This is not a paid or affiliate post- although it may seem like it after what I have to say. Kroger Clicklist has come to our town and about 10 weeks ago, I decided to give it a try.
First, you set up an online Kroger account, and include your Kroger card, phone, address, email, etc.
Then, you login and use the Click-list tab to place an order. You select your pick-up time, designated in generous one-hour windows. So you can select as early as the next day at 8 AM- assuming that time is available. You add all your groceries to the cart. Then click checkout. Your order is placed. You receive a confirmation email. The next day you drive over during your time and park in their special spots for Clicklist. You call the phone number on the sign and they bring the groceries to your car, load it up, and have you pay at your car. It really is that simple!
So here are some answers to questions I have received and observations I have made after doing this method of grocery shopping for 9 out of 10 weeks:
Sometimes the time you want is booked. Because I like to go to the grocery the same time every week, immediately after piano lessons while I am already out, I got in the habit of coming straight home and starting my next order for the following week so that I was sure to get the time I wanted.
You can make an order a week ahead.
Your previous orders are saved in the system, so you can simply reorder a prior order if you want.
You can make adjustments and changes on your order up until midnight the night before your order. (This works great. There are some things we get every week (fruit, veggies and milk) so I add those immediately. Then, throughout the week we add things to the list. I try to sit down Wednesday or Thursday, make my meal plan and add any other items needed right then.
You can take advantage of sales. They are highlighted in red on the website. You can also compare the prices of brands and prices.
In most cases, you can also read the label- which is very important for moms with kids with allergies.
The produce is the freshest in the store- it is taken from what was just delivered. Also, the dairy,bread and meat have been very fresh as well.
If something is out-of-stock, you can select “No substitutions.” If you DO allow substitutions, they bring the substitutes to your car and let you decide whether or not to accept them. They give you the substitute at the lowest price. What this means is often, they substitute the larger size for the lower item price. Also, if they substitute with a Kroger brand, they give it to you free. We have enjoyed trying a few new Kroger brand items this way and sometimes get a larger quantity than we purchased.
The associates really get to know you after a few weeks. One week, I accidentally doubled my meat order. I rarely even order meat because we get it in bulk, but we were having a cookout and I wanted some specific cuts. I mistakenly added them all twice. A couple of hour before my order pick-up time, the associate called me and said: “I know you don’t usually order much meat, and your meat order was over $100. I just wanted to be sure that was right.” Um, no, I did not mean to order that much meat, so she adjusted my order over the phone. Also, I have two boys with food allergies, so I have to carefully check substitutions- the associates actually have learned this and always say something like: I checked for dyes, and I think this one is good. I think that is really sweet.
If you get home and find a mistake, call into the store and they will credit it back to your next order.
The cost is $4.95 per order, after your first 3 orders. The first 3 are FREE.
Cost-wise, I am saving money. I am not buying things in a rush that we do not need. I am more consistent about meal planning because I am not spending the time in the grocery, instead I spend it on my computer, meal planning and checking for the lowest prices on things as I go. I also get s few things free or upsized nearly every order. If you use coupons, you bring them with you and they scan them, just like if you went into the store.
You can accumulate fuel points on your Clicklist purchases.
If there is bad weather, there may be some issues. One day I picked up during a thunderstorm. We had to wait for the thunder and lightening to pass because, of course, to be safe they cannot come out in lightening to deliver groceries to the car. This was not a big deal, but I suppose if I had been under a quick deadline, it could be an inconvenience.
The bottom line: I LOVE THIS SERVICE. As long as the high quality, convenience and cost stay the same, we are probably going to continue this method, coupled with buying our meat in bulk and having most of our paper products delivered via Amazon.
Bad weather is far from the only roadblock Kroger has in delivering a quality experience.
Just this evening, my wife and I sat in the line for over an hour to pick up just over $100 worth of product. The order was placed at 10am, and we arrived 50 minutes into our 1-hour window Kroger provided for us to pickup the order (that evening between 5-6pm). After an additional hour of sitting idle while orders were filled around us in no particular order, creating a major issue with traffic flow, we asked the delivery personnel (who were working their rears off) what was going on to inquire about our order. They politely apologized and said our order was next. The cart they rolled out to us was the incorrect order.. it was the car BEHIND us. Again they apologized and started working with other customers. The delivery staff was very pleasant, but it was clear that they had ZERO direction from competent managers.
I had to approach the staff inside the store to get an answer. They were all very much clueless. They said that someone was picking up the last few pieces of our order, but when I asked what those pieces were, they didn’t know. I asked to speak with the supervisor on call (who surprisingly wasn’t anywhere around the most broken operation in their store at the moment), and she then began to take the position that I was becoming a problem. There were over 10 cars in a line, beginning to block the flow of parking lot traffic, and according to the delivery staff, it had been this way all afternoon. I asked the supervisor why we weren’t told that there would be such a long wait when we announced our arrival, and the manager said she didn’t know. I asked what their written policy was for notifying customers of extreme delays in service, and she said they “tried to call customers” if they are behind. I asked if her team had tried to call us, and she didn’t know. I asked if her team had tried to call any of the other customers behind me in the line, and she didn’t know. The manager was extremely dismissive of the conversation, and acted as if I should just go back to my car with no answers. I then demanded that not another cart left that building unless it was my complete order. 5 minutes later, they managed to get it together and I was assisting the delivery staff in loading my car, while the manager waddled back inside… I received absolutely ZERO apologies or reasonable explanations from the local manager.
It appears that the local management team is not at all interested in this process, and hope it will fail so they don’t have to manage it (or learn how to). It is a complete disaster, and management appears to have no clue on how to execute this service with quality and professionalism. If you are trying to save time, don’t risk using this service. This is the 4th experience where the wait has been well over 45 minutes, even though the order was placed well in advance and I have arrived far into the 1-hour pickup window that was provided by Kroger. Perhaps it is great for picking up a gallon of milk or a case of water, but other than that, it is completely unpredictable. Just go inside and use the self-paying kiosk.
My opinion is that they need to either work out the kinks prior to launching the service, or scrap it altogether. I won’t be wasting my time on it again, which likely works out for everyone involved.