My Answer to Amazon: Vitacost

I have been hearing about Vitacost from a good friend of mine for a long time. She swears by it and spends hundreds of dollars there almost every month. She spends so much not because it’s expensive, but because she buys an insane amount of vitamins, natural foods, organic household supplies, and pretty much everything she needs for her family.

I have never been very picky about what I buy or where I buy it, but as time goes on and everyone around me worries about their health more and more, I decided to give it more thought too. Whole Foods and Amazon worked fine for all my vitamin and supplement needs before, but I wanted to try Vitacost as well.

The primary reason for my decision to branch out from Amazon is because as of lately I feel that the company has gotten too big to care about its customers. I still like the convenience, the selection, and the speed of shipping, but I started having my orders late, sometimes broken, and customers service kind of cold when reached. More than once I had my glass vitamin bottles broken and healthy bars damaged while shipping. Yes, they replace such items, but it takes time to reach them and communicate your grievances, and who wants to do all that?

I feel that Amazon was more caring and packed things better years ago. If I had to wait for something that was running late, I could often get some type of decent compensation, especially when time was of essence. Lately they don’t feel guilty about delivering auto-ship dog food late or about bottles of vitamins that arrive broken only because of careless packaging.

Then there is an issue of price. It seems to me that Amazon is really taking advantage of us now that we all like the convenience and go to shop at Amazon by default. But upon closer examination, their stuff is often overpriced, and it shouldn’t be, given the amount we all pay for Prime membership. I will include a price comparison between Vitacost and Amazon just out of the curiosity.

My first experience with Vitacost was great. I wanted to find a few things, because who doesn’t, and decided to try their service to know what to expect when there will be time in the future that I will really need something and fast.

I made up my mind to just spend $50 and see what kinds of useful products I will find on Vitacost for that amount. The first thing I looked for on the website was the discounts and the coupon codes. I immediately saw that shipping is free for orders over $49 without any codes, so my $50 limit was spot on. I also saw that beauty items are 20% off with a code and made a mental note to order some of those. Finally, I found a clearance section and started my search there.

In total I spent about 30 minutes browsing and seeing what products are available for future reference. I was expecting vitamins and supplements, but was surprised by how big Beauty section was. Besides that, I was blown away by all the choices for baby care, fitness, pets, natural home products, diet products, and food. There is no way Amazon has all that selection and definitely not Vitacost own brand that is often cheaper than premium brands, but not any worse.

The offer to sign up for email list and save 20% popped up on the screen while browsing. I also understood that coupon code offers change quite frequently, because when I shopped, it was all about 20% off for Beauty, but a few days later I see 20% off select gummies and vitamins. So I’ll say that there are plenty of ways to save at Vitacost all the time.

I picked 9 items total and this is what I got, when compared with Amazon:

• Aura Cacia Spiral Candle Lamp Oil Diffuser - $8.94 after discount ($13.99 at Amazon)

• Dessert Essence Organic Calming Hand and Body Lotion - $5.38 after discount ($9.01 at Amazon)

• Dr. Bronners Organic Lip Balm, 2 - $4.30 after discount ($9.92 at Amazon)

• Jason Revitalizing Vitamin E Moisturizing Crème - $5.51 after discount ($9.29 at Amazon)

• Pur Company Pur Mints, 20 - $1.66 on clearance ($4.70 - $6.66 on Amazon)

• Vitacost KidHealth Probiotic Tabs for kids, 90 - $9.86 (not available at Amazon)

• Vitacost ROOT2 Certified Organic Hemp Protein Drink Mix - $8.99 (not available at Amazon)

I also ordered one more item – Pacifica Natural Minerals Sundreams Lotus infused bronzer, but was notified next day after placing my order that it’s sold out and I won’t be charged for it. It said that 1 was left in stock when I was ordering. When all my things arrived, the invoice said that this item will be shipped separately, but I doubt it because it does not mention the price.

Despite the little hiccup with the bronzer, I am very happy with the service and all the savings I had when compared to Amazon. I think Vitacost will be my new favorite health and beauty store as long as each order is more than $49.

Thank you, Vitacost, it was lovely!