through and literally everything is on sale because of a phantom discount.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: They they they they mark everything up and then mark it down so that psychologically you're more likely to buy it.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, the apps do that too, which is which is something I I want to talk about.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: These grocery delivery apps is at the end of the day, they're apps, they're all designed to make you spend more money.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like whenever you hit go to cart, you're always gonna see that screen.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: What about these items?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: The article mentions that the technology exists for dynamic price tag changes.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: So when you go to the store, depending, like let's say coffee, coffee hits some high and like all of a sudden it becomes really valuable.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: The technology exists where real time the the price of the coffee on the grocery store shelf will update.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: But the the tech also exists where the the the grocery store tag it knows who you are because of your phone.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: And if it knows that you like chips, it could jack up the price of chips when you walk up to the chips because it knows that you like chips that much that you're willing to pay extra.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Stores aren't doing that, but it's just that the tech exists for that, which is crazy.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_03: It reminds me of airlines.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: I'm always afraid to look up a flight because I know that the next time I look it up, the price might be more because they know that I'm in the market for a flight.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think about that all the time.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: I I use an ig an incognito or an in-private window just to make sure that they don't do that.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: And it's important to note today, they're just using things like transaction, transaction history to try to mess with prices to try to get you to spend more.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: But the technology exists where they could use other information.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: They could use like, you know, gender, race, age, things like that, that that we would never want.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, well, we we don't want uh the retailers doing this to us in general, but we definitely don't want it doing over, you know, protect class information.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's just like when you're talking about those pair of boots that you really want, and then all of a sudden you go on Instagram, and those boots are the first ads that you see when you're scrolling.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's how smart technology is becoming.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_03: And you can even have AI, right?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_03: Make your own grocery lists.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_03: I know Kim, we talked about that in a different episode, right?
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_03: What should you be leveraging AI for?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: But Warren, didn't you test out this just over the weekend?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_03: You like went to the store and did this yourself?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I did because like it just it bugged me.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, you know, I can't believe that that at a time when groceries have gotten, you know, gone through the most inflation that we've seen, definitely in my lifetime, that there might be apps doing this.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so I I already have a Walmart Plus uh subscription just through through something else.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought I would try doing a little grocery test of my own.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: I went to the grocery store, I went to Walmart, bought a bunch of groceries, came home, and then put the same list into the app.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I am I was actually surprised to see that the the price was exactly the same.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: There was um a small difference in a recycling plastics fee, and there was a one cent difference in a multi-pack of Gatorade.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but but other than that, the the tip was the only difference in price.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I was happy to see that at least at least one of the apps is not doing this.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I I should say too that Instacart said that they uh that they're no longer doing this testing, but it was a very, very interesting read because it it also Instacart works with grocers that it doesn't have partnerships with.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it sends shoppers into Target even though it doesn't have a a partnership with Target, which I also thought was very interesting.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_03: So what can our listeners do with this information?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_03: I I know that there's so much right now happening.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: Ultimately, there are things we can do to save more money, right?
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: And well, uh I kept thinking really about is it worth it for people to use the grocery delivery service?
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: I I want Kim to answer right after I say this, but for me, I thought about factoring gas into your groceries, which is something I I hadn't have thought of until recently with the gas prices being so high.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: But if you live far from the grocery store andor your car uses a lot of gas money, you know, I think it'd be fair to put in$10 a week to to your to your grocery bill, which is uh which is$10 is about the amount of money that I would have to tip a grocery delivery driver.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, it it it it it probably saves time and it's it's a net wash of money in terms of delivery.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_04: For sure.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_04: Well, you know, what comes to mind is when we travel, right?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_04: So um, you know, I I'm definitely on the opposing side of regular grocery delivery.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_04: Like I don't do it often because I love being in the grocery store, but we do utilize it often when we're traveling.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_04: So when the family and I travel and we do like a Disney trip, it's very easy to work with the resorts to have your meals delivered to the resort and even just delivered to your room.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but they're at, let's just say like Disney World.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_04: Recently, when we were out there, we had um, you know, I did a target delivery straight to the resort and they had full-on like an area for delivery services.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_04: So whether you're doing the full meals for your pad thai or whatever, or you're doing the grocery delivery, you can have it sent directly there.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_04: You just go pick it up and then take it to your room.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_04: So we had, you know, all of our snacks, our drinks, our meals all delivered to the resort so that we could save on spending for food at the actual parks, but we kept our food there in the uh in our room.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_04: So it was super helpful where I didn't have to pay eight dollars for a Coca-Cola bottle.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_04: We could get an eight-pack instead.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_04: So um, yeah, it was definitely helpful in that regard when you think about savings.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, like another big thing is just preparing a list.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds silly, but like make a list even before you log into that into that grocery store app.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, one other really quick thing that I thought was cool about grocery shopping ahead of time is I really I I try to stay in a budget, but I never can stay into my budget when I go to the grocery store because I always get that extra, that extra pack of cookies.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas on the apps, I can see right before I click pay exactly that I am within or without budget.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought that was kind of another cool pro.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um Yeah.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_03: I will say just to play devil's advocate a bit too, you're never going to avoid those tempt temptation buys.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_03: Cause even on the app, like you kind of described at the very end before checkout, it'll be like, you got these last time, don't you want them again?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_03: Or things you might have forgotten to add to your cart.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_03: So just be wary of those temptations.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_03: And like Warren said, those lists will really help you try to avoid them as much as possible.
• 20:41
  unknown: Yeah.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: But I would say consider testing this out.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: Something we didn't talk about in this episode today was picking up groceries.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: You can use these services a lot of times.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: You can avoid the tipping fee, still save a ton of time, but just but just pick up the groceries instead.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like let's say the grocery store is on the way home from school after you pick up the kids at the end of the day.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like that, that can be again just a huge time and stress saver.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_03: And another thing too that exists for both, but making sure you're opting into rewards for whatever uh program or whatever store you shop at, right?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_03: So it exists online too.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_03: You can rack up rewards to use online, make sure you're part of those, um, you know, signing up for them.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_03: I know, like Chris, our intern here described, but he gets that student discount because he is a student.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_03: So make sure you're looking at what might apply to you as far as saving using the app.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, compare price per weight.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of times it can save money to buy in bulk.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Don't don't buy, you know, something where, you know, all the food's gonna go bad because you're not gonna eat it in time, but uh a lot of times you can save money that way.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_04: And Warren, that brings up a good point about like ground beef, right?
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_04: Like meat, getting the bulkier meat and then like separating it, freezing it, and all of that good stuff.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_04: So um I also use that for um shopping when things are on sale.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: So like using the flyers for the week to see what is on sale or on special for the week as well.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_04: And it makes it super help, excuse me, it makes it super helpful even when you're planning your meals.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_04: So like I don't know, ground beef was on sale this week.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_04: So we're gonna have spaghetti and tacos or whatever.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but it really does help when you are able to do that and just kind of research a little with your list ahead of time.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: And what and I noticed that a couple of the apps I used had native functions where you could build out like meals in the app so that if you wanted to like press meatloaf, then it would automatically put all the ingredients in your cart that that you had assigned to your own meatloaf recipe.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: Then I also found integrations where it would link to like a recipe app and I would I would pick chicken catch a Tori and it would just automatically put everything that I needed in into my shopping cart that day.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: It was just really time-saving, but it but but also it enabled me to do more with less time.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_04: I'm I'm probably spending more money on the chicken catchatory ingredients than I would have otherwise, but you know, it's but it's so cool because even like the seasonings that you need are added onto your cart for that.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_04: The lemon garnish or whatever, like all of that.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_04: I have seen that before, and I did think that that was very cool.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_04: It could get me in a lot of trouble, but I think it is so cool.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you guys bring up a really good point too, and just something to remember as we close out this episode.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_03: But there is a cost to everything.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_03: And so when it comes to grocery delivery, it'll be folded in.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_03: If it comes to seasoning your produce, right, you can buy it seasoned already, but it might be a little bit more expensive than the item that's not seasoned.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_03: Same thing with cutting it up.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_03: I I heard about the Costco hack where you buy like that fat piece of meat and it's way less money than buying it already cut up for you.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_03: If you're willing to cut it up, you can get it for half the price, right?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_03: So little things like that.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_03: Kim, Warren, anything else you want to leave our listeners here with today before we close up this grocery delivery episode?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_04: I would say, you know, definitely user test it for yourself, just like Warren did this weekend.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_04: I was shockingly surprised when he reported back and was like, it was not that big of a difference.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_04: That maybe I'll be a little bit more open to exploring it.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_04: I can't guarantee you, but you know, user test it for yourself.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_04: I'm with Danny too on like the um like splitting it up, the produce and the meats on your own versus having them do it for you.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_04: Like I'm really interested in like getting a whole chicken and seeing what that looks like, you know.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_03: Well, Kim, you also make your sourdough bread yourself.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_03: So you might person here that wants to do all the work.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: The last thing that I want to leave listeners with today is when I was doing my test yesterday at the grocery store, I just and again, I ran into seven people that were like you could tell were working for some kind of a grocery delivery service.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: I just kept thinking, if these people are already here doing doing this and I am getting in their way and they're getting in my way, why don't I just let them do it?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: Like, like, like to be honest, some of them were flying through the aisles.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like you could tell that like this is what they this is their day job.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: So you know, what do I really want a grocery shop that bad?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh this show is a pro saving money show.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: We want to help everyone save money.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's you know, that's part of what we do here.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: And our parent company, the parent company of Life Money U is BCU, which is a credit union.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: And today, not the not the day of airing, but the day of taping, is an exciting day because we have benefits checking being released.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone's everyone's part of subscription services, and you know, you get all these cool benefits, but a lot of our members are already going to get this service completely free because it comes with direct deposit.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_04: Some of the account features are like discounts on movie tickets, telephone protection.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_04: So you could receive up to like$800 to replace or repair costs on your uh phones, the same as like roadside assistance, events, telehealth, um, different sorts of health discounts as well.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_04: So when we think of benefits checking, think about benefits for yourself.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_04: So not even just like health benefits, but like Warren said, movie tickets, cell phone protection.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_04: This checking account has so many different benefits for you where you can not only protect yourself and your finances, but you can save on things like your daily purchases.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_04: You get to focus on what matters most.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: I want those movie tickets.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: There are some movies coming out this summer that I need to see.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know about you, but uh like I there are some movies on my list.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_03: Soy Story 5, Warren.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_03: All right, so benefits checking, consider it.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much, everyone, for being on this episode.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_03: This has been great.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_03: And as a reminder, Life Money U is the holistic financial well-being program of BCU, a credit union fiercely committed to your financial well-being.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_03: Until next time.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_03: Danny, thanks for having us.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: Danny, thanks so much as always for having me.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be back with some other tests, I promise.