Oct 06 2006
Amazon, you’ve done it again
When Amazon announced that they were now selling groceries, I like many people, went, "dear God, why?"
A few people on various forums were raving about it for hard to find items like organic foods and diapers so I decided to take a look today because no grocery store in my area sells hot apple cider mix. They are including the grocery items in their free shipping for orders over $25, which is very cool. (One thing to watch out for: make sure that you are looking in the grocery category and not gourmet foods. GF is much more expensive and doesn’t have free shipping.) I found the hot apple cider mix, but I don’t have a price point of comparison on that since the store didn’t have it so I don’t really know how I did on price. The downside is that they sell you 6 boxes at a time with most items so Steve and I now have an insane amount of hot cider mix but it’s OK, because I might give some as gifts and I am sure we will have enough cold days and company to use it all up. That and the stuff is good for a really long time so I am not worried. (I am going to include the link below to the one I purchased because the Swiss Miss stuff that is the first thing that comes up in search is WAY too expensive.)
However, while I was in the beverage section, I took a glance at tea. I don’t drink coffee and since I started dieting, hot chocolate is only a rare splurge so tea has become my drink of choice when I am chilly. We had this really good orange and mint tea in Hawaii so I went to the store to buy some. It was $5 to $6 for a box of any kind of fun flavored tea! Give me a break! So I got some of my usual cheap-o store brand green tea, which needs a LOT of Splenda to taste OK, and called it a day.
But check out what I found on Amazon:
It’s a variety pack so it has 6 different kinds of tea with 18 tea bags in each. They had this exact same thing in the store for $6. However, I paid under $12 and got 6 boxes. That’s less than $2 a box for those keeping score. They also have a green tea variety pack which I intend to order next time I need to add something to my cart to get free shipping.
I looked around the site and I could see this totally changing the way I do grocery shopping. Sure, you still need to run out and get milk and meat and the fresh stuff, but things like over the counter medicine, paper towels, toilet paper, and other less perishable things I might get online if I can get them cheaper. I know if I had kids having diapers mailed to my door is far preferable to having to run to the store with a child in tow to get them. I also threw some sanitary napkins into my cart to save poor Steve from having to remember my type! 
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