Organic food online delivery

I recently completed a video segment for The Dr. Oz Show about online grocery stores that are giving local brick-and-mortar stores a run for their money when it comes to natural and organic foods. We found that you can, indeed, get some products for less by shopping at ThriveMarket.com and Vitacost.com.

As with all of my video segments, I dug up more information than I was able to rattle off on TV. Here are additional tips and tricks for bagging a bargain on natural and organic foods.

• Manufacturer Coupons: Many food manufacturers make organic versions of their products these days. Many also offer valuable coupons for their organic and non-organic products. Here’s the trick: Often you can use a coupon that depicts a particular product on any of the company’s products. In other words: Say you see a coupon for conventional spaghetti sauce. Try using it on the company’s organic spaghetti sauce. Often it works!

• Costco: The superstore has upped its game to include organics, lots of organics. ShopSmart magazine found Costco’s Kirkland store brand organics are often 20 percent lower than other organic foods. Costco also carries a wide variety of name-brand organic products, sold in bulk. Just don’t buy so much that the products spoil, because that will spoil your savings!

• Whole Foods: The nickname “Whole Paycheck” isn’t really fair, as cheapism.com found. The website compared Whole Foods prices with those of a traditional grocery store and came up with more than 200 products that cost less at Whole Foods! Savings were particularly prevalent in Whole Foods’ 365 Everyday Value store brand and included essential products like olive oil. Here is the full report and here is the price list. Learn to cherry-pick these deals and you could save big!

• Amazon: The online megastore’s AmazonFresh service is not yet available everywhere. And its Prime Pantry is best for those who will take the time to fill up a 45-pound box to take full advantage of the $5.99 shipping fee. So here’s the secret: many food items are available a la carte without using either of those services. If you are an Amazon Prime subscriber ($99 a year for free two-day shipping all year long) it is even easier to justify ordering groceries from Amazon. Just be sure to shop and compare with your local store on products you buy a lot.