It’s been over two years since Kroger launched their home delivery service serving Pick 'n Save and Metro Market customers in Southeastern Wisconsin. From the start, the service set itself apart by offering a seamless shopping experience and high-quality grocery delivery enacted by friendly delivery drivers in refrigerated trucks.
Fast, efficient, affordable
Since that time, I’ve used the delivery service semi-regularly, especially when I need predictable home delivery (Kroger uses one-hour delivery windows) for refrigerated and frozen items. I’ve also found that – as delivery fees for most services have increased – Kroger delivery has remained the same.
It’s $6.95 per order, regardless of order size, with no additional fees. That’s less than I spend on service fees and tips for a single order with other delivery services (on top of my membership fees)!
You can save even more by signing up for their Boost service, which comes in two levels and offers benefits like fuel points, faster delivery, exclusive savings and access to Disney+, Hulu or ESPN streaming services.
Regardless of what plan you choose, it’s a pretty amazing deal. And you’re buying into a system that works with efficiencies that few other grocery delivery providers can offer.
What makes it so different?
Curious about what makes Kroger Delivery so different from the rest, I took Pick ‘n Save up on an offer to tour their Pleasant Prairie Customer Fulfillment Center earlier this month.
John Dunham, the Customer Fulfillment Center General Manager, gave me the download on their high-tech warehouse, which stocks 40K items and uses a fully automated system that allows them to pick and pack the average grocery order in about 12 minutes.
That's pretty cool.
That system is made possible by a partnership with Ocado Group, a UK-based technology company that provides grocery fulfillment services. Their systems integrate robotics, AI and machine learning, simulation, forecasting, and edge intelligence to create effective, efficient fulfillment systems.
People & robots
The Pleasant Prairie fulfillment center employs associates who work alongside a SevenMod System that uses automated robotic technology to bring efficiency to its warehousing and grocery picking processes.
At its simplest: groceries are loaded into the warehouse by associates who unpack boxes of product, load them into totes and code them. From there, the products are packed into a hive-like system where they’re organized by popularity and expiration date.
When orders come through, the bots work together to pick out the items in the orders and deliver them to human pickers who pull the items for up to three orders at a time and sort them into grocery bags according to temperature (ambient, perishable and frozen). Frozen items are packed into special totes that are lined with dry ice. From there, the groceries are packed into refrigerated delivery trucks.
The system is fast. It’s efficient. And it uses full-scale cold chain management to ensure that groceries remain refrigerated throughout their journey from the warehouse to your doorstep.
Optimized routes & friendly drivers
But that’s not all. Technology allows delivery routes to be optimized by the system as they are placed, creating efficiencies in delivery and saving on gas. The centralized system also allows them to slow down delivery availability and optimize routes during inclement weather, which helps to guarantee that deliveries are made even when the weather conditions are particularly nasty.
Despite all the technology behind the processes, Kroger also employs drivers who enjoy their jobs. They’re people who look forward to making grocery deliveries and accommodating customers with excellent service. When orders are delivered, drivers can run through any items that may have been substituted due to low inventory and provide refunds for items when necessary.
During a delivery earlier this year, one of the drivers (who’d formerly worked as an EMT), relayed the story of a delivery she’d made to the home of a 90-year old woman who’d fallen and hurt herself prior to the delivery. The driver was not only able to deliver her groceries, but helped her to attend to her wound and assisted her with putting her groceries away.
Ultimately, it’s a system that employs both the strengths of technology and human interaction to create a one-of-a-kind grocery delivery experience.
As a passionate champion of the local dining scene, Lori has reimagined the restaurant critic's role into that of a trusted dining concierge, guiding food lovers to delightful culinary discoveries and memorable experiences.
Lori is an avid cook whose accrual of condiments and spices is rivaled only by her cookbook collection. Her passion for the culinary industry was birthed while balancing A&W root beer mugs as a teenage carhop, fed by insatiable curiosity and fueled by the people whose stories entwine with every dish. Lori is the author of two books: the "Wisconsin Field to Fork" cookbook and "Milwaukee Food". Her work has garnered journalism awards from entities including the Milwaukee Press Club. In 2024, Lori was honored with a "Top 20 Women in Hospitality to Watch" award by the Wisconsin Restaurant Association.
When she’s not eating, photographing food, writing or planning for TV and radio spots, you’ll find Lori seeking out adventures with her husband Paul, traveling, cooking, reading, learning, snuggling with her cats and looking for ways to make a difference.
