Champaign-Urbana families and busy students alike have a new option for grocery shopping – without stepping into a store. (UPDATE: Here’s a review of the service.)
Meijer has expanded its “curbside” shopping experience to its Champaign store, the first Illinois location to have the service. And you can try it for free – yes, free – until May 7. We will have a review of this service later this week, with full details on how it works.
In the meantime, here are the basics and what it means: 
Meijer Curbside “allows customers to shop for their items online and enjoy the convenience of picking up their groceries curbside without leaving the car,” says a Meijer news release. “Specially-trained team members hand select every item in a customer’s order and shop according to special instructions and personal preferences.”
So how does it work?
- Customers can shop for 75,000 of the most commonly shopped grocery and general merchandise items and place orders online at Meijer.com/Curbside.
- Then customers select a preferred pick-up time between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. daily.
- For orders of one to 12 items, customers can pick them up in as little as one hour.
- For orders of 13 or more items, customers can schedule pickup in about three hours.
- Orders can be placed up to three days in advance.
Cost for the Meijer Curbside service is currently $4.95 per order, but the service fee is being waived for shoppers at the Champaign Meijer location until May 7.
Meijer may be the first to offer this service, but other grocery stores have similar features. Champaign-Urbana area Schnucks locations deliver orders, click the link for more information.
Have you used the service? What do you think?