Pros and Cons of Walmart Grocery Pickup: An Honest Review (2024)

Have you been wanting to try Walmart grocery pick up?

If you haven’t yet tried it and have been thinking about it lately, I’m here to say you should definitely give it a try.

Walmart Grocery Pickup can save you time and money (more on that below). If you are looking for other ways to save money on your food bill, check out how to save money here.

There are many other grocery stores that now have the grocery pick-up option, however, I’m strictly writing about Walmart today, since that is what we use (and love!).

There are both pros and cons of Walmart Grocery Pickup. I’m going to add that it may not be a great fit for everyone. For instance, there are those people that actually enjoy going to the grocery store.

Also, there are people that are not able to physically get to the store to pick up their groceries. A grocery delivery service would be better for those people.

But if you despise going for groceries or there isn’t enough time in the day for you to get all of your daily life obligations done, plus, go to the grocery store, then grocery pickup may be for you.

Plus, Walmart has made the process for using their pickup service really easy. You can place your order online or download the app to place your order using your smartphone.

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How to Use the Walmart Grocery Pickup App

We have always used the app. It's a really simple process. Go to Walmart.com to find out if the Walmart near you has Grocery Pickup. Once you create your account, whether online or on the app, you can create your grocery list. You will choose your location, pick-up date, and time.

If you use this link to get started, you can get $10 off your first order of $50 or more!

Make sure you choose the correct Walmart location, especially if there are multiple Walmart stores in your area.

Walmart will send you an email (and a notification if you are logged into the app) when your order is ready for pick up. They will also notify you at that time if there were any substitutions they had to make. You will either okay the substitutions or decline them.

Then you tell Walmart when you are heading to the store to pick up your groceries by clicking on the “check-in” button in the app. Once you are there, park in the designated spots and enter your parking spot number and car color in the app.

That’s it. A Walmart employee will bring your order right out to the car and put it in your trunk for you. You don’t even have to get out.

Side note: It's a good idea to request the bread and eggs up front to make sure they are safe for the ride home.

Walmart grocery pick up definitely has pros and cons, just like every other service in this world does. However, in my opinion, the pros greatly outweigh the cons. Therefore, I feel it is an awesome service for my family to use and could be awesome for your family too!

Today I wanted to tell you about the pros and cons so you can decide for yourself if you want to give it a try.

Pros and Cons of Walmart Grocery Pickup

Cons of Walmart Grocery Pickup

You can’t use coupons.

This could be a deal-breaker for a lot of people. We used to use coupons for food. However, right before we switched to Walmart grocery pick up, we were only grocery shopping at Aldi.

I gave up on couponing long ago when we started shopping at Aldi. We found that by shopping at Aldi, we were saving enough money when compared to grocery shopping at a regular store with coupons. After having kids, I just didn’t have the time or energy to clip coupons and match them to the sales.

Shopping at Aldi was a no-brainer for us. I have determined that Walmart’s store brand of food is comparable to Aldi's prices, so I don’t worry too much about not using coupons.

You can’t pick your own produce.

This can be a problem. Sometimes you get produce that is riper than you would have picked for yourself or not ripe enough for your needs.

For example, we ordered an avocado to make guacamole. We wanted to make guacamole the next day after picking up our groceries. The avocado that was picked by the Walmart employee was rock hard and unusable for several days.

You have to spend at least $30.

Walmart grocery pick-up is free, but you have to spend at least $30. So you can’t use it if you only need a couple of grocery items. And of course, since you are picking up your groceries, you avoid a delivery fee.

You may not like the substitutions.

If they run out of a product that was on your grocery list they will substitute your item for something else. Usually, it’s an upgrade to either a name brand or a larger size of the product they were out of, which is awesome! They do not charge you for the upgrade when substitutions are made.

But on occasion, the person doing your shopping might pick out a different flavor of your product or a slightly different variation. If you are not picky about things like that, it’s not a big deal.

If you decide you do not want it, you can tell the Walmart shopper and they will remove it from your bag and subtract it from your total (or you can decline it through the app), but then you are stuck going somewhere else for the item.

Items can be unavailable at times.

Once in a while, you might buy an item only to find out they didn’t have a suitable substitution available. When this happens, the item shows up on your receipt as unavailable and they credit that money back to you.

Then you have to find your item elsewhere, which can be a bit annoying if you don’t have time to make extra stops.

Walmart Grocery Pickup is only available at certain stores.

Usually, grocery pickup is only offered at their supercenter locations. The closest Walmart to us is not a supercenter so we drive to another one, about 20 minutes away, to pick up our groceries.

The shopper can forget to give you all of your bags or forget an item on your list.

This has only happened one time to us. But since it was relatively recently, I’m putting it on the con list. My husband got home with the groceries and unloaded them, only to find out most of our frozen foods were not there.

He had to call the store and drive all the way back to the store to get them. He was not a happy camper.

It can be difficult to see what you are actually getting.

It can be hard to tell from the pictures on the app or on your computer how large some of the bottles and jars are. You have to be aware of the size of the product you need and make sure you are getting the correct one.

Now on to the things I absolutely love about Walmart grocery pick up.

Pros of Walmart Grocery Pickup

It’s a time saver.

Grocery shopping from your couch! Need I say more?

It can save you money on food.

Impulse buys are not as common. It is really easy to just add stuff you don’t need to your cart on the app, however, I find that I’m not as inclined to do that if I’m following my list.

Plus, if I’m hungry while grocery shopping from my couch, I just go to my kitchen and grab a snack (as opposed to putting everything that even remotely looks appetizing in my cart while I’m in the store because I’m starving).

You can now use Ibotta.

This is a newer feature. You can now link your Ibotta account to your Walmart grocery account and take advantage of some of the cash-back opportunities.

I was disappointed when we first started using Walmart Grocery Pickup that we couldn’t use Ibotta because we saved quite a bit of money with that.

Not anymore! If you don't have Ibotta yet, you really should try it! It is completely free to download and use. Besides Walmart, you can use Ibotta at Target, Kroger, Whole Foods, Costco, and more!

If you have not signed up for Ibotta yet, use this link to get up to $20 in Welcome Bonuses!

The app is easy to use.

As I get older, I feel less and less tech-savvy. However, the app is so simple, even I can handle it.

Grocery pick up is free.

As I said earlier, you have to spend over $30 to use the service, however, there are no fees for grocery pick up and you do not tip the shoppers that bring out your groceries.

They have good customer service.

There are times when I’ve had to call customer service if my products are not up to par and they are very helpful. I’ve called for things like:

• the seal on the jar of my marinara sauce was already popped up when I got home
• the shopper threw heavy stuff on my bread and smashed it when loading it in the car (I ask for my bread and eggs in the front to prevent that, but my husband does not)
• moldy baby carrots
• missing an item

They will promptly refund your money. Keep in mind these types of things rarely happen.

You can shop for all your toiletries too.

I love that you can get your personal care products while picking up your groceries. Walmart generally has the cheapest prices in town for those things anyway, so it is really convenient.

When I used to shop at Aldi, or way back when I shopped at the regular grocery store, I always had to make a separate trip to Walmart or Target for toiletries because those stores are cheaper than buying them at the grocery store (and Aldi doesn’t have that stuff).

So now that we do grocery pick up, it’s one-stop and done (most of the time) for us.

You can work on the list throughout the week.

In order to schedule a time for your pick-up, you have to complete an order for at least $30. However, if you start your order on a Monday and plan to pick up your order on a Saturday, you can work on your list throughout the week when you have the time and as you are completing your meal plan.

You can add or delete items from your list as needed. Just be sure to complete your order when you are done working on it for the night because there is a chance your items can go out of stock until the next day. Things can be added to your order up to around midnight or so of the night before you are scheduled to pick up your order.

It can be easier to stay within your food budget.

Using Walmart Grocery Pickup allows you to see your total grocery bill right there in front of you. You don’t have to use a calculator like you would if you were putting items in your cart as you go through the store. You can easily remove or add things in order to stay under your food budget for the week.

Is your total grocery bill higher than what you had budgeted for? All you have to do is remove items to bring your total down or change some items out for less expensive items to get your total within your budget.

Shopping in a store is much harder to keep track of your total as you are throwing things into your cart. In my opinion, this makes Walmart Grocery Pickup a huge asset for budgeting.

Usually, they give you great substitutions.

If your item goes out of stock after you’ve already completed your order, they will substitute it with either a larger size of the product, multiple smaller sizes to equal the size you wanted, or if you ordered a generic or Walmart brand and they have a comparable name brand, you could get that.

If the price of the product they substituted is higher than what you paid for the original product, you get it for the lower price. If the substitution is cheaper than the product you ordered, they will charge you a cheaper price.

The app saves your favorites/items you already purchased.

This feature has saved me from forgetting to add items I needed to the list. I usually scroll through my favorites and see if I’m low on any of the items.

They have many time slots available for pick up.

This was not the case during the beginning of COVID, but it has returned to normal. It’s very easy to find a time that works with your schedule.

Sometimes they will give you a goody bag.

This seems to depend on your Walmart, but we have gotten goody bags in which they put free samples of products, as well as information about some new products.

It is very easy to decline a substitution.

We used to have to tell the Walmart shopper that brings the groceries out if we didn't want a certain substitution they made. However, now they send you a notification on your phone with the substitutions and you can accept or decline them through your phone before you drive to the store.

You stay in your car.

I love not having to set foot in the grocery store and being able to come home with a trunk full of groceries!

It is great when you have young kids that you would have had to take into the grocery store with you. Just getting them in and out of the car can be a chore. You can also avoid the pestering for the new sugary cereal or the freshly baked cookies they spotted in the aisles.

Final Thoughts

There are definitely pros and cons of Walmart Grocery Pickup, however, in my opinion, the pros significantly outweigh the cons. I have found that by using Walmart Grocery Pickup I save my family money and time.

We save money because impulse buys are few and far between. Plus Walmart has the lowest prices on products in our area and it is a one-stop shop (no need to waste gas driving to different stores).

To me, time savers are just as important as money savers. The less time I have to spend inside a grocery store, the more time I have to do the most important things in my life, such as spending time with my family or participating in my favorite activities.

If you haven't shopped using Walmart Grocery Pickup, it is definitely worth trying. Then you can see (and reap) all the benefits for yourself.

Do you use Walmart grocery pick up? If you do, what is your absolute favorite thing about it? Please leave me a comment and let me know!