Last week, I was invited to check out Honestbee and S&R’s latest partnership – the delivery of S&R’s Warehouse items!
Grocery Shopping with Honestbee & S&R
Now, Honestbee already delivers S&R’s pizzas, but this latest partnership lets you order items from S&R’s warehouse club, too. If you don’t have time to go grocery shopping, or can’t bear the thought of suffering through our horrendous traffic situation in Metro Manila, you can just order your groceries online through Honestbee.
And since you’re buying from S&R, you can be assured that the quality of the produce and products you will get meets S&R’s standards. We were told that they have as many as 25,000 S&R items on Honestbee available for you to shop for!
I made my first order last weekend. This is my first time to shop for groceries online, so I will share with you some pros and cons that I observed from my experience.
But first, let me give a quick review of ordering from Honestbee. One of the advantages of ordering S&R items through Honestbee is that you don’t have to be a member of S&R to order!
How to Order S&R Items thru Honestbee
First, you have to create an Honestbee account! If you found this article helpful, please use my referral link below to sign up. It won’t cost you anything, but it gives me a small discount on my purchases. You’ll also get P500 OFF on your first order (minimum of P2,500)! 🙂
https://www.honestbee.ph/r/KARENY4559
You can order from Honestbee on your web browser, or by downloading the Honestbee app to your phone or tablet.
There is a tab where you can pick “Groceries” or “Food”. In this case, let’s go for Groceries.
Then pick S&R. Once you get to the S&R page, you can scroll through the different departments like Alcohol, Baby Care, Bakery, Chilled & Frozen, Fresh Fruits, Fresh Meat, Fresh Vegetables, Home, Medicine, Pet Care, etc…
SALE ITEMS ARE INCLUDED!
There is a category called Promotions where you can browse through the sale items.
When you find an item you want to order, just click Add to Cart. There are options where you can indicate if you are okay with substitute items if the one you want is not available.
Checking Out:
If you are not a member of S&R, you’ll be charged a 5% non-member fee.
If you are a member of S&R, there’s no 5% fee for you! Just make sure to enter your S&R membership number. I had to look at the FAQ to find out how because I tried entering all the numbers and it was always rejected. I’ll save you the trouble, here’s how:
Don’t forget to pick a delivery time slot:
There is a delivery fee, and a P120 Concierge Fee. The delivery fee is waived if you meet a certain amount (P2,500). The delivery fee varies depending on location and peak hours, I think.
For payment, you can choose between paying by credit card or cash on delivery.
Aside from app notifications, I also received email notifications for my order. All I had to do now is wait.
My order arrived within the time slot I requested, and the delivery person was pleasant. You can rate the service person as well. I appreciate that the actual S&R grocery receipt was also included with my items. It shows that the price on Honestbee is the same as the in-store price at S&R. Here are some of my items:
Pros and Cons of Grocery Shopping Online
Pros
- Saves time – this is the biggest pro for this service. Imagine how much time you save by not having to go through traffic, searching for parking, falling in line at the checkout counter, and browsing through aisles and aisles of stuff. You can use this time to relax, spend more quality time with loved ones, or do some hobbies you enjoy.
- Save yourself from stress – along with saving yourself time, save yourself from the stress of all the things I mentioned above, as well as save yourself from the stress of picking things. If you’re not really talented at picking the best fruit, vegetables or meat, have someone else do it for you. There is also such a thing as decision fatigue. Decision fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making. It is now understood as one of the causes of irrational trade-offs in decision making. Save your decision-making powers for something more productive in your life than picking groceries.
- Forces you to menu plan – okay, it doesn’t really force you to menu plan, but it does make more sense to buy groceries for the entire week so you can get free delivery and only pay for the concierge fee once, vs. ordering a few groceries every couple of days.
Cons
- Not physically seeing the items – some information you might want to check might not be included in the online description, like expiration date, where the item is manufactured, and it’s sometimes difficult to know how big or small the item actually is. You just have to trust in the Honestbee picker to do their best.
- Price differences – the price you see online, especially for produce like onions, garlic, potatoes, tomatoes, etc… will probably be different than what you actually get. On the Honestbee app, it might say P100 for 100g, but in reality, the pack will probably be 109g, so it will cost P109.00. Be prepared for those kinds of price changes. Also, if you choose to let Honestbee find a replacement if an item is not available, there might be price differences as well.
- It’s not instant – you’re going to have to wait for the items to be delivered. You can’t start cooking now and then realize you’re missing an ingredient, and then order online and expect it to be delivered in 30 mins or less. Depending on available slots, you’re going to have to wait for a few hours for your groceries to arrive.
SUMMARY
If you don’t want to waste time in traffic and grocery shopping is a chore you don’t really want to do, this service is great! If you reach the minimum for free delivery (which you probably will if you shop for 1-2 week’s worth of groceries), you’re actually only paying P120.00 extra for the service (probably cheaper than what you would have spent on gas, too).
If you are busy and have other things to do in life than spend that time buying groceries, and considering the traffic and stress involved, then P120.00 in exchange for the convenience is worth it. Just make your menu plan for the week, make a list of the things you need, and buy it on Honestbee / S&R. As far as I know, there is no weight limit, so if you want to buy bulky and heavy items and don’t fancy having to carry it yourself, you might want to check this out, too. Also, if you take a cab or Grab to buy groceries, the P120.00 Honestbee fee is probably way cheaper.
If you live very near an S&R or a grocery store, and if you like seeing the actual item before buying, this might not really appeal to you. My dad likes to browse the aisles at supermarkets – it’s his pastime and his exercise. But a consequence of that is he also buys a deluge of random grocery items. He gets easily tempted if he sees something on sale or promoted by free taste booths, etc… If you want to minimize buying “extra” stuff, you might also want to consider using Honestbee to limit yourself to only buying what’s on your list and avoid getting tempted by other things. 🙂
When I first heard about Honestbee, I thought the items they sell would be more expensive than in-store. But if they give you the store receipt, that means it’s the same price. The only thing you pay is a flat P120.00 concierge fee and the delivery fee (try to get free delivery if you can). If you do a lot of make-ahead meals (like, prepping 16 meals in one Sunday afternoon) this makes the flat fee of P120 very economical.
