ALL ABOUT THRIVE MARKET
I get questions about Thrive all the time and I see people asking about it in groups so I knew I needed to do a full post on it! I have been buying from Thrive since March of 2020 and it has been such a huge help with my grocery shopping.
WHAT IS THRIVE MARKET?
Thrive Market is an online grocery store where you can buy better ingredient items and brands like Simple Mills, Siete, Serenity Kids, Kettle & Fire, Pascha, Wellnesse, Beekeepers Naturals , Primal Kitchen, Cappellos and more. Basically all the brands I talk about on Instagram all the time can be found there! I would call it a "healthier" online store.
It allows you to filter by diets such as gluten free, paleo, vegan, Keto, AIP, Low Fodmap, etc... so if you have to eat a certain way it makes shopping really easy. You can also filter by brand.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
You have the option to pay a yearly fee of $60 or pay a monthly fee of $12. Thrive guarantees you will make back your membership fee in savings in a year and if you don't, they will pay you back the difference in Thrive cash when you renew.
If you're a student, teacher, first responder, nurse, veteran or family in need you can qualify for a free membership. Apply here.
The only other fee is a small fee (around $2) added to each order for a "worker safety fee" that goes towards programs for Thrive employees such as paid sick leave, mental health services, etc.. You do not have to participate in this. You just have to uncheck the box and opt out if you don't want that fee added to your order.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
You simply place an order whenever you want! It's that simple. There are no monthly ordering requirements. You can place an order once a month, once a year or once a week- truly whenever you want! No strings attached. You pay the yearly or monthly fee so that gives you the ability to shop as you please.
There is an autoship option but that is completely optional. I don't utilize this feature myself because it's just not right for me and how I order. You do get some additional discount when you autoship but I just haven't found it to be worth it in my opinion. If you want stuff regularly at the same time every month it might be worth it! You do have the option to change your shipment date and items so it's something to consider if you like the ease of that.
They do keep record of all of your old orders and there is a "buy it again" section where you can click on past items ordered which is nice because you don't have to search for things you love all over again. The website is very user friendly!
WHAT DO THEY SELL?
This is the best part! It's like a Whole Foods, Sprouts and Natural Grocers all in one! They have everything from pantry items to frozen items to personal care items to herbal remedies and more. There are hundreds of brands to choose from. There are some items I can't even find at my local stores.
My favorite part is that they have their own Thrive brand products and I buy so many of those. They have great flours, spices, nuts and seeds and more under their house brand and they are a bit more affordable. I talk about a lot of items in my pantry guide which you can download here for free to see some more specific options.
Some of my favorites:
Diapers. We've used them on Payson for months. I would put them in the "better" category for clean diapers. I just bought a pack and paid $.50/diaper. They hold everything in as well!
Coconut Milk- no gums or filler, just straight milk!
Organic flours like cassava and coconut
Serenity packets
Sprouted nuts and seeds
Spices- they come in a small bag that you can just pour into your jars at home
Pascha chocolate chips
Beekeepers Natural throat spray
Just to name a few!
HOW FAST IS SHIPPING?
I buy a lot of things online from a lot of different brands. Thrive probably has the fastest shipping out of all of them. As I write this I just placed an order on Thursday morning at 9:30. It shipped out Thursday evening and it is now Saturday morning and the shipment is on the FedEx truck for delivery so I should get it today. This is how every order is. Average time from ordering to having it on my door is around 3 days.
Everything also comes wrapped so well in recyclable packaging so there is nothing breaking in the box.
Here are the current shipping rates. All of the pantry and personal care items are considered "grocery" so essentially it's free shipping over $50 for most orders.
IS IT WORTH IT?
This is probably the # 1 question I see. I think yes but only you can answer that for your situation. I would have to go to 4 stores to find all of these items so this is an excellent way to not have to do that. Shipping is incredible as noted above and I love the Thrive brand items. Some items aren't even sold in my local stores so I wouldn't be able to get them.
When comparing prices Thrive is comparable or even cheaper than my local stores. They also often do sales on a brand or category. Ex: a sale on all Primal Kitchen items or a sale on all makeup
When they do those sales it's a good time to stock up on items you normally keep on hand.
The other thing to consider is not just the price of the items but what your time is worth. Now that I have a child I see that anything I can outsource or make easier = more time with Payson so that's a factor as well.
Yes it might be a bit cheaper to buy something from a brand directly online but then you might end up paying more for shipping from multiple places or have to place ten orders instead of just one from Thrive.
ARE THERE ANY NEGATIVES TO USING THRIVE?
Just as with any other store you do need to read labels. You can't trust that everything sold at a Sprouts or Natural Grocers has 100% the best ingredients and Thrive is the same. Always read labels like you would normally do to make sure you're not getting something you don't want like fillers, gums or yucky oils.
A NOTE ON AZURE STANDARD
I wanted to include this because Azure Standard is the main other option for this type of service. I have heard great things about it but for me this is not practical as I don't have a drop off near me.
When you order from Azure standard your order gets placed on a truck for a set drop off date where you can pick it up with others in your area. Typically it's a set date a few weeks away.
You can order and have stuff shipped to your house but from my experience it costs a lot more & shipping takes a few weeks.
For those two reasons it's not practical for me. I don't have the time to drive all the way to a drop off point on a set date and I don't want to pay extra to have it shipped directly to me or have to wait several weeks to get items.
This is just my experience! I know some love Azure but I wanted to make a note as I know I'll get questions on it. It's just not for me!
DISCOUNT CODE
I do have a discount code! You can get 40% off your first order by using my link here.
I hope this post was helpful! If you have any additional questions please reach out to me! I always post when I get a Thrive order over on Instagram @thetoxinfreetexan and have a Thrive highlight you can see exactly what I order to get ideas! You can access the highlight here!