Thrive Market Grocery and Food Haul Review | Sustainable Products and Organic, Healthy Food Delivery
The Top Line
It’s a BUY! - we like Thrive Market and think its worth the membership. As a B-corporation, it houses organic, sustainable pantry (and frozen food!) items with some home goods like TP and laundry/dishwasher detergent powder.
We’ll hit you with the bad now: it seems pricey. Membership is $59.95/year and prices look expensive. That said, it is a delivery service that charges nothing for delivery >$49. We compare to Whole Foods in this review, and we think over the course of the year, you can get out ahead by just switching the dishwasher detergent to Thrive Market (details below!).
The Products
The Good Ones (ADD to your cart):
✔ Organic Rosemary $4.99 $2.99 (Sale)
Cost efficient! And organic!
✔ Dishwasher Detergent Powder $6.99 $4.49 (Sale) [TRR Review]
OMG price and effectiveness and good ingredients!
✔ Laundry Detergent Powder $12.79 $8.99 (Sale) [TRR Review]
OMG price and effectiveness and good ingredients! X2
✔ Organic Capers $2.79
✔ Organic Pasta Sauce $9.89 $4.99 (Sale)
✔ Coffee Ground $12.99 $7.99 (Sale)
On the edge by way of cost - ONLY buy on sale!
We compared the Thrive Brand, but there are numerous other brands.
✔ Seaweed Snacks $13.99 $10.99 (Sale)
Affordable!
✔ Shirataki Noodles $3.79 $2.99
They have so many fun options
✔ Dried Kombu Seaweed $5.99 $3.99 (Sale)
More affordable here vs Whole Foods
The Not Great Ones (Skip the Cart):
✗ Organic Cane Sugar $3.79 $2.99 (Sale)
Pricier and comes in a plastic bag
✗ Bamboo Hybrid Bath Tissue $13.49 $7.99 (Sale) [TRR Review]
We didn’t love it — but it’s a decent TP at a CRAZY cheap price
✗ Coffee Whole Bean $22.79 $13.99 (Sale)
More expensive than ground coffee, just odd.
✗ Nonpareils $5.99 $4.99 (Sale)
Too Pricy!
The Experience
Purchasing & Shipping: The Thrive Market website is nicely organized, with good pictures of the products displayed. Free shipping on orders over $49, which seemed high to us but it is in line with other markets like Public Goods (review here) and Grove Collaborative (review here). Membership is a hefty $59.95 per year.
Produce Offering: Thrive Market’s product offering is a bit wider in some ways than either of the previous stores we’ve reviewed. There are some cleaning products (not as many as Public Goods or Grove Collaborative), fresh proteins like fish and meat, frozen foods and meals as well as wine! Lastly, similar to Grove, Thrive Market features items from numerous brands like Weleda, The Honest Co, and Talenti (!). Here is a list of all the brands they carry.
Good to Know: Thrive Market is a B-Corporation. Normal corporations have a goal to make more money for their owners. B-Corps do that too, but they also set specific, social and ethical goals such as governance, environment, and workers. Read about their mission on the Thrive Website.
Coupons: Thrive Market often has sales and coupons, including this one where you get 25% off your first order. We have bought from Thrive three times and always found sale prices, which is why we included them in the cost below. Also — auto-shipped products feature an additional 30% off.
The Money:
For home goods like toilet paper, dishwasher powder, and laundry powder, Thrive Market is pretty rock bottom when it comes to prices. On the foodstuffs, when comparing to Whole Foods, Thrive Market is rarely cheaper.
Note: this is before we consider the cost of membership at $59.95. Even at sale prices, they don’t really beat Whole Foods. However, Thrive is a delivery service, which comes with free delivery >$49 orders. Whole Foods now has $9.95-14.95 charge per delivery, plus the tip to the driver.
Over the course of the year, depending on how much you shop, these could add up quite a bit. For example, switching from Whole Foods dishwasher ($78) detergent to Thrive Market ($29- regular price) nearly pays for membership over the course of 1 year. Price details are below.
Note:
In addition to their house brand, Thrive Market carries SO many brands like Dropps, Seventh Generation, Clif Bars, and Califia Farms.
Lastly, other than frozen proteins and other frozen goods, Thrive does not offer fresh produce.
Bottom Line
We think Thrive Market is worth a look. On the surface, the prices are a bit steep, especially when not on sale, but the pros may outweigh the cons of the membership fee + prices.
For one, Whole Foods and similar stores charge delivery fees and involve tipping, and Thrive Market does not have shipping fees and no tipping is involved!
Second, Thrive Market is a b-corporation. We at TRR ❤️❤️❤️ b-corporations. B-corps have a mission to not only produce profits (they are a normal company, after all), but ALSO have to succeed at an ESG mission they established at the onset. Read about b-corporations here and read about Thrive’s mission here.
In Pictures
Cost Breakdown
¹Whole Foods Allegro Coffee
²Brand: GimMe
³Both Kombu were from Emerald Coove
We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!
