Instacart: Affordable Same-Day Delivery
About: For dependable same day dog food delivery services, Instacart is a great choice. The on-demand grocery delivery service brings pet food to your doorstep from retailers like Petco, Sam’s Club, Costco, Harris Teeter, and more. Best For Dog + Human Groceries
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Shop online from nearby grocery stores and have an Instacart shopper deliver your order that same day!
Features:
Delivery Time: Instacart delivers your items on the same day based on the time window you select. Pricing is more expensive depending on the urgency of your order. For example, it may be around a $7-9 charge for a 5-hour delivery window or $12-$15 for an express one-hour delivery window.
Discounts: There aren’t any discounts included with the service. However, with an Instacart Express membership, you’ll experience free delivery on any order $35 and service fees reduced by 5%.
Instacart is perfect for last-minute dog food delivery. Plus, you can access Instacart from the app or your web browser for flexible shopping while on the go.
Delivery fees can add up over time, so the service is probably best reserved for last-minute dog food needs. In addition, Instacart’s stock is dependent on individual store’s supplies, so you may find times where Fido’s favorite food is simply unavailable.
PetSmart is another pet-focused retailer selling name-brand food, treats, toys and supplies. You can also save 10% on your overall purchase by ordering online and picking up at your local PetSmart. You can shop by brand, by pet, services or deals. Right now they are offering buy one get one half off select dog and cat supplements.
So if you’re wondering where to buy pet food online, we’ve rounded up some popular pet retailers. And as we are living in a day of supply chain issues, keep the following in mind: Don’t buy in bulk as this causes inventory to run out. But do place your orders before you need them so your pet won’t run out of their brand of food. This is where the Autoship will come in handy.
Petco offers a wide range of food, supplies, treats and toys for dogs, cats, birds, hamsters and more. Like Chewy, Petco also offers AutoShip deliveries with 35% off your first purchase – this is a good option for pet owners who don’t want to go to store every every month for supplies. They also offer free shipping on orders over $49. Petco also offers a Resource Center which is filled with information compiled from animal care experts and veterinarians to help you find answers about your pet you need.
Retailers are making it as simple as they can for us, offering an Autoship feature that allows you to sign up for recurring shipments of the same supplies each month, while services like Shipt and Instacart will deliver pet supplies along with your grocery order.
Chewy offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee on every item and order and provides free shipping on orders over $49. There are customer service representatives available to customers 24/7 via phone, chat, email or social media. They are currently offering 35% off your first AutoShip order. Chewy really is the perfect one-stop shop for your pet’s needs. They offer not only top pet food brands, but also toys, flea protection, dental treats, and vet-prescribed medications. Chewy also offers daily pet deals on its popular products and brands for dogs, cats, birds, fish and more.
Hungry Bark: Tailor-Made Meal PlanBest Custom Kibble
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Custom-made meal plans that include dry food + supplements + freeze-dried raw protein mix-ins. Free shipping for orders over $50.
About: Hungry Bark is a great option for dogs and owners who prefer dry food, but still want a customizable food for their pooch. The service delivers vet-approved kibbles (along with single-protein mix-ins and supplements) to your door based on your dog’s dietary needs.
When setting up your account, you’ll start by selecting from the site’s regular options or a customized plan. If you decide to make a custom plan, you’ll have to answer questions covering your dog’s:
You’ll then receive a kibble recommendation based on your pooch.
I put in the information for Peach, an adult pug who weighs around 15 pounds, that I watch on a regular basis. Her food costs around $2 a day using Hungry Bark, but note that she is a small pooch, making her meals pretty affordable.
Features:
Ingredients List (Salmon Recipe):
Salmon, Menhaden Fish Meal, Lentils, Field Peas, Fava Beans…, Canola Oil (Preserved With Mixed Tocopherols), Whitefish Meal, Tapioca Starch, Natural Flavor, Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal, Dried Tomato Pomace, Menhaden Fish Oil (Preserved With Mixed Tocopherols), Lecithin, Coconut Oil (Preserved With Mixed Tocopherols), Salt, Apple Cider Vinegar, Monosodium Phosphate, DL-Methionine, Choline Chloride, Dried Pumpkin, Dried Chicory Root Extract, Dried Kelp, Dicalcium Phosphate, Taurine, Ginger, Turmeric, Dried Spinach, Dried Blueberry, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Organic Dried Kelp, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Biotin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin A Acetate, Citric Acid (Preservative), Folic Acid, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Manganous Oxide, Sodium Selenite, Calcium Iodate, Dried Lactobacillus casei Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Bifidobacterium animalis Fermentation Product and Dried Lactobacillus reuteri Fermentation Product.
Delivery Time: For one-off orders, Hungry Bark takes between 2-8 days to ship kibbles, though there are also expedited shipping options at an additional cost. Orders can also be set on a subscription basis to make sure your pooch receives his food on time.
DISCOUNTS: Subscribers to a meal plan receive 10% off their orders, which can add up to considerable savings. Standard shipping is free for orders over $50.
Pups seem to love the taste of these kibbles, which all offer an impressive level of protein content. Plus, the ability to choose supplements as well as single-protein freeze-dried raw mix-ins creates an entire meal plan for your pup.
Since this is kibble, it won’t be on the same quality level as fresh dog food. Moreover, the ingredient list is a bit longer than other dog foods on this list, so it may not be the best choice if you’re looking for a limited-ingredient option for an allergy-prone pooch.
best place to buy dog food online right here best place to buy dog food online
Ever stop to figure out how much you spend on pet food each year? Any pet parent knows that kibble and chow can really add up. According to petfinder.com, the annual cost of feeding a dog or a cat ranges from about $120 to $500.
If you want to save money on pet food, it pays to shop around. A recent survey by Checkbook.org — published by the Center for the Study of Services, an independent, nonprofit consumer organization — found quite a price spread.
Checkbook shoppers compared prices for 11 popular dog and cat foods at a sample of pet stores, big-box discounters, grocery stores and warehouse clubs in seven metro areas: Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. They also visited several national online retailers. Because stores often carry different-size packages, Checkbook shopped for the lowest prices on a per-pound or per-ounce basis for each product.
“The stores we shopped that offered the best prices charged about 40 percent less than the most expensive places,” said Kevin Brasler, Checkbook’s executive editor.
A table in the Checkbook report shows the prices found, along with their price comparison scores — how that retailer’s prices compared to the average prices for all companies surveyed.
“Among stores with local outlets, the lowest prices were consistently offered by the places that youd expect: Walmartand membership warehouse clubs, Sam’s Club and BJ’s,” Brasler told NBC News BETTER. “We also found that Costco offers really low prices for pet food. Because it, for the most part, carries only its own Kirkland brand, we could not compare its prices to the others.”
Checkbook found that shopping online doesn’t always result in the lowest prices. All the websites in the report were more expensive than the price leaders: Sam’s Club, BJ’s and Walmart. But having that 50-pound bag of dog food delivered to your door is mighty convenient.
If you shop online, make sure you buy enough to get free shipping. Or order online and pick up at the store. With Petco, the discount for in-store pick-up is 10 percent; PetSmart is 5 percent.
Another money-saving option: Some online stores give a discount, typically 5 percent, if you sign up for their auto-ship program. Don’t worry, it’s easy to cancel, modify or suspend auto-ship orders.
Checkbook found that Chewy’s 5 percent auto-ship discount makes its prices competitive with the lowest-cost local outlets. Unfortunately, online retailers often exclude many products from their auto-ship discounts, Checkbook noted.