The Best Grocery Delivery, Curbside & Restaurant Delivery Services around Dallas Fort Worth

Where do I start if I want to get my Groceries Delivered?

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Consider your favorite Grocery stores and make a shortlist. You can go to their websites and it should tell you if they offer Delivery or Curbside, or both.

Their websites should also outline if you need to download an App in Google Play or the App Store or if you can use their website with a registered account. You may need to connect any loyalty cards you use (like Target Circle or Kroger have)

Next, you can check if they offer Delivery or Curbside pick up themselves, or if you need to use a third party, like Instacart or Shipt.

Using a third party could mean you need to sign up to a membership and using their own app or website to create and manage your order and connect your payment card.

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Pro’s for Grocery Delivery

• You can use one service for Grocery deliveries from multiple stores and sometimes other less obvious stores, like Petco or 99 Ranch, that are not scaled up to offer their own delivery service. Your membership fee gives you more choices
• You can usually test it out with a trial period – usually a 30 day period (but remember to cancel it if you don’t want to continue and get charged)
• Usually you can communicate with your shopper to answer questions about substitution choices or give more pointers to them, if they have questions when they’re in the store.

Con’s for Grocery Delivery

• Many services have a service fee and a tipping fee. Be sure to check what these are so you don’t get an unpleasant surprise and pay more than your budget allows. You can usually change your tip ahead of time or even after the delivery has been made. Be as generous as you can, as these tips are important for the shoppers that do all the hard work for you!
• There usually is an up-charge for groceries delivered to your home, compared to the price you’d pay if you purchased them yourself in store.
• For produce, you are at the mercy of the shopper to pick for you!

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How much does Grocery Delivery Cost?

Most services have a membership fee (usually monthly or annual), a service fee for each delivery and a tip which is given to the shopper. This can easily add $10-$30 to your total bill, so be sure to budget accordingly. The tip can be changed but we recommend at least 10% to cover their time, effort and standard of service.

Think of the amount of time you’ll save and the cost of gas to drive there and what that’s worth to you.

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Tips for getting the best from Grocery Delivery

Definitely plan ahead and start a Shopping List, either on a family app, like Cozi, or just let Amazon Alexa know what she needs to add to your Shopping List!

It can save you money, as you can avoid extra groceries being added to your shopping cart by little hands (if you go out with your little ones) or even those extra things you weren’t planning to buy for yourself.

Most delivery options from Big Box stores can be limited on delivery slots, so if you do manage to get a slot, book it asap and plan your shopping cart accordingly. Avoid Sundays! It’s the most popular day and slots are usually taken ahead of time and products can be limited from the stores themselves.

When you’re ordering, and you’re logged into your Grocery Delivery account, you can access Past Purchases. We tend to repeat purchase week to week, so this saves you time as you can easily click to add to your cart.

Consider your choice of stores that are near to you, as their selection may be more limited than other bigger locations which may be further away.

Order your fruit, vegetables and meat or fish quantities in the right amount. If you don’t pay attention, you may end up with 6 bunches of bananas, instead of 6 bananas, or 2oz of steak instead of 2lbs! Check the packaging sizes.

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Here are some great choices for grocery curbside pick up and Grocery and Restaurant delivery services available around the Plano area.

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What is the best Grocery Delivery service to your house?

Shipt (covers Central Market, Target, 99 Ranch, Kroger and Petco)

Instacart (covers Costco, Tom Thumb, Sprouts, Central Market, Kroger, Aldi, Specs, Market Street, HMart, Petco, Sams Club and CVS Pharmacy).

Instacart is a huge favorite with local Moms. Costco is a big draw and saves a trip which always costs more on checkout than you were planning for! They are renowned for very high standards of service and allow you to get notifications while the shopper is in store and to chat with them in case you need to choose a substitution for products which are not available.

Walmart offers same day delivery and is very popular. You can also add in non-grocery or food items too – like Advil, toilet rolls or batteries! Produce choices may be more limited than other stores but for pantry items, they have a huge choice.

Favor – to order deliveries from Central Market, this is their 3rd party service.

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Stores where you can order Grocery Curbside Pick Up

Kroger  – You shop online and choose your time then go to the store and park in the special parking. Just call once you park and say what lane you’re in and they will deliver your stuff to your car. No tips are accepted.

Market Street – download their App and you can arrange a time to pick up curbside.

Walmart – pick out your local store and shop online, checkout and pick a time to pick up. The line weaves round the side of the store. You just need to pop open the trunk and your groceries will be placed there.

Central Market – it’s easy to place an order and pick up curbside at the store at a convenient time. Ensure you add information about substitutions in your notes. There is a $4.95 curbside fee and 3% personal shopper fee

Target – this one is really popular too. Usually you can order online and be there in the parking lot (in an assigned spot) within 2 hours. Pop open your trunk and they’ll add your items directly into your trunk without you having to step out of the car.

Amazon Fresh and Amazon Prime Now

Through Amazon, you can order from their warehouses. They also offer delivery from Whole Foods (and a good choice of Organic options) as Amazon also owns the Grocery store chain.

You’ll need to be a Prime Member, you can choose a 2 hour time slot (most are offered for free but you can pay $4.99 for a 1 hour option) and a minimum $35 spend to checkout.

If you don’t already have Amazon Prime, you can sign up for a free trial. Once the trial period is up, you’ll have to pay for Prime but you could be eligible for a discounted membership.

Prime membership options include:

• Prime Monthly ($12.99 per month)
• Prime Annual ($119 per year)
• EBT and Medicaid Discount Prime ($5.99 per month)

If you think that the only Prime perk you’ll use is Amazon Fresh, it may not be worth paying for a full-price membership.

Our Top Tips

• If you have Amazon-Alexa enabled devices, you can add items to a shopping list using your voice and use your phone also to access the app and the Amazon website for both Prime Now and Amazon Fresh.
• They don’t offer Substitutions but will notify you ahead of time which items were unavailable
• You can also track the delivery – usually you’ll be told using the Amazon app how far away your delivery driver is, so you can plan your time accordingly.
• You’ll find pricing a little higher than other Grocery Delivery options
• Same day delivery is usually available, but the earlier you order in the day (before 3pm usually) gives you a choice of a couple of the later slots.
• You can also add in Household items or Personal Care and Beauty too!

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But what about the BIG QUESTION: Sam’s or Costco? We do love both but know you may not want to have memberships for both. Here’s our take on it.

There is a great Groupon at the moment on a Sam’s Club membership if you’re not already a member. 

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Cooking at Home?

Maybe you have a little more time for cooking family meals at the moment, could be a great time to try out a subscription box like Hello Fresh & Freshly as they are offering great discounts for first time customers. 

The Meal Subscription boxes that are most recommended by Local Moms are:

• Hello Fresh
• Freshly
• Home Chef

Hello Fresh has easy-to-follow, well designed recipe cards you can keep and reuse, expect to spend  about $60 per week with a variety of plans to choose from. 

There is a great deal on Home Chef Meal Kit Delivery Boxes right now. We love the fact that they are ready in 30-minute meals, including steak, chicken, pork, fish and vegetarian recipes each week. You can select the number of servings based on family members and you’ll get a handy binder to keep your recipes together. 

If you don’t want to cook, you don’t have to! Sign up with Freshly and they deliver a freshly prepared meal which is ready to eat within 3 minutes.

In addition to Meal-based subscription boxes, we have a ton of other subscriptions we love 

Another great subscription box idea is Crate Joy. If you haven’t seen them before, check them out – they have hundreds of subscription box ideas. 

Ordering from Restaurants for Delivery and Curbside Pick up

A lot of these restaurants are also offering grocery items and Quarantine packs, so there’s some great deals to be had while helping these businesses continue to pay their staff.

Many offer delivery with DoorDash, Ubereats or Grubhub. 

With grocery shopping, made a little more difficult, it’s a great time to make more of your food at home. This could mean menu planning, making sure you eat your leftovers and limiting waste. See how creative you can be!

I have been using my slow cooker and I even baked bread. The internet is a great place to look for recipes using the ingredients you have on hand.

I’ve also spent more time looking for the Best Local Places to buy Fresh Produce and visiting some great local Farmers Markets too!

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Get the kids involved, design a menu, start growing a small herb and vegetable garden, enjoy this time together!

Share your tips and drop them in the comments below.