Quibbling Dot Net

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I’ve been buying most of our household packaged goods through Alice lately- TP, assorted cleaning products, razors, trash bags, cat food, powdered drink mixes, paper towels, etc. There are many reasons to love it, but for me, it comes down to these:

1. That web application is soooo cool. It’s got a couple of rough spots, but the Alice application lets you built a virtual shelf of products you use, set re-order reminders, check for better deals on products where you don’t have a ton of brand loyalty, compare prices to competing outlets, etc. It’s incredibly convenient. I also hear there’s a mobile app in the works, so you can add products as you notice you’re running low on them around the house.

2. The prices really are that good. In addition to their online price comparison tool, I’ve been doing some spot-checking on things we use a lot, like Crystal Light and detergents and things. At worst, Alice’s prices are about evenly matched with our local big-box stores, and at best, Alice is cheaper, sometimes by multiple dollars, than our supermarket.  And that’s before they apply whatever coupons happen to be available. And the shipping is free, so we’re not eating up the savings that way.

3. I can buy just one of something. I can get a lot of these products equally conveniently from Amazon, where we have a Prime membership anyway, or equally cheaply at a place like Costco, but in both of those situations, we’d have to buy a whole freaking crate of something. I don’t need to buy bottles of Shout three at a time. I don’t have space to store a gross of toilet paper, and while I AM steadily working my way through that 6-pack of Crystal Light To Go boxes, it would have been better to have had a variety of flavors for the money.

4. Better planning. Because Alice ships ground, I do have to plan in advance if I want to avoid a trip to the store to pick up an emergency pack of toilet paper. But, the end result is that I have a greater awareness of what we’re running low on, how quickly we go through it, and when we need more. This hasn’t completely eliminated buying household products at the store- sometimes you just can’t wait three days for a box of Kleenex- but the planning ahead helps.

The disadvantages are:

1. Yeah, it’s ground shipping. Amazon Prime and Zappos VIP have spoiled me. But this is addressed by better planning, and I find that between the better planning, the not having to go to the store, and the saving money, I can suck it up and wait the three days it takes a box to get to me.

2. Not enough diversity of products yet. This is improving. Alice only launched this summer, but I’m anxious for more of the things we use to be accessible, and sometimes WHICH products are missing seems kind of weird. Like, I can get IAMS Indoor Cat/Hairball Care dry cat food, but not regular old IAMS Adult Cat food. which is the dry variety my cats eat. And I can get Method hand soap, but not Method air freshener capsules, even though I can get a different brand of air freshener capsules. And guys? I know cat litter is really heavy to ship, but you’ve got Fresh Step cat litter, so I’m waiting for Arm & Hammer. Please?

The disadvantages are vastly, vastly outweighed by the advantages for us. So I think you should check it out (yes, that’s an affiliate link, but the one at the top of this post is not), if only for the interest of looking at their web application (I totally geek out about it every time I use it).