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A Comprehensive List of the Best Grocery and Food Delivery Services for Right Now (Meal Kits Too!)

Lauren Masur Feb 23 , 2021

If there’s one thing we all learned this year, it’s just how important access to groceries is — especially in times as unprecedented as these. As we approach one full year of living with COVID-19, our grocery shopping habits have changed, as people have become less and less comfortable physically shopping in stores.

In the early days, that meant that many of us were jockeying for a limited number of online grocery delivery time slots, scouring the internet for new-to-us food delivery options, and shopping for ingredients in bulk to ensure we had enough to ride this wave out at home. But with no definite end in sight, we’re continuing to rely on online sources to help feed ourselves and our families. To help you get what you need, we’ve dug up some top resources that deliver all the necessities and put them all in one place.

Here’s a fairly comprehensive view of the best grocery shopping servicesmeal kitsmeat and produce subscriptionsalcohol delivery companiesonline coffee outletssnack boxeslittle treats, and mail-order pet food services to choose from — and tips for ordering right now.

The Best Grocery Delivery Services Right Now

These services work one of two ways: Either a shopper goes to your local grocery store to shop for you, or an employee for the company pulls from a specialized warehouse. Either way, you pick your groceries and someone brings them to you.

Amazon Fresh

Amazon Fresh delivery orders are fulfilled by local Amazon warehouses and shipped right to your doorstep. It’s free for Prime members and currently available in these select cities and towns. The best way to secure a delivery time slot is by frequently refreshing for updated options.

Boxed

Boxed is kind of like an online-only Costco (for which you don’t need a membership). You can order bulk-sized snacks, drinks, household goods, cleaning supplies, and more to be delivered right to your door. The retailer also offers an Express fresh grocery shopping option, which allows you to choose a delivery date and time at checkout.

FreshDirect

When you order groceries from FreshDirect, a worker shops the company’s own facility and fills your order (unlike other services that shop at local grocery stores). The service is currently only available on the East Coast. (You can see a full listing of delivery zones and fees here.) Those who have an account can vie for a time slot and edit orders within the delivery window.

FoodKick

FoodKick is like FreshDirect‘s little sister (the groceries come from FreshDirect’s facility). The biggest difference is that FoodKick offers same-day delivery, whereas FreshDirect requires more planning ahead. It also has a smaller inventory to choose from.

Instacart

Instacart — one of the most widely available grocery delivery services in the U.S. — is working on responding to a 300 percent increase in demand. Customers no longer need to continuously check for updated delivery windows, thanks to the Fast & Flexible feature (nw last year), which assigns orders to the first available shopper. Instacart has also opened up its Order Ahead feature, which allows customers to place orders up to two weeks in advance (previously, this was just one week). With Instacart, a gig worker does your shopping for you at your selected local store (pick from grocery stores, CVS, Costco, and more, depending on what’s nearby).

Prime Now

Prime Now offers same-day delivery orders that are fulfilled by local Whole Foods stores and other area markets (unlike Amazon Fresh). The service is exclusive to Prime members. As with Amazon Fresh, it’s recommended that you continue to monitor for open slots by refreshing frequently.

Shipt

Previously, shoppers needed a membership to shop with Shipt, a Target-owned delivery service, which costs $8.25 per month annually, or $14 month to month. Last summer, however, Shipt added the option to purchase Shipt passes which are good for one, three, or five “Shipt shops.” These passes cost $10, $9 or $8 per delivery, respectively. Through the app, you can choose a variety of local grocery stores you want to shop at (in addition to stores like CVS, Target, Sur la Table, and Petco). Orders are then posted to available Shipt shoppers who accept the gig, pick up the groceries you ask for, and bring them to your door. You pay (and tip!) all through the app.

Walmart Grocery

You can reserve a no-contact delivery time from Walmart Grocery (if available in your area). Once the order is in process, you can follow the shopper’s status throughout. For out-of-stock items, Walmart has worked in a solution: Opt-in for substitutions for any or all of the items on your list.

The Best Subscription-Based Grocery Delivery Services Right Now

These grocery delivery options are slightly different than the ones listed above (one is a subscription service and the other requires a yearly membership), so we decided to call them out separately. But the idea is the same: They delivery a wide array of groceries to your door.

Hungryroot

Hungryroot is a weekly subscription service that sends ingredients to your door (all across the continental U.S.) based on pre-set personal preferences (gluten-free, nut-free, dairy-free, vegan, etc!). You don’t need a membership, exactly, but we put Hungryroot down here because it’s really a cross between meal kits and a grocery delivery service. Examples of ingredients include fresh veggies, grains and pastas, proteins, sauces and dressings, pantry staples, snacks, and more.

Thrive Market

Become a member to shop at Thrive Market (it costs $60 a year), then take advantage of the retailer’s discounted prices on pantry staples, wine, meat and seafood, beauty products, and much more.

The Best Meal Kits Right Now

If meal planning is just not on the table right now (read: you have no time to look through recipes and then shop for/order the right ingredients), consider trying a meal kit to help get you through the pandemic. There are lots of great ones out there and these are some of our favorites for right now.

Blue Apron

Blue Apron is not for first-time cooks, but rather people who enjoy spending time in the kitchen. You can choose between two to three dinners to serve two to four people. Fans say eating these recipes is like “having dinner at a restaurant.” Prices start at $9.99 per serving.

Dinnerly

If you are looking for a meal kit and have a limited budget, Dinnerly is for you. It costs just $4.49 per serving and each recipe involves only a few ingredients. Not only are they simple to prepare, but they also don’t dirty a lot of dishes.

EveryPlate

Another budget friendly option? EveryPlate. It costs $5 per serving (plus shipping), so it’s possible to get three meals for two people for less than $40. When making your selections, you can choose from 11 recipes that change every week. This is a great option for people with limited time and pickier palates.

Freshly

Unlike other meal kits, Freshly meals are prepared, portioned, and delivered to your door fresh not frozen, so if you don’t want to cook AT ALL, this option is for you. Everything is fully cooked, so all you have to do is microwave it for three minutes to heat. Depending on how often you’d like to eat a prepared meal, you can choose from four, six, nine, or 12 meals per week. Freshly currently delivers to all of the continental U.S., with certain zip code limitations.

HelloFresh

HelloFresh has a lot of options to choose from including vegetarian, family-friendly, and low-calorie recipes. You can select delivery for two or four people for two, three, or four days per week. The more frequent your deliveries are, the cheaper each serving becomes. Fans love this service for its wide assortment of ingredients and creative recipes.

Home Chef

Home Chef was designed to be flexible. You can swap out, upgrade, or even double the proteins offered and choose to receive meals that serve up to six people. You can also order as many as eight meals a week. The recipes take between 15 and 30 minutes to prepare.

One Potato

One Potato is a meal kit meant to feed big families in 30 minutes or less. Choose your family’s size, the number of meals you’d like to cook per week, and select your dietary preferences and One Potato does the rest. (They also include free cookie dough in every box.) One Potato currently only delivers to the West Coast (zip codes covered are listed here).

Sun Basket

Sun Basket boxes include three dinner recipes, with ingredients and instructions, that arrive direct to your door every week (or less often, if you want). You can choose between options that serve two or four people, with options for gluten-free, vegetarian, Paleo, and more.

The Best Meat Subscription Services

While experts continue to stress that there will NOT be a food shortage, we’ve all been triggered by empty shelves (especially in the meat departments) and maximums imposed at lots of stores (to help put an end to those empty shelves!). So maybe you want to get your meat sent to you? These places can help with that.

ButcherBox

Through ButcherBox, you can order curated mixes of high-quality beef, chicken, or pork — or customize your own box.

Carnivore Club

We realize a charcuterie club is not the most essential of meat subscription services right now, but we’re including one on this list in case you need a little treat! Carnivore Club delivers premium cured meats, cheeses, jerkies, condiments, and more right to your door — it’s like BirchBox for salami. Snack boxes start at $20 and would make a nice addition to your virtual happy hour.

Crowd Cow

Crowd Cow helps customers from all over the continental U.S. order meat (including pork, beef, lamb, and chicken) and sustainable seafood for delivery. (It comes vacuum-sealed and frozen.) Custom subscription boxes start at $99 and delivery is free with a subscription. You can change your order frequency at any time.

Moink

If you’re willing to pay the $159 price tag (which we understand is a lot), Moink Box provides customizable “ethical meat subscription boxes” filled with beef, lamb, pork, chicken, and wild-caught salmon, sourced from family farms. You can elect for your box to be sent in three-, four-, six-, or eight-week intervals.

The Best Produce Delivery Services

We know there are a lot of questions about fresh produce these days. (We answered many of them here!) We also know that a lot of you feel better knowing that your produce is coming from a service (where the stuff is exposed to fewer people). That’s where these websites come in.

Farmbox Direct

Serving the entire continental U.S., Farmbox Direct is a produce delivery service whose offerings change weekly, depending on what is “fresh, local, and in-season.” Customers appreciate the control that comes with this service, as you can choose five fruit and veggie substitutions per delivery. You can also opt in or out of the service at any time. It’s akin to a nationwide CSA. 

Hungry Harvest

Hungry Harvest is a food-rescues start-up that ships affordable produce and additional items to MD, Washington, D.C, VA, and parts of PA, NJ, DE, FL, NC, and Detroit. Harvest Box preferences are easily customizable based on where you live, how often you cook, your produce preferences, and how many people you’re feeding.

Imperfect Foods

Imperfect Foods offers less-than-perfect produce at a discounted price. The ultimate goal is to reduce food waste and change customer perceptions about, well, produce perfection! The company also sells pantry items, dairy, and meat, for around 30 percent less than grocery store prices. The service currently delivers to most of the West South Central region, Midwest, Northeast, and all along the West Coast. Check here to see if they serve your area. 

Misfits Market

Misfits Market sources “misfit”produce (wonky-shaped fruits and vegetables) from certified organic farms and ships them to zip codes in around two-dozen states. The produce subscription boxes come in two different sizes which contain a mix of 12 to 14 different types of fruits and veggies. You can also shop for add-ons such as oats, legumes, chocolate, and more. Customers can choose the frequency with which their box arrives and pause their subscription anytime.

The Best Bulk Food Distributors

Bulk food distributors? Yes! Lots of companies that usually cater to restaurants and food services are now focusing on the home consumer. Read more about the changes here and see our suggestions below.

Baldor Specialty Foods

Baldor Specialty Foods is a food service distributor that usually serves restaurants in the New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston, and D.C. areas. As a response to the coronavirus outbreak last year, Baldor expanded its services to offer free home bulk grocery delivery with a $150 order minimum ($100 in NYC). You must live within the delivery zone and sign up to create an account.

The Chef’s Warehouse

Similarly, The Chef’s Warehouse, a food service distribution company, has recently added home delivery to their repertoire. This option also has a $250 order minimum and delivers to consumers’ homes in an expanding list of regions including Vegas, Texas, Chicagoland, and more.

WebstaurantStore

You don’t have to be a restaurant owner to create an account with WebstaurantStore, which ships wholesale ingredients to individuals in 36 states (look here to see if you’re covered). Shoppers can choose from a huge selection of beverages, condiments and sauces, cooking oil and sprays, herbs and spices, baked goods and desserts, dairy, prepared foods, ingredients and snacks, fruits and vegetables, meat, and seafood. Not every single item is sold by the case, but many options are so we recommend coordinating a group order. 

The Best Snack Delivery Options

We’ve heard from a lot of you that you’re snacking at home more than usual. (What else are you supposed to do between Zoom meetings?) These snack companies will ship right to you and they just might introduce you to something new, too.

Love With Food

Love With Food has a few different snack box options, starting at just $8 per box. The most basic box comes with at least seven surprise snacks, while the deluxe box includes 15 or more snacks. All snacks are organic or all-natural. One of the best parts about this subscription service is that, for every box you buy, the company donates a meal to a hungry child through Feeding America.

Naturebox

Naturebox believes in “a world where snacks can do more than just get you through your afternoon sugar slump.” The included treats are made with no hydrogenated oils, artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners. Sign up to be a member (your first 30 days of membership are free; after that, it’s $30 per year) and you’ll get 40 percent off each order. For what it’s worth, this is the service that Apartment Therapy Media was using to stock its office kitchen up until we all started working from home.

The Keto Box

If you’re trying to stick to a keto diet while you’re WFH, you might like The Keto Box, which is a subscription box service. You can order one on a month-to-month basis, or get a three- or six-month subscription. You’ll get more than 10 low-carb keto snacks in each box — we’re talking things like bars, cookies, sweets, nuts, jerky, baking ingredients (cookie and brownie mixes, keto sweeteners), condiments, and drinks.

The Best Little Treats to Order for Delivery

Because who couldn’t use a little pick-me-up these days?

Dona Chai

Dona sells deliciously concocted and gorgeously packaged spice-based beverages including Masala Chai ConcentrateTurmeric Concentrate, and a Spice Soda collection made with juniper, peppercorn, and turmeric.

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Pints

Jeni’s is the unofficial favorite ice cream brand here at Kitchn! (Although staffers are definitely pretty divided when it comes to naming the best flavor.) Order a box of pints (there’s a three-pint minimum) and have them delivered to you or to someone you love. Jeni’s delivers to all 50 states.

Levain Cookie Gift Box

Even if you’re stress baking up a storm, there’s always a need for a pro-level chocolate chip cookie. Enter: Levain Bakery, the famed bakery that usually has a line around the block in NYC. The baker will ship its famous cookies to you. Just know that your box may be a little delayed because of UPS back-ups, but the bakery does ship to all 50 states.

Alcohol Delivery

In many states, wine shops and liquor stores are still considered essential businesses. And lots of bars are selling cocktails and drinks for delivery. Call around to see what your options are, or order from one of these online shops.

CraftShack

CraftShack helps connect shoppers with small, local shops so customers can taste small-batch beers without having to travel. They sell far more than craft beer, too: Choose from beer, liquor, cider, wine, and hard seltzer. Add as much or as little as you want to your cart, and CraftShack will take care of the rest.

Drizly

Like CraftShack, Drizly works with local stores in your area (check here!) to bring you beer, wine, and liquor in less than 60 minutes. In response to the coronavirus, Drizly encourages no-contact deliveries, and is facilitating “contactless ID scanning” upon arrival.

Minibar

Minibar is an on-demand delivery service that delivers wine, liquor, beer, and even mixers to your door in less than an hour in participating areas. (Check the list here.) They’ll also ship orders to eligible states within three to five days. If you’re getting delivery, you can also order ice.

Naked Wines

Naked Wines is what happens when a wine shop meets crowd-funding. You can sign up to be an Angel and your dues will support indie winemakers directly and unlock exclusive, discounted access to their wines for less. Of course, you can shop the site (so many independent makers!) without joining the club.

ReserveBar

ReserveBar promises to deliver premium spirits across the country, so if you want the best of the best, this is the way to go. The platform was created to help people send fancy booze to family and friends near and far — but who’s to say you can’t gift booze to yourself? You can even get a bottle custom engraved to commemorate anything you want.

Saucey

If you live in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, Orange County, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose, or Washington, D.C., Saucey can help you get beer, wine, spirits, and mixers delivered to your door. They’ll drop it all off in 30 minutes between the hours of 8 a.m. and 2 a.m — with no delivery fee.

Winc

Winc subscribers get four bottles of wine delivered their door every month based on personal preferences (chosen from a short survey when you sign up). You can also build your own box and choose more than four bottles per shipment. They’re currently running an introductory offer: $22 off your first shipment.

Wine.com

As you might imagine, wine.com has a lot of wines. To make it a little less overwhelming, you can filter options, chat with wine experts, and check out recommendations.

Wine Access

To help customers discover new wines from new places, the Wine Access team tastes more than 20,000 wines a year and narrows down the best of the bunch. To become a member, you must sign up to receive their email offers. If a bottle looks enticing to you, act fast to purchase!

Coffee Delivery

With many coffee shops closed and the lack of a morning commute for lots of us, our morning caffeinating routines may be disrupted. Here are some of the best places from which you can order beans or grounds from. Another idea: See if your favorite local shop is offering beans/grounds for pick-up or delivery.

Blue Bottle Coffee

West Coast favorite Blue Bottle Coffee offers a subscription service with almost a dozen customizable options to ensure your coffee is delivered to your door at the start of every month. 

Bulletproof

Fans of the cult-favorite Bulletproof Coffee can order various ground blends and whole bean optionscoffee mix-ins, and even the entire starter set directly from their website. They also sell single-serve pods, which are compatible with most Keurig machines.

Illy

Italian coffee lovers can order pods, grounds, espresso, whole beans, and machines directly from Illy. For a regular delivery cadence, sign up for the Illy A Casa coffee subscription. Right now they’re offering 20 percent off and free shipping.

Peet’s Coffee

Shop the entire Peet’s Coffee collection directly from their site, which is currently offering free ground shipping on all orders. Peet’s also has a subscription service that starts at $16 per month.

Trade Coffee

Trade Coffee sources their selections from local coffee shops and roasters across the country. To sign up, you start by taking a quiz about your preferences. From there, they’ll customize a box that’s shipped to you every month.

Pet Food

Our pets need food, too (obviously). If you don’t want to or aren’t able to get to a pet store, there are a few ways to get meals and treats delivered right to your door.

Chewy

Chewy is like the Amazon of pet food. (Yes, Amazon sells pet food, too, but Chewy specializes in all things pets.) This is where you can replenish your stock of dry food, wet food, and all the treats. Shop for cats, dogs, fish, and more.

The Farmer’s Dog

The Farmer’s Dog makes meals for pups featuring either turkey, beef, or pork, and other human-grade ingredients. (Each meal has fish oil and a proprietary nutrient blend). Plans start at $2 per day and the frozen meals come in a plastic bag, making things easy to divvy out. The entire delivery comes in a box surrounded by insulation that dissolves in your sink.

Ollie

Ollie also uses human-grade ingredients and offers meals featuring beef, chicken, turkey, or lamb. Other key ingredients include things like sweet potatoes, peas, spinach, and more. The vacuum-sealed frozen meals can thaw in the fridge where they’ll stay good for up to four days. You also get a sturdy reusable container and scooper to use as you start portioning out the meals.

PetPlate

PetPlate allows you to choose between proteins (beef, turkey, chicken, lamb, or a combination) and plans. There’s also a Topper Plan, which is meant to be mixed in with another type of food.