With food allergies and severe celiac disease, we don’t go to restaurants very often. Going out to eat requires a great deal of preliminary research and phone calls to restaurant managers, and even then it’s a gamble whether or not a business is going to be “gluten-free enough” for someone like me. Getting contaminated by a careless restaurant can cause me a health setback that will require weeks or even months of recovery.
To play it safe, we cook at home almost exclusively, and have a great time doing it. One of the greatest things about taking our kitchen on the road is that we always have our favorite gadgets and snacks, and we know they will always be safe and clean. We think our Keystone Laredo 335MK has an enormous kitchen, with more fridge and counter space than my first apartment. It’s actually enjoyable to cook in it!
Consequently, we tend to get more excited about a popular grocery store than a popular restaurant. Exploring new grocery stores can be exciting, but it’s also time consuming when I should be working, and it’s occasionally a gluten contamination risk when the store has a big, active bakery department.
So I have to tell you why I am in love with Shipt!
Shipt is a grocery delivery service, and it’s great because it makes grocery shopping quick and easy, saving me a ton of time. It’s a membership service where orders over $35 are delivered for free. My shoppers communicate with me every step of the way via text message, making sure that any substitutions are safe for me and checking in to make sure I didn’t forget anything before they check out. With Shipt, I can do my grocery shopping while I work from home, or while I’m taking the cat for a walk.
I think anyone with disabilities or chronic illnesses who finds grocery shopping an exhausting and taxing errand can benefit from Shipt, too. I’ve used other grocery delivery services in the past, like Instacart and Safeway’s own delivery service, and while they’ll almost always work in a pinch, I find the markup on Shipt items to be more reasonable than other apps, and I think its app is a bit more user-friendly than others.
Since participating stores aren’t limited to grocery stores, I’ve even been able to replace broken phone chargers and headsets in a pinch, and we get cat food delivered all the time!
Don’t get me wrong– no service is perfect. I’ve had a few orders delayed because there were no shoppers available for my preferred time slot. I’ve also had shoppers be less-than-careful with delicate produce, or bring me the gluteny version of a gluten-free item. But these incidents have been extremely rare, and Shipt is always quick to make it right by offering a refund for the incorrect items. Fortunately, I can count the number of problems I’ve had on one hand, and they’ve all been easily resolved.
Shipt isn’t everywhere, but if you’re staying somewhat near civilization and not boondocking, you may be surprised by the number of stores available. Because Target owns Shipt, any area with a Target is more likely to be within Shipt’s service area.
If you use this referral link to sign up for Shipt, you’ll get a 50% discount on your first year membership ($49 instead of $99), and we get a small commission for referring you. Other shopping apps I’ve tried will charge about $5 per order for delivery, so we signed up thinking the service would pay for itself after 10 orders. But we liked it so much that we’ve been ordering 2 or 3 times a week for nearly a year, and I find myself plugging the addresses of future RV park stops into the Shipt app in order to plan trips with more adventures and fewer errands.
Edited to add:
Because someone reminded me, I wanted to remind you to tip your shoppers well! No matter which company you use, people don’t make much money doing this kind of work. Please tip generously! I always tip 30-35% for good service.