My New Best Friend – Target Drive Up

Ok. I am admitting it. I am obsessed with Target. They have everything I could ever want or need along with everything I don’t. I didn’t think I could love Target more than I already did, but now that I can now order via the mobile app and have my items brought out to my car once I arrive at the store, I realize I was wrong and love them more than ever.

I decided to give Target Drive Up a try this past week when I needed to grab a few things for my son’s preschool class (cue sad face) that he needs to take with him when he starts next week. Shopping with him is becoming a bit more uncertain. He either rides in the cart or stroller and is the model son. He talks as we walk up and down the aisles pointing to things he likes. I get what I need and we’re in and out without issue. Other times he refuses to stay still and screams until I let him out of the cart. He zigs and zags up and down the aisles leading me to run after him with my cart only half full of the items I need since I am too busy trying to catch him before pulls another item off the shelf to get everything I came for. I give-up halfway through and decide to come back at night without him for the remaining items. Walker one, Mom zero.

When our local Target launched their Drive Up service I decided I was going to give it a try sometime. I have used Harris Teeter’s drive-up service before and overall it was ok, but I haven’t used it again if that tells you anything. I am super picky about my produce and despite telling them specifics, like I wanted green bananas, I still got ripe bananas. They also gave me four thin-cut pork chops instead of the two thick-cut bone-in ones I ordered. Not the same thing. Plus, they charge you for their service.

So, some time came this week and I decided to get Target Drive Up a try. I went onto the app to order an orange 2-pocket folder, crayons, lunch box, post-it notes, baby wipes, and some head and shoulders (for my husband, not preschool). I chose ‘drive up’ as my option for all items at checkout and placed my order. The app said it would send me a notification when my order was ready for pickup. Not even an hour later I received an email and mobile app notification that my items were ready. I also received notification that two of my items weren’t available. This was confusing to me since all the items I purchased said they were in stock at my store.

This is the only downside I found throughout the whole process. The post-its and the orange folder were no longer available. Instead of the app giving me an option to choose a different colored folder that they did have in stock (like ‘hey, since we didn’t have this item maybe you’d be interested in swapping for this’) or a different set of post-it notes, I had to cancel those items entirely and start a whole new order. My other items in the order were safe, I only canceled those two individual things. Not super convenient but also not the end of the world. I chalked it up to this whole Drive Up service is new for them and maybe they will make that change in the future. Note: I was prompted to leave feedback in the app after I picked up my order so I made sure to suggest that as a future improvement.

So, I placed a new order with a blue 2-pocket folder and when I was notified about thirty minutes later that both of my orders were ready, I decided to head over to the store. Before pulling out of my driveway I went into the app and let them know I was on my way. It had me describe my vehicle – so I chose silver SUV. Really straightforward. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be another silver SUV there at the same time as me. They should have an option to add “badass mom mobile with black twenty-twos and tinted windows” as an additional identifier.

When I arrived I pulled into one of the four spaces, two going in one direction, two going in the other. I pulled up to spot number one, put my car in park and opened the app. I hit the button to let them know I had arrived and then started my stopwatch. I wanted to clock how long it took them to bring out my items. Approximately thirty-two seconds. 32! Absolutely the fastest Target run ever, at least for me. He had both my orders in these new heavy-duty plastic bags that I will absolutely re-use. He scanned the barcode in my app to verify my order, handed me my bags and I was on my way. All of my items were correct and there were zero issues.

Once I got back home I was curious to see what is available to order through Drive Up since I already knew I would be using this for almost all my future Target trips. I went through the app and searched for items that might not yet be offered using this service. Note: it will tell you in the items description if it is available for Drive Up. It does not look like grocery items or larger items such as bicycles and some furniture currently qualify as a Drive Up item, but almost everything else does. The only true downsides of ‘drive up’ are (1) you cannot buy things from the dollar section which is where I find a lot of fun things for my son, so I will still occasionally need to go in and shop and (2) Cartwheel offers cannot be redeemed on orders placed using Drive Up. Neither are huge negatives for me since I am doing it solely for convenience. The 5% I am going to save on my paper towels isn’t worth the hassle of unloading my son and going into the store to shop for everything myself. I don’t normally grocery shop at Target since they don’t have the vast selection as a normal grocery store so that is not really a downside for me. But hopefully, for those of you that do grocery shop there, they will add that service in the future, even if only for dry goods.

Not only is Target Drive Up free but it is extremely convenient, especially if you are in a rush or have children!  I highly suggest taking advantage of this service if your local Target has it, and let me know about your experience once you do!

You can find out more about Target Drive Up here!