I tried our Cheetah today so I decided to write about it. They haven’t paid me to do. In fact, I paid them. It involves my car. So there’s that.
What is it?
Cheetah is basically Turo for groceries. Thanks to Coronavirus, there is a huge amount of supply with very low demand in the commercial food delivery services. How do you get rid of supply? Shift it to a need! Turo shifted supply (cars not going anywhere) to a need (rental cars). Get it? Got it? Cool.
You place an order with the app on your phone and pick a location, date, and time (1 hour windows) to pick it up. I put my order in on Saturday night and got a Monday appointment window.
What’s on it?
I’ll be honest, if you’re not a Costco shopper, this might take some adjustment. Most of the items are pretty bulky. They are designed for supplying commercial kitchens and going direct to consumer is new so as of today, the “Family Friendly” items are somewhat limited but the prices are good and in the past 2 days, has gotten a lot more broad. I’m a bit disappointed that they seem to have added a normal size yogurt today that wasn’t there Saturday. Oh well, next time!
Now the bulk items? Those could be pretty awesome. If you make a lot of smoothies or guacamole, then this would be perfect for you. Bulk avocados and spinach! Here’s my roomate hugging her cheese-baby. It’s 5lb bag of shaved Parmesan that was only $17.
What’s the pickup experience like?
Kind of rad. You show up to a parking lot with a big orange truck in it. They ask for your name and they load the groceries into your trunk. You’ve already paid through the app, so you just drive away. Totally contactless. The guys who loaded up my car were awesome. They were masked because we’re in the Bay Area and that’s currently a thing.
The spinach was riding shotgun for the ride home along with a big bag of lettuce and some tomatoes.
Where is this service offered?
SF Bay Area only for now. I hope they survive because it works pretty well.
Ratings:
App: 8/10
I wish I could favorite some items or see my pickup location after my order was in.
Service: 10/10
I was in and out in 2 minutes.
Quality: 10/10
Nothing that I ordered was wilted or gross. That is really my #1 concern with something like this. It would suck to get 5lbs of lettuce to have it go bad in 2 days.
Cool Factor: 8/10
I wasn’t expecting this but it was actually pretty cool. As an added bonus, they recycle the boxes, so no need for bringing your own bags or contributing environmental waste.
Prices: 8/10
Some items were far and away better than a grocery store. Others were on par with what you would expect. I’m lucky in that I typically buy produce at a store with the best prices anywhere but I also refuse to wait in line outside of it due to occupancy limits. This is the next best thing in terms of prices. If you frequent Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, you’ll probably be blown away.
Coupon: $20 off
They gave me a flyer with the food. It gives you $20 off first time orders - hoping that I would share with friends. Well, here you go, if you’re in the Bay Area and want $20 off your first order, use code C4PNEW for $20 off.