I recently had the opportunity to test the Chedraui Grocery Store Home Delivery Service. I must admit that I had been nervous about someone else selecting my grocery items, especially fruit and vegetables. I imagined that the person would be half asleep, just grabbing the first item they see, throw it in the cart, and that’s it. But I wanted to give it a try and see what happens. If my fears were confirmed, no big deal, a few pesos lost. But if my experience turned out to be positive, then I had everything to gain, especially if I found myself in a situation where I was unable to walk to the grocery store.
So, I went to the Chedraui website and created a shopping profile. Please keep in mind that my Spanish is still almost nil, well, not exactly. I can speak the language using one to two words at a time. But I really don’t consider that speaking and understanding the language.
But I digress. Getting back to my shopping profile. With spare time on my hands, I went to their website using a browser that had translation capability. Using that feature made a world of difference and I was able to figure out what I needed to complete on my profile and start selecting grocery items.
Now I’m going to be completely honest. It did take most of the day for me to finally leave the Chedraui website. It was important to me to understand exactly how everything worked, how to deal with items that were not available or replacement items, their terms and conditions, delivery timeframe and schedule, understanding if I needed to convert from kilograms (kgs) to grams before selecting, just about everything.
So, after the profile, it was time to create a shopping list or go straight to adding items to the cart. As I mentioned earlier, my concern was the selection of produce (fruits and vegetables), so that’s what I started with. It took me a minute to figure out how to add items, change the amount and confirm that I had added items to my cart, but I took my time and slowly, but surely, my cart filled up. After making sure everything in my cart was what I wanted, selecting the date and timeframe for delivery, it was time to pay.
Holding my breath, I entered my payment information (using my Mexican bank account). Again, this was a little different than what I am accustomed to, but I was in it to win it now. I completed all the information and pressed pay. I immediately received an email from Chedraui showing every item I had selected, confirming the date and timeframe of delivery, and that I had paid. I was so excited.
Now it was a matter of whether they would deliver as stated, and, and this is a BIG AND, if my produce would be selected as if I had selected it myself. Since my delivery was for the next day, I just had to wait and see.
There was something else nagging at me in the back of my mind. There was so much more on the Chedraui website to see and do. So, I decided, since I was already in it to win it, I would go through my refrigerator and pantry, and make a very long grocery list on the Chedraui website. This way, when or if I ever used them again, all I would need to do is login to my account and select the items from my list and add to the cart. I would need to select the amount, size, quantity, etc., but at least the heavy lifting would already be done. Let me clarify the words “heavy lifting.” I mean going through their website and selecting items that you want. Checking availability and pricing. I was so excited; I called my husband who was in the United States and had him download the Chedraui app and help me add items to the list. Between the two of us, every single grocery item we had ever purchased from Chedraui was now on the list. Now you must be thinking to yourself why anyone would spend all that time working on a shopping list, before knowing whether Chedraui Home Delivery service was any good. Let’s just say that I had high hopes for the outcome.
Now it was the next day, and I was waiting not so patiently for my delivery. In the meantime, Chedraui must have sent three or more emails letting me know that my items were being selected, sending receipts via PDF and jpeg, and explaining again how things work if my items were not available and if they were replaced with another item (just to clarify, all emails were in Spanish). Chedraui was very proactive in keeping me informed about my purchases. I had selected the 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. delivery time, so I was ready and waiting. About 10:30 a.m. a small delivery truck pulled into my parking space, and I saw the driver in his Chedraui uniform exit the vehicle. I was holding my breath again and went to the door and opened it for him. He was carrying a large orange colored plastic bin with all my items in it, including a large (3.7L) bottle of white vinegar (it was a large bin). He placed the bin on the floor and proceeded to remove all my items with care and placed them on my countertops. We both went through all my items on my receipt to ensure I was happy…which I was! All my fruits and vegetables were beautiful, fresh, and cold (when appropriate). I was so pleased and excited…they did an excellent job! I thanked the gentleman profusely, handed him a tip, and did a little happy dance. My experiment had worked!
I immediately called my husband and shared the news with him. Although we love walking to our local Chedraui grocery store and selecting our own items, it’s always nice to have a back-up plan in place. We will be using this service again…after all, I do have my list ready and waiting. 😉
And let me just say one more thing here…there was no extra charge on my receipt for a lottery ticket!
HAPPY SHOPPING!!!
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