I've started to use Peapod delivery service, and since they have delivery service in several different states and cities, I wanted to share my experience with you. You may not have a Peapod service in your area, but you might have a comparable service.

I don't really like grocery shopping. Like many of you I have my two-store needs - Whole Foods, where I get a lot of program-friendly stuff, and the local grocery store, where I can get a lot of the basics beyond that.

I tend to like Whole Foods more as an experience - the lighting is better, the place feels better, and usually the stuff I'm buying are the heavy hitters in my food program and therefore it feels more fun. But whether it's Whole Foods or not, I still have to stop and make time and get there and sometimes it's crowded and I feel drained when I leave.

Peapod doesn't deliver from Whole Foods, just from my local store, but that's okay. If I have to only go to one store, definitely make it WF instead of the other one.

So I've tried Peapod twice now and both times my experience has been quite positive. I'm in the comfort of my own home, sitting down and creating my list on the Peapod website. I'll have some recipes in front of me, or a general idea of what my dinners will be (breakfasts are shakes so that's my WF list, and lunches are usually leftovers from dinner.)

I can have the contents in my virtual "shopping cart" over the course of a few hours or a few days, however long I need. I usually add stuff during the week that I know I'll be needing in my next order. I check out whenever I want, pick a delivery time for the next day, and input my payment info. If I have coupons they're collected during delivery and credited to my next order.

The Peapod interface is really friendly, they try to mimic what you would do standing in a grocery store aisle - any product you can click on and it will give you nutritional information, including ingredients! You can specify "no substitutions" on your list, or on individual items, so that the person getting your list will know you only want that brand of spaghetti sauce, etc.

You can search by "aisle", you can search by product type or brand name. If you search on spaghetti sauce you can sort through the list that comes up by name, by unit price, by price, by what's on sale - a whole lot of different ways. Some things I don't care about name brands, I just want the cheapest, like laundry soap.

So, I search on laundry soap, and then sort by price. The cheapest things comes up and I click to add it to my cart.

The only part I'm unsure about is produce since I want to be able to see what I'm buying there, and people have varying preferences for what looks good or what is ripe. I haven't gotten any fruit or veg yet, sticking with WF for that.

Best of all for what I save in time and nervous energy driving around, wondering if I remembered the right stuff, I pay very little for the service. And the first 60 days of service there is no service charge, anyway - they really want you to try it.

The charge, at least for Fairfax, VA, is $7.95 if you have over $100 in groceries. It goes up by a dollar the less groceries you have, so if you have, say, between $69 and $100 it's 8.95, so it behooves you to get a large amount of groceries. Which works well if you like to plan.

Also, speaking of money, one of the really great benefits of this system is it keeps a running total of your purchases so far at all times at the top of the screen off to the right where your shopping list is shown. So you always know the total of your groceries before you check out, no surprises at the check out counter.

I don't like to plan, but I am always glad when I do. I know I have fresh food on hand.

Best of all, the great feeling of having someone show up at your door and bringing all those items right into your kitchen is SO GREAT! All I have to do is put the stuff away.

You don't have to tip the driver, but you can.

If you're curious you may want to log on and create an account just to poke around. It's easy to figure out.

Cheers,
Sky