As many of you know, when you purchase a "Prime" item, you have the option of forgoing the free two-day shipping in exchange for a $1 credit to use towards streaming music, books, or movies. During a recent check-out, I was offered a $5.99 credit towards Amazon Pantry, which is the price it costs to ship one box of items. I took it as an opportunity to try out this food and toiletry delivery service, and thus I thought I would share my experience with you if it is something that has crossed your mind to try!
I should first mention that we are not big consumers of non-perishables. I thus initially struggled to find things to fill my box, but was able to come up with a good list in the end. Prime Panty is quite easy to use. When you are searching for an item, for example Pepperidge Farm goldfish crackers, the drop down list will give you the option to choose the crackers that are "in Prime Pantry" and therefore count toward your total box. When you click on an item, it tells you how much of your box it will fill. For example, each giant box of goldfish filled 4.8%. You can add as many items to your box as you want until you hit 100%, and it keeps tally for you in your cart. I will note, however, that the only way I found to add multiple types of any item was by going to my cart and increasing the number (there was not an option on the info page for the item where you click "Add to Cart").
Several of the items I added had instant coupons listed by the price, and by simply clicking on the coupon box, the discount was deducted from my cart. Most coupons were for 50 cents - better than a kick in the pants! As I shopped for items, I did my trusty price comparison, and if something was noticeably more expensive than I pay locally, I didn't buy it. There were pleasant surprises though, too, as those goldfish crackers were on sale for over a $1 less than I pay at the grocery store. Thus I bought 4:) Which brings me to my next strategy - I focused on buying things that are bulky (especially when I have two kids with me who BOTH want to sit in the large part of the cart) and items that we use frequently. When I ran out of those items, I went for health and beauty items that qualify for Prime Pantry, such as shampoo and conditioner. I should note that I was pleasantly surprised to find a great deal of healthy brands and organic options throughout all item types.
The box arrived in two days, and it was large. However, they dummy-proofed the outside and told me to open it for carrying handles, which proved to be extremely helpful.
Here is a picture of the box after I removed a healthy amount of packing paper from the top (that we are recycling as fire starter for our grill). The center cardboard divider is where they placed our "delicate" items of pita chips, which was awesome because one of my concerns was them arriving as pita crumbs. I was very impressed by the shipping, and happy with the experience overall!
I will likely not use Prime Pantry in the future for two simple reasons. 1) I buy a LOT of generics when I shop, and Prime Pantry is of course all brand name. 2) I have enough pantry space to buy in bulk when there are sales, and I have the ability often enough to shop on the weekends kid-free to gather my bounty. HOWEVER, if you live in an area where you do not have access to many of the items you enjoy, or simply don't have the ability to get to the store easily, I do recommend it!
