Putting Shipt to the test

HOUSTON – Delivery services and apps are becoming increasingly popular for people willing to pay someone else to do life's mundane, but necessary chores.

Shipt is one of the latest apps that lets you order your groceries from your smartphone and have them delivered right to your door. Consumer expert Amy Davis tried it out to find out how much the convenience actually costs.

Davis downloaded the app at about 1 a.m. on Sunday and ordered groceries from her couch. You first have to pick a plan. You can pay $99 a year or $14 a month. You can get free grocery deliveries as often as you like on orders over $35.

Davis picked the $99 annual plan. The cost comes out to $1.90 a week. Shipt only delivers for H-E-B and Central Market.

You select the groceries you want to order on the app and then select a delivery time, as soon as one hour after you order. Your Shipt shopper will text you if they have problems finding a product on your list and to let you know when they are on the way to your home.

Davis paid $176.78 for 58 items through Shipt. She then drove to the closest HEB and compared the prices of every item to the store price. Fifty-six out of 58 items were more on the Shipt app. All totaled, the same items that cost $176.78 through Shipt would have cost Davis $155.53, a difference of $21.25 if she had just gone to the store herself. Add in the $5 tip and $1.90 (part of that $99 annual fee), and Davis paid $28.15 more, or 16 percent more for the convenience of having her groceries delivered.