Meijer - Delivery & Pickup

Review by eFreeware

Grocery shopping gets complicated the moment you try to hold a list, a stack of coupons and a rewards balance in your head at the same time. Most supermarket chains have responded with an app, and Meijer is no exception. The Meijer app comes from the retailer itself and has been available since early 2013, so it has had a long time to settle into its role.

The pitch is broad: order groceries for pickup or home delivery, scan items while you walk the aisles, keep coupons and rewards in one place, and browse the store's product selection from your phone. It is free to download, carries no ads and offers no in-app purchases, which is unusual for a shopping app of this size and worth noting up front.

With over 5 million installs and a 3.9 average from more than 78,000 ratings, it clearly gets used. What I want to work out here is what the app actually does, what it asks of you, and which shoppers will get the most from it.

Ordering groceries without walking the aisles

The headline feature is ordering online and choosing pickup or home delivery, which the developer presents as a way to skip the trip inside the store. Pick pickup or delivery first, then fill a cart from your saved grocery and shopping lists. That list-to-cart path is the part I find most sensible: the app assumes you already know roughly what you need and gives you a running list to work from rather than a blank search box.

The developer is explicit that no membership is required, that products carry no markup over store prices, and that mPerks coupons and rewards still apply to these orders. That combination matters, because the usual objection to grocery delivery is that the convenience is priced in somewhere. Here the retailer says it is not, and I would take that as the main reason to try the ordering side before anything else.

Everything you order lands in an Orders section, where you can review the details, edit them, or cancel outright. Having editing and cancelation in the app rather than a phone call is a small thing that makes a difference when plans change the evening before a pickup slot.

Shop & Scan and the in-store side

For people who still prefer to shop in person, the app offers Shop & Scan. You scan items as you put them in your cart, which adds them to your cart in the app and clips any coupons tied to those products, and the developer describes the result as skipping the checkout line. The same scanning habit feeds your shopping list, so a trip to the store and a future pickup order draw on the same information.

Rewards work through mPerks. Creating an account signs you up for the program automatically, and if you qualify for a reward the app starts it for you rather than making you claim it. A Rewards section shows your progress, and email or push notifications can keep you posted. Checkout works either by scanning your mPerks barcode or by having mPerks tied to your card in Accounts.

Coupons live in their own section, and the app also surfaces them while you are building a cart. Deals from the weekly ad can be applied, and clipping a coupon means it either redeems in store when your mPerks ID is entered at checkout or applies directly to a pickup or delivery order. That dual behavior is the detail I appreciate most, since a coupon clipped for one channel is not wasted if you switch to the other.

Browsing the aisles from your phone

Beyond ordering and scanning, the app doubles as a product catalog. You can explore grocery categories such as fresh produce, meats and dairy, along with seasonal and holiday collections and everyday essentials like household items and snacks. That makes it useful for planning a larger shop or checking what is in season before you commit to a list.

The catalog side also suits households that split shopping duties. One person can build the list, and whoever ends up placing the order works from the same starting point. I would treat shared lists as a convenience that depends on how your household already shares lists rather than a feature to count on.

What the app asks of you

The app itself is free, and the developer states plainly that there are no in-app purchases and no ads. Ordering through it requires no membership and, per the developer, no markup on the products you buy. Creating an account enrolls you in mPerks automatically, which is worth knowing before you sign up rather than after.

In practice the app is tied to the Meijer store itself. The catalog, the weekly ad, the pickup and delivery service and the mPerks program are all Meijer's own, so the value on offer depends on having a Meijer location within reach, either for a pickup slot or for the in-store scanning features to mean anything. That is not a flaw so much as the shape of the thing: it is a store app, and it is built for that store's shoppers.

The other cost is attention. Rewards progress, clipped coupons and the weekly ad all reward a little housekeeping before a shop, and the app gives you the sections to do it in. None of it is complicated, but it is the kind of routine that pays off only if you actually do it.

Getting the most from it week to week

If I were setting this up for regular use, I would start by linking mPerks to a credit card in the Accounts section. That removes the step of finding and scanning a barcode at every checkout. From there, clipping coupons before you build a cart is more efficient than clipping at the register.

The shopping list is the piece worth committing to. Building it as the week goes on, then choosing pickup or delivery and dropping those items straight into a cart, turns a chore into a short review of what you already decided you needed. Shop & Scan fits the same habit for in-store trips, adding items and clipping coupons as you go.

It is also worth checking the Orders section before a slot arrives. Reviewing, editing or canceling there is faster than sorting it out at the store, and it keeps the order accurate if your plans shift. Finally, opting into email or push notifications is the simplest way to keep track of reward progress without opening the app to check.

A store app that covers both kinds of shopping

The Meijer app is a well-rounded companion for people who already shop at Meijer, and it is free with no ads and no in-app purchases. It handles the two ways most households buy groceries: ordering for pickup or delivery, and walking the store with Shop & Scan. Coupons, the weekly ad and mPerks rewards sit alongside those, so the deals you clip are the same ones you redeem.

The 3.9 average across a large number of ratings suggests a broad base of users with mixed feelings, which is typical for an app this widely used. I would not read too much into that number either way; what matters more is whether the app fits how you shop. If you have a Meijer nearby and you want your list, your coupons and your rewards in one place, this is a straightforward install.

If you shop elsewhere, or you want an app that works across multiple chains, the app's focus on one retailer's catalog and programs will not give you much. For Meijer regulars who order online, scan in store, or both, it covers the ground well.

What's new in version 10.73.0

What's new? We're making the app experience better by fixing bugs and improving performance.