PC Express review

PC Express is an online grocery shopping service offered by select Loblaw stores in Canada. Online grocery orders are either brought out to your vehicle in the store’s parking lot or delivered straight to your home. My overall review is that I have found that using PC Express at Superstore is worthwhile, as it saves me time and effort without much extra hassle.

Read below for a more in-depth online grocery order overview!

What is the PC express service?

PC Express is a grocery service offered by Loblaw banner stores like Superstore here in Canada. Shoppers order online through their PC express account and a personal shopper “picks” their order for them. Shoppers can then pick up their order in the store parking lot or have it delivered to their homes.

The PC Express Pickup service is the new version of Loblaws Click and Collect. It does have a fee, but you can usually get a bit of a rebate with various PC Optimum points offers.

How Does PC Express Work?

PC Express works as follows:

1. Shop for groceries online at your favourite participating store.
2. Choose a pickup or delivery time slot.
3. Wait for your order to be filled by a personal shopper (you can leave them instructions).
4. Pick up your groceries during your scheduled time slot (or receive the delivery).

Benefits of PC express

Here are the main benefits I’ve noticed with PC Express:

1. You always get your PC Optimum points when you sign in to do your online shopping. It’s nice not to have to remember your card or get it to show up on your phone for the scanner.
2. After you sign in online, there is a handy dandy list of the things you usually buy and some things you sometimes buy. No more forgetting baby mum mums.
3. You don’t have to find a parking spot when you pickup your groceries. PC Express pickup has it’s own, reserved, giant parking spots for pickup. Obviously there is no parking required for delivery…so that’s nice too.
4. You avoid the hassle of getting the kids out of the car seat at the store (and getting them back in again afterwards). Who else has “car seat thumb”? …I’m sure it’s some kind of common mama repetitive stress injury…
5. You aren’t as tempted to buy things you don’t need when you use PC Express. And your kids won’t see the rack of chocolate bars at the checkout either. It’s way easier to stick to your list!
6. You don’t have to find a loonie for a shopping cart. Why is this SO HARD!?
7. You don’t have to touch a shopping cart (or any equipment in the store for that matter). You don’t need to get sick on top of everything else.
8. There are no opportunities for your kids to grab apples off the shelves and take bites out of them. Not that this has happened to me.
9. The store can charge the groceries to the credit card you have on file if you so choose. One less step to worry about.
10. It’s easier to stick to your budget when you can view your digital shopping cart and subtotal as you shop. You don’t have to wait until the cashier has rung up all your stuff to know how much money you’re spending.

PC Express grocery service costs

There are different fee structures for grocery pickup and grocery delivery. Grocery pickup is the cheaper option, but you will need a vehicle to get yourself to the store parking lot. Delivery can be pricier, and isn’t even available in some areas.

PC Express pickup

The PC Express grocery pickup cost ranges from $3-$5, depending on the order. Members of the PC Insiders subscription program get grocery pickup included as part of the annual fee. Here’s my friend referral link for $5 off your first four PC Express pickup orders of $30 or more.

See PC Express Grocery Pickup Details

PC Express delivery

PC Express grocery delivery is a little more expensive than grocery pickup. There is a service fee of 7.5% of your order total (before taxes). So a hundred dollars of groceries would mean a $7.50 service fee. There is ALSO a delivery fee, which depends on the size of your order and the delivery time you choose. Delivery fees range from $4 for a large order with a bit of lead time, to $10 for a small order with 1-hour delivery.

See PC Express Delivery Details

For delivery, there is a minimum order of $10. The site also notes that prices on Instacart may vary from in-store prices. Lastly, grocery delivery is only available in certain urban postal code areas.

The PC express app

The PC Express App is fairly good. Once you’re signed in, it’s not too different than using the desktop website. If you’re ordering on mobile, definitely give the app a try over a mobile browser. I still like using my laptop for grocery orders …maybe I’m old-fashioned? …lol

Drawbacks to using PC express

The first obvious drawback I experienced with PC Express was that all technology can have glitches…especially when it’s new. I was all ready to pick up my very first pickup order, but it wasn’t ready in time.

The manager called me on the phone (arg, phone calls….) to let me know that the app used by the personal shoppers had been freezing on them all morning. She had been on the phone with the IT Helpdesk for hours. Sounds awful!

My order did eventually get prepped. They gave me a nice free gift and a heartfelt apology. Since that first time, my orders have always been ready on time.

Another bothersome thing is that you don’t know what won’t be in stock. There is no stock indicators while you shop, so you’re kind of just hoping that all your stuff is in stock (just like in-person shopping). You can ask for a substitution if you like, but you’re not able to stand in front of all the options while you choose.

Eventually it dawned on me that we might be expected to tip the people who bring the groceries to the vehicle. I asked a few employees, all of whom said that they “rarely, if ever” receive tips. They often only bring the order out to your car – it is generally a different person who does your shopping for you. So, don’t feel you have to tip …it’s fairly uncommon.

Probably the biggest irritant of PC Express is that you have to make a phone call to use the program. I don’t know about you, but I really dislike phone calls…. especially when there are so many ways around them! Seriously, many people will do quite a lot to avoid a phone call.

…And when you finally get up the courage to call the store to say “I’m here, in parking spot #3!” …you’re met first with an automatic answering system. Seriously? Seriously not cool. Isn’t there an app for that?

PC Express review: Should you try it?

My experience with grocery pickup has been positive enough to make this PC Express Review positive. I’m certainly going to keep using it! It saves me time, effort, and most importantly…sanity. Yay for grocery pickup!

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