When food allergies are involved, grocery shopping involves more than just choosing between one or two name brands and the generic brand. For some food products there may only be one or two brands that are safe for your family to eat, period. And since each grocer has the power to change at any time which products, and from which brands they will carry in their store, you are continually at their mercy.
What often ends up happening for most food allergic families is they find a few products at each store that work for them and every grocery shopping trip involves multiple destinations. Before Allergy Cookie’s Founder, Tiffany Rogers, started grocery shopping online, she was visiting four grocery stores every week just to get the staple ingredients that worked best for her family.
Buying groceries online saves you the time, hassle, and expense of shopping away from home, and you can do it all in your pajamas after the kids are safely tucked into bed at night!
If you’re a food allergic family, here are four specific reasons why you should start buying your groceries online:
1. One Stop Shopping
Online retailers like Amazon or the Gluten Free Mall have the ability to bring together multiple brands from a variety of smaller retailers, allowing you to lump your shopping into one large order and save both time and money on shipping costs and transportation expenses.
2. More Choices
Non-allergic families can visit the local grocery store and the entire store is full of choices. For you, your choices are limited to only a few products that particular grocer chooses to carry. Shopping online allows you to choose from any product, made by anyone. Taking some time to shop online will show you that there are a lot more choices than you think, and give your family the opportunity to choose something that is not only safe, but also suits your particular tastes.
3. Save Time
Even if you chose to buy products direct from multiple manufacturers, rather than a one stop shop, you still benefit from being able to fully research a product’s ingredients and manufacturing procedures, and have it sent to your doorstep rather than going out to get it, potentially visiting a variety of grocery stores (or driving several miles to a specialty store) until you find one that has the particular brand you are looking for in stock. You’re spending enough extra time in the kitchen already, let someone else get the groceries for you.
4. Save Money
By going directly to the manufacturer to purchase your product, you skip the middle man and can usually buy the product for less (before it has been marked up for resale). Specialty retailers like the Gluten Free Mall are also more likely to place the items you use on sale and you are more likely to find coupons for specialty products as well.
Click here for more time and money saving tips or visit our online shopping page to find out more about where to buy allergy free products online.
