Peapod partners with Stop & Shop in this part of the country, so that's where your groceries will come from. According to their press release, “The online store features over 8,000 products in a range of categories: produce; meat and seafood; deli items; prepared foods; natural and organic foods; Kosher foods; office and school supplies; seasonal items; video products; pet items; health and beauty aids; and beer and private labels from Stop & Shop.”

Craig Castorano, a manager at Peapod's Riverhead location said, “We decided to extend our service to Shelter Island because we recognized that there are no similar services available to the large potential customer base there. So this is a win-win opportunity for us and Shelter Island residents.”

Peapod has been in business since 1989 and Shelter Island is one of the last zip codes in Suffolk County to be added to their service area. “Since we deliver successfully to Fisher's Island and Block Island we knew we could handle meeting the ferry schedule,” Stephanie Shih, a Peapod representative, wrote via email this week. In addition to the New York City metropolitan area, Peapod serves communities in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut and the cities of Chicago, Milwaukee and Washington D.C.

The comments I found online about Peapod were generally pretty favorable although some people complained about the delivery fee which runs between $6.95 and $9.95 depending on the size of your order. For deliveries to Shelter Island, Peapod will add an additional $10 surcharge. That could add as much as $20 to your order, if it's a big one, but you can probably make that up in gas saved and by shopping smart, which is easier to do online than it is in the store. For one thing, you're less likely to buy “impulse items.” If you're the kind of person who goes into a store for a package of Dentyne and winds up spending eighty bucks, this could be the way for you to go.

A link on the website suite101.com offered this additional advice: “People looking to save money on grocery shopping can use Peapod strategically to accomplish that goal. When logging into the Peapod website, one can view all the specials in one place. This makes it easy for online food shoppers to see the entire stock of sale items before deciding what to purchase. It's a great way to stock up on frequently used food items at a lower cost. And there are lots of other ways to save money with Peapod.”

To start out with them, you can get a coupon from the website worth $10 dollars off your first order. Any applicable paper coupons that you collect can be handed to the Peapod driver when he delivers your order, and your account will be credited toward your next purchase. Peapod will keep a record of your orders once you get started, but if you already have a Stop & Shop card, your in-store shopping record will come up the first time you log on to Peapod.com, serving as a reminder to reorder the kinds of staples that you always need. You can also call the Peapod folks to make a last minute change to your online order, double-check on when the truck is due at your home, and so forth, at 727-7813 or 727-7496.

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Advice for shopping at Peapod : 5/8/2009
The Suite101.com article that you quote above was written by me, and I am actually a local, a resident of East Marion. I found several ways to use Peapod strategically to save money. Shelter Island residents will have to be even more strategic because of the higher delivery charge. But in addition to the saving money angle, it's very nice to save a trip to the grocery store, even if only occasionally. You can read the rest of the tips in my Peapod article here: http://homemanagement.suite101.com/article.cfm/peapod_grocer_home_grocery_delivery

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