What I Learned About Walmart DELIVERY versus INHOME DELIVERY – and how you can save time and money

If you shop at Walmart – here’s a time-saving/money-saving tip.

If you order online from Walmart (groceries or general merchandise) and want to have it delivered, DON’T choose “Delivery” as an option – instead sign up/and choose “InHome Delivery”. Here’s why.

Delivery versus InHome Delivery

Delivery

• When you choose “Delivery”, your order is picked (shopped) and delivered by a third-party delivery service (Spark, Uber, etc.).
  
• While the delivery itself is free (if you’re a Walmart+ member ), you will pay a tip to the delivery driver. Depending on your order, this tip can be $20 or more – for each order!
• The third-party contractors who deliver your order, also shop for and bag your order. They typically do not know the Walmart store layout as well as a Walmart employee, so items you ordered might not be found, and therefore, not delivered. (Ask me how I know – UGH). These contractors are also not trained by Walmart on the proper way to bag items, so sometimes they put freezer items in a bag with pantry items, etc.
• The contractors use their own vehicles to deliver your orders, and they do not have temperature controlled coolers in their vehicles to keep your groceries fresh – the bags just go into their trunks or backseat, or wherever they fit (along with other orders).
• Walmart (the company) has little control over the third-party drivers, since they work for a third-party. So any problems have to be addressed through this third-party, which isn’t all that easy.

InHome Delivery

• When you choose “InHome Delivery”, your order is picked (shopped) and delivered by a Walmart employee. And if you do this often enough, you get to know these people (and they are very friendly)!
  
• You pay NO delivery fee, and NO tip! Instead, since these are Walmart employees, they get paid hourly for their time (picking/shopping your order and driving to deliver it), and they get paid mileage (even though they use a Walmart delivery van), and they get paid well for this service.
• The InHome Delivery fee is $40 a year. To help see the savings – if you were to place two orders for regular “Delivery” in a year, you’d likely pay $40 (or more) in tips. The $40 a year price for InHome Delivery is for UNLIMITED deliveries! HUGE money-savings!
• Since InHome Delivery is completely handled by a Walmart employee, they know the store and can find your items quickly. They are also trained on the proper way to bag your groceries.
• InHome Delivery employees use a professional van to deliver your orders. This van is well organized and capable of handling orders for multiple customers, and they have temperature controlled coolers in the van to keep your groceries fresh.
• InHome Delivery means you can have your orders delivered to your doorstep and left there if you are not at home, OR they can be carried inside for you, AND they can also even be put away for you! Yes! The InHome Delivery people will actually put your groceries away for you, if you choose!

My Experience

• Before I knew about InHome Delivery, I placed three different grocery orders for “Delivery” at various times. I paid $20-$30 tip for each of those orders (tip is paid BEFORE you even receive the service, which I don’t like). These orders were delivered to me by someone (an independent contractor) in their own vehicle (usually a small compact car), who was also delivering other people’s orders (also jammed into their car) – which caused a mix-up where I received some items that belonged to someone else, and some of my items were missing. Ugh! You have to contact the third-party service (Spark, Uber, etc.) for resolution – as these are not Walmart employees. These orders were randomly bagged (freezer items bagged with pantry items), and the plastic bags were often packed with way too many items in one bag, making it difficult to pick up the bag without it tearing.
• With InHome Delivery, our local store drivers have been FANTASTIC! They carry in the heavy items so we don’t have to lug these things from car to house, and they deliver the other groceries (in paper bags) inside our door – handing them to me (no lugging from the trunk to the house). This has been a HUGE time-saver!
• Also with InHome Delivery, I haven’t had to tip these drivers (saving money) – and I feel good knowing that they are being paid well for their jobs. I do leave treats and goodies for them, just because I want to – and because I like them, but this isn’t necessary.
• Yes, ordering online and then picking up at the store is very convenient. And we use that service, too. BUT… some days we are just too busy to try to fit in a grocery run, so having these things delivered saves us a HUGE amount of time (at least 1 hour each time in drive time to and from the store).
• I know some people prefer to pick their own produce, meats, etc. and I understand that. But I can tell you from experience, the Walmart employees do a GREAT job choosing the freshest produce, the best packages of meat, etc. I have absolutely NO complaints about the items we’ve received.

So…. there you have it. My overall TIP is – save time and money by ordering your groceries (and general merchandise) online, then choose INHOME DELIVERY (versus just “Delivery”).

Here’s a link to the InHome Delivery service where you can sign up for a 30-day FREE trial to give it a try – you’ve got nothing to lose! 30-Day Free InHome Delivery Trial

I’d love to hear your experience using this service – leave a comment below!

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