Showing posts with label Grocery Shopping Online. Show all posts

How we hacked online grocery

Grocery shopping can be a guessing game. It’s a messy mix of what we think we need, and what we actually need, and what we want.

“Carrots? Pasta? Chicken? What about corn? I can definitely make something with corn this week…”

The infinite variety in the grocery store is daunting enough, but it’s the ugly, unappetizing ingredients we end up purchasing that torment us. We buy what seems like a good idea, the items that might have the potential for a delicious dish. We think we have it all figured out. And then we try to cook.

Here’s where the disappointment sets in. You open your fridge, hungry for inspiration—and a meal—and all you see is a smattering of unappealing ingredients. Ground beef, let’s be honest, looks gross. And plain, packaged tofu is about as uninspiring as it gets. Even things like pomegranate—so versatile! so healthy!—is, wait, why did we buy that?

A grocery cart that seemed creative and versatile earlier now looks like an erratic shopping spree. Stuck in a rut, your dinner ends up uneventfully ordinary, weirdly imaginative, or out of a takeout/microwave container. Grocery shopping fail.

The online grocery shopping experience is, in many ways, no different from the hassle, anxiety, and forgetfulness of shopping in the store. Even the best online grocery websites still have digital ‘aisles’ that you can peruse, stocked with individual items and the hope that you’ll scoop up what you need.

But what would you rather shop for – the stuff on the left or the stuff on the right?

We’d rather eat and shop for the recipe on the right than the (what is that?!) pound of ground lamb on the left.

Chicory removes the guessing game from groceries. When you shop with us, you’ll shop with meals in mind, transforming uninspiring ingredients into tonight’s recipe.

We sync your favorite recipes with actual products and ingredients in the grocery store, so when it comes time to cook dinner, you have everything you need. No guessing, no disappointment, all possibility.

Get Cooking with Chicory

5 Reasons to Try Online Grocery Shopping

Almost 200 million people in the US shop online every year, and the numbers are projected to continue rising throughout 2014 and beyond. It’s clear that online shopping is no longer a novelty. Clothing, shoes, accessories, even beauty products and perfumes, are now sold and purchased online.

The most recent leap in online shopping? Groceries. Grocery shopping is just as much of a hassle as shoe or perfume shopping, yet so many of us still shy away from purchasing groceries online. We’re here to tell you, there’s no need to be wary.

One of the biggest concerns of potential online grocery shoppers is freshness. If grocers don’t deliver quality products to online shoppers, they won’t have an online grocery delivery service for very long. The first people to try out online grocery shopping tend to be active users of online forums, unafraid of posting online reviews of products and services.

It’s just good practice to ensure online shoppers receive the best and freshest products, if they want to avoid negative reviews and disgruntled customers. Plus, if you are busy enough to consider grocery shopping online at all, you’re probably busy and distracted enough to pick an overripe fruit or a carton with broken eggs. Online grocery services have staff paid to make sure you do not get a bruised banana, or stale bread. They have more time than you do, and they are paid to help you. Let them.

Most of us go grocery shopping when we can squeeze it into our busy schedules. Online grocery shopping allows us to shop whenever we can, whenever we want. Websites are available 24 hours a day, every day. You can start shopping, go look in your fridge to double check your current food stock, and then go back to shopping. You can check other online grocers to ensure that you are paying the best price. You can watch your toddler nap, or your kids on a play date, and still get your grocery shopping done. All from your own chair, in your own home.

Forget waiting. No one has time for long lines, rude cashiers, or pushy shoppers. If you must go grocery shopping at peak times, after work for example, you’re going to end up fighting for a parking spot, shouting at the deli counter, and speed walking past leisurely shoppers. Online grocery shopping means, no lines, no hassle.

You always end up spending more than you meant to at the grocery store, either because you’re shopping hungry, or because your kids are grabbing every variety of Scooby Doo snacks and Cheezits and throwing them into your cart when you aren’t paying attention. Shopping in an actual store, it’s easy to wander into the junk food aisles, but online, you have to go out of your way to peruse the processed stuff. Bonus: online, you can watch your total cost increase real time, instead of playing the guessing game until you get to checkout.

Eat cleaner, waste less. Shopping online means you already have a list of what you need. Online, you won’t be tempted by the smoked Gouda on display, the Gouda that will inevitably end up moldy in drawer of your fridge. Shopping with recipe ingredient lists—ones that Chicory provides for you—is particularly useful for smarter shopping. Buying with purpose cuts down on junk food and snacking purchases, ultimately cutting down on your snacking and contributing to a healthier lifestyle.

Try it out. You have nothing to lose, except for a few unnecessary impulse buys and a two-hour block of stressful shopping.

Get Cooking with Chicory

Shop Smart! Tips for Avoiding the Grocery Shopping Rush

Grocery shopping is almost always about necessity. We need eggs for breakfast, or your kids need bread for tomorrow’s lunch. It’s usually something we try to squeeze into our busy schedules. But when your “quick” trip to the store after work turns into a 90-minute expedition for cereal, it’s time to switch up your grocery shopping routine.

First tip: shop on Wednesdays. Saturdays have an average of 41 million grocery shoppers, as opposed to Friday’s 35 million, and Wednesday’s 30 million. Not only do Wednesdays tout the smallest grocery-shopping crowd of the week, but they also promise the week’s best discounts. Another reason hump day is the best day: most grocery couponing programs begin on Wednesday, which means that in addition to the newest coupons, the discounts that might technically expire on Tuesday are often still accepted. Double the discount, almost 30 percent fewer people, and the promise of freshly delivered products on Wednesday mornings make Wednesday our favorite shopping day.

Second tip: timing is everything. Earlier in the day, especially on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, everything perishable is fresh. If you can’t make it there in the morning, try shopping from 1-4 PM; you’re getting some of the freshest products of the week, and you’re shopping smarter. Studies show that shoppers at midday tend to buy less caloric foods than shoppers around dinnertime—probably because hungry shopping at 6 PM yields more fattening splurges than healthy snacks. If neither of these work for you, at least guarantee yourself an easy, mob-free shopping experience. Try after 8 or 9 PM; stores will be empty, employees will be friendly, and you end your day with a satisfying accomplishment.

Third and final tip: Avoid Tuesdays. The worst night of the week to shop is Tuesday. Not only is it the last day of most couponing and discount programs, but it’s also the most popular night of the week for homemade meals nationwide. Cue images of hungry shoppers fighting over the best cut of meat at the deli counter and scrambling for the last of the on-sale granola bars. Stick to Wednesdays.

Of course, grocery shopping and the shopping rush can be avoided entirely with online grocery shopping services. But if you absolutely cannot abandon your neighborhood grocery store, we recommend shopping smarter to make it more cost- and time-effective.

Give online grocery a try with Chicory

*image courtesy of Shutterstock

Chicory: More Than a Meal Kit

There are these new fangled businesses sprouting up all over the United States right now called meal kits. They each offer about 10 recipes per week on their site for delivery. They send all the ingredients, already measured out, in order to help you create 'top chef' quality meals. Each meal costs about $10 per serving so, if you have a family of 4, a 'meal kit' dinner would cost you around $40.

Chicory is not a meal kit. Chicory does not sell meal kits.

Chicory is a grocery shopping tool to help you, the modern home cook, do what you already do faster and with less stress: find amazing meals to cook for any occasion, round up all the ingredients you need in a simple and informative shopping list, and buy all your groceries, from the ingredients you need to seltzer water, with as little hassle and in as little time as possible.

What are we doing differently from a meal kit, you ask? Well...

Choosing to shop for your groceries online can be, for some, a pretty dramatic decision. Instead of going down the aisles of the market yourself, you're relying on grocery pickers to choose the best products for what you want to buy. Instead of driving to the market to shop, you're relying on either someone to pack up your groceries for pickup or to deliver them in a timely manner.

Cooking is a lot of fun! It's a creative outlet, helps you socialize with family and friends either around the stove our the kitchen table, and even impress anyone who tastes (or even smells) your delicious home cooking.

But you know what's not a lot of fun and, these days, takes WAY too much time? Grocery shopping.

First, plan out your meal(s) and determine what to make.
Second, write out a shopping list that includes all the ingredients you'll need and anything else.
Third, decode all the weird measurements within recipes you're using so you actually buy enough food.
Fourth, figure out what you have in the pantry and what you need to pick up.
Fifth, drive to the grocery store.
Sixth, search up and down the aisles.
Seventh, get stuck behind that guy with a million groceries.
Eighth, spend way too much because of all the impulse shopping you did while browsing the aisles.
Ninth, drive home.
Tenth, get cooking.

At Chicory, we think there shouldn't be so many steps.

First, find recipes that looks tasty.
Second, order the ingredients.
Third, get cooking.

A little easier, no?

Shop for groceries in less than 5 minutes

Get Early Access to Chicory

The coolest grocery shopping tech

The way that we shop for groceries is changing.

There's a lot of awesome technology that is helping us shop for groceries faster, saving us money, and giving us a better understanding of what we're buying (or pointing us in a direction to buy the right stuff).

The days when we struggle to find what we want in the store, purchase enough random impulse buys to double our total bill, and spend waaay too long in line during checkout are coming to an end.

Here is our list of the coolest tech for grocery shopping.

1. In-store Scanners

These high-tech devices let you scan items as you put them into your own cart, essentially meaning that self-checkout is no more difficult than finding what you want to purchase.

In-store scanners can also help you save money, suggesting you items to purchase that are on sale and automatically tallying up coupons.

2. The Amazon Dash

The Dash lets you shop for groceries online by just talking or scanning. You can refill essentials like milk and bread with conveince.

To us it seems like Amazon is forgetting something, maybe the recipes?

3. Checkpoints

Another brand new development in grocery shopping tech wants to help you save big money in the store.

People with the Checkpoints app installed can now get notifications for coupons and extra savings while in the store. Learn more here.

4. Seafood Watch

Worried about the world's oceans?

Checkout the Seafood Watch app from Monterey Bay Aquarium. It tells you what seafood to buy and eat so you can shop sustainably and responsibly with ease. Download it here.

There's also this cool new thing called Chicory that lets you create healthy, homemade meals without having to visit the store.

Get early access to Chicory here.

What type of grocery shopper are you?

When it comes to shopping for groceries, we're all very different. Some of us rigidly plan out our daily meals each week so we can make one big trip to the store while others like to lazily peruse the aisles of
their favorite grocery store after work, picking out whatever catches their eyes.

One of the most interesting things we've learned is that most people don't shop in just one way. A lot of things determine if, when you're shopping, you care about getting what's on your grocery list quickly or if you care about finding the least expensive items no matter how long it takes.

The reason why we're shopping, and why we're cooking, are really, really important in determining how we all shop for groceries.

The average American household spends $150 a week just on groceries. One in ten Americans spend over $300 a week on groceries. Yikes! Even if you're not making pizza, that's still a lot of dough.

Here are 5 of the easiest ways to save big on that grocery bill next week.

5. Buy unprocessed, unprepared, whole foods.
Buying processed and prepared foods from the grocery store can seem like a great time saver. Yet, while they may be convenient they'll also put in a dent in your wallet. Purchase prepared foods (such as pre-cut veggies or seasoned meats and fish) sparingly since they are usually much more expensive than non-prepared items. Remember: you're essentially paying the grocery store to do work for you. And they'll charge a premium for work that might only take you a couple minutes or seconds at home.

Walking the Aisles of an Online Grocery Store

At Chicory, we talk with a lot of people about shopping for groceries online: what they like, what they don't like, what scares them, and even what excites them.
Something we keep hearing over and over is that while online grocery sounds cool and convenient "I just prefer to pick out stuff myself."

It makes perfect sense. We still want to touch and sniff (and maybe even taste) our food before we buy it and put it in our body. It's a lot more personal than buying a TV or a book or a pair of shoes. We're afraid of getting produce that's old or meat that's bad.

The current way people shop for groceries online attempts to mimic rather than transcend the modern, brick and mortar grocery store. Stores like Fresh Direct and Peapod have aisles where users can browse what's available almost like they had a real shopping cart in front of them.

Chicory throws the rulebook for the 'modern grocery store' out the window. We don't organize products like you're shopping in the store. We believe that shopping for groceries online is a different act all together and requires a different layout.

How to make a homemade meal

Creating homemade meals is hard work. Especially during the week.

Follow these 7 steps (or just use Chicory) to get cooking!

Or just use Chicory.

No lists. No questions. No driving. No hunting. No waiting.

Give it a Try

Using Online Grocery for Weekday Suppers

Cooking normally takes a back seat during the week. With work and errands, the last thing you probably want to do on a Wednesday night is spend 15 minutes planning out dinner, 30 minutes
grocery shopping (including the drive), and another 30 minutes or so actually making dinner.

It's easy to get frustrated over this routine. The two best ways to make healthy, homemade meals during the week are to take a break before starting to cook and to use online grocery to help with meal selection, planning, and grocery deliver.

Online grocers like Peapod, FreshDirect, Safeway, Instacart, and many more are rapidly expanding, creating new fulfillment centers, new pickup locations and expanding delivery zipcodes. Within the next 5 years, Nielsen expects online CPG sales to increase to $31 billion up from $15.6 billion in 2012 and just about every week there's another article circling around the internet about how this industry is growing and all the potential it offers
in the $1 Trillion food retail industry.

There are a number of different online grocery models currently being used in the market. We don't have time to cover all of them but here are a few of the most successful so far:

Fifty percent of all our grocery store purchases are made subconsciously according to Nielsen.

That means that almost every time you walk into a grocery store you're going to spend about twice the amount you originally intended. And there's nothing you can do about it.

Read the full Nielsen report here.

The reason that we buy so much without intending to is the same reason that milk is at the back of pretty much every grocery store in America.

Online grocery and recipes: what we've learned so far

Chicory (learn more about us at www.chicoryapp.com) has finally launched!! Well, only in 2 zip codes but that still counts! This means that we're out of the lab and into the consumers' hands (which is awesome because the lab was getting kind of boring).

We're currently delivering groceries through Peapod

Although we've only been live for about a week we've already met with dozens of busy home cooks to talk about all sorts of things, from if they've ever used online grocery to what their kids like to eat for dinner. They've also all tried out the current iteration of our web app.

Here are some of the most interesting things we've learned about online grocery and recipes from our fabulous early customers in Larchmont and Mamaroneck, New York.

1) The reasons that make people want to cook heavily determine how likely they are to use our app and online grocery.

We used to not ask the really simple question "why do you cook?" But, the more people we talked with the more we realized that there was a big difference between someone who cooks

What is eGrocery?

The big question on people’s mind is what in the world is eGrocery? For those of you who have heard of it, I’m not surprised. eGrocery is one of the fastest growing industries in the country. More and more of the retail world is shifting to the online platform. The Brick and Mortar grocery stores were able to resist this trend for a while because…well who doesn’t need to eat?! But a simple google search for online groceries will reveal hundreds of stores that are promoting an either in-store pick up model, or a delivery model for groceries. Grocery shopping is becoming easier for busy people.

So how does it work now? Well, you go onto your local grocery store’s website. See if they have any option for “delivery” or “pick-up”. If one of these two options is viable, then you’re in luck! You can search for groceries and add them to your cart. Just choose a date and time to have your groceries delivered to your house, or go pick it up at their designated location.

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