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Can you order Thanksgiving dinner through apps?

Christopher Park

Christopher Park

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Thanksgiving can be a hectic time for families. Traveling cross-country, or even cross-continent to get home, it’s a time of the year when people eat, drink, and generally catch up on life. Surely the holiday is too short to waste by losing hours in the grocery store?

Going shopping for Thanksgiving food once required a trip to the grocery store. As big retailers introduced grocery into stores like Walmart and Target, it made one-stop shopping truly possible.

Can you order Thanksgiving dinner through apps?

Now stores have started online delivery, some with same-day or scheduled deliveries. Shopping through apps could greatly reduce trips to get supplies to host the perfect day, leaving you with more time to spend with your loved ones. So I took it upon myself to find out: can you really order your Thanksgiving meal through an app?

The list of ingredients will be:

  • Turkey
  • Stuffing
  • Gravy
  • Mashed potatoes
  • Cranberry sauce
  • Green bean casserole
  • Sweet potato casserole
  • Biscuits
  • Apple Pie
  • Wine

The apps that will be used are Google Shopping Express (also iOS) and Safeway Delivery (also iOS). Google Shopping Express is Google’s shopping partnership with some big-box retailers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Even though Google has partnered with brands like Target, Costco, and Walgreens, the stores do not carry entire inventory but a small selection that can be bought and shipped same-day if you meet the deadline. Safeway Delivery is a grocery app for Safeway, one of the largest supermarket chains in the United States.

While using an app may be convenient, when it comes to food you need to invest significant trust in the retailer that you’re going to get exactly what you ordered. Consumables can be effected by the weather and heat and being stuck in a delivery vehicle could result in some food being damaged. Also, you can’t ensure that the produce meets your own, perhaps exacting, standards. But if you are looking for extra supplies, then it could be a good option.

Ingredients

Turkey

Safeway Delivery will deliver a turkey. Price varies depending on brand and weight.

Since Safeway is a big retailer, there are usually a lot of weekly deals for items. Since Thanksgiving is a big food holiday, Safeway is offering deals on a lot of its Thanksgiving-related food.

Stuffing

I don’t know how to prepare stuffing from scratch so I’d likely go for the boxed solution. Again Safeway Delivery offers lots of different mixes from different brands.

Of course, stuffing made from scratch will likely taste better than boxed stuffing, but if you don’t have a choice or aren’t too confident in the kitchen, then this is a good option.

Gravy

Safeway seems to have all the store-bought options for Thanksgiving and offers a lot of gravy options.

Mashed potatoes

If you’re going to serve mashed potatoes, you should make them from scratch. There’s a big difference in taste between instant and the stuff made from actual potatoes. But if you don’t agree, again, Safeway has you covered.

Cranberry sauce

I’ve only ever seen cranberry sauce from the can, but I’m sure it probably tastes better homemade. Safeway’s got you covered here too.

Green bean/sweet potato casserole

Both casseroles are two things I couldn’t find. There are a lot of recipes that you can find online and you can order some pre-packaged vegetables, but you probably won’t be able to order exactly everything and may have to head to an actual grocery store.

Biscuits

Pillsbury have great biscuits and you can order them through Safeway Delivery. Granted, scratch-made biscuits are probably better, but these biscuits are my personal preference. Like other available items, Safeway does have a decent selection of different bake-ready biscuits.

Apple Pie

The type of pie you want doesn’t actually matter – these apps will have most options covered. I chose apple pie because it starts with “A.” I found that Safeway does have pre-made apple pies that you cook in a conventional oven.

Of course, you might be better off convincing your grandma to make a homemade pie rather than one bought from the store.

Wine

I don’t drink wine, but my family does during Thanksgiving. Also as someone who has no idea about wine pairing, I simply looked to see if ordering wine was possible.

You can. I’m assuming that $4.99 wine isn’t the best quality, but at least you can buy in bulk!

Safeway Delivery has more selection than Google Shopping Express

When searching through Safeway Deliver and Google Shopping Express, it’s apparent that Google Shopping Express’ lack of inventory won’t let you order enough products to make it worth ordering Thanksgiving or some other major celebration supplies through the app. Safeway Delivery carries the majority of ready-made products with the only missing items being pre-made casseroles.

So the answer is yes, you can order a ready-made Thanksgiving meal through a mobile app and have it delivered before Thanksgiving. That said, I think you could probably do better by rounding up your friends and family and persuading them to take part in a potluck or semi-homemade meal. Not convinced? Well, at the very least, pick up a bottle of wine, but try to do better than my $4.99 Pinot Grigio.

Christopher Park

Christopher Park

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