courtesy of The Morning Sun
The Shipt grocery delivery service will be coming on Aug. 24 to Meijer stores in Alma and Mt. Pleasant.
“The way people have always shopped continues to change,” said Meijer spokesperson Joe Hirschmugl. “One of the reasons we’re bringing the delivery service in Michigan is because people are looking for multiple ways to shop.”
Customers sign up for the membership-based service through the mobile phone app on iPhone or Android devices and can shop for up to 55,000 groceries and everyday essentials and perishables – including fresh produce, refrigerated and frozen items – from Meijer stores across six states offering the third party delivery service provided by the third-party company.
Once customers sign up, they can pay $99 a year or $14 a month to have a Shipt employee – dressed in a green shirt identifying them as such – shop and deliver their groceries to them. Shipt members receive unlimited free grocery deliveries on all orders over $35.
While shopping, the Shipt employee scans each selected item’s bar code to make sure the correct size and brand has been selected. Customers can change their order midway through shopping, or communicate with their shopper in the store via text messaging.
They can also buy groceries on request or schedule it for a later delivery using its “autopilot” function.
Hirschmugl said customers can have their shopping orders delivered to them at a time that is convenient to them.
Shipt, a Birmingham, Ala.-based company, launched in 2014 and now services retailers in more than 65 cities.
In Michigan, more than 250,000 deliveries have been made this year alone among the dozens of cities Shipt operates in; it launched in Detroit last year and has grown to deliver all the way to northern Michigan.
Ahead of the launch in Alma, customers voiced their thoughts on the incoming service.
Alma resident Sarah Horn comes to her local Meijer sometimes on a daily basis.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense for me,” said Horn, who lives near the Alma location at 2805 W. Cheesman Rd. “I can see it making sense for someone who lives farther out, or for elderly people. It might be a real convenience for them.”
Riverdale resident Jane Helzerman was putting groceries away in her car, a ritual she has been doing for the past 30 years of coming to Meijer.
“I think it would be wonderful but at the same time, I would probably miss the opportunity of coming to the store and looking things over for myself,” Helzerman said.
She doesn’t think she would use the service, saying it would break her shopping routine.
