Thrive Market Review: What’s All the Hype About and Is it Worth It?

In the times when more than 70% of U.S. adults are obese or overweight and almost a third of all deaths in the country are caused by heart disease, Americans are more than ever in need of adopting healthier eating habits.

The problem is that healthy eating is not always the cheapest option.

As nearly third of all working families in the U.S. are low-income, they have no option but to buy sugary, processed foods made from artificial ingredients, all of which make us fatter and prone to heart disease.

Los Angeles-based Thrive Market, which was launched in November 2014, makes healthy eating a lot cheaper and a whole lot easier.

You’ve probably read or heard about Thrive Market somewhere – some of your Facebook friends may have mentioned this e-Commerce retailer – but you never quite understood what it is.

Well, with Thrive Market becoming largely popular across the U.S. and beyond, it’s time to find out what all the hype is about and how it works.

What’s Thrive Market

Imagine yourself walking the aisles of your favorite grocery store, which you’ve been pushing your shopping cart through for years or decades on a daily or weekly basis…

…but instead of all those fattening sugary and heart disease-inducing processed foods, its shelves are full of healthy foods that are available at warehouse discount prices (think: 25 to 50% lower than those grocery store prices).

That’s Thrive Market – but the online version of it.

While there’s probably no need to introduce you to online grocery shopping – this thing has been around for years now after all – Thrive Market is basically the new Amazon, but the difference is that it sells only health-conscious goods and at better prices than either Amazon or your local grocery store.

If eating healthy without spending your entire salary on that healthy diet sounds like something you’re looking for – you might want to consider shopping at Thrive Market but wait until you weigh all the pros and cons.

Whether you’re gluten intolerant or vegan, whether you want to eat paleo, organic or raw foods – Thrive Market has it all.

Though don’t expect it to have every single brand or all products each brand makes – it still has plenty of options for you to choose from (think: Earth’s Best, Garden of Life, Simply Organic and many other health-conscious brands).

Before you sign up on Thrive Market and start shopping for your favorite gluten-free crackers, there are a few things to consider.

Though if you pay attention to just how expensive those gluten-free crackers are at your favorite grocery store, the idea of shopping at Thrive Market probably have already become appealing.

How does Thrive Market Work and What’s the Catch

In case you’re wondering how Thrive Market does it – there’s nothing magical about saving 25-50% with it.

Why Thrive Market’s concept works is because there is no middleman or retail markup involved, which is usually the case for traditional retail.

Thrive Market is membership-based and has the annual fee of $59.95, but you get to test its service with a 30-day free trial period.

However, as perhaps you’re already paying for a Costco membership and probably an Amazon Prime Membership, you might want to consider if it’s really worth spending additional nearly $60 on yet another membership.

The first good thing is that if you break down the fee, it’s a little less than $5 a month.

The second good thing is that you get to actually test Thrive Market before you commit to its annual $59.95.

Thrive Market allows you to use its service for free for 30 days – that’s a full month of having access to thousands of difficult-to-find products at affordable prices, seeing how much you’re actually saving on food and finding out if Thrive Market’s shipping and customer service are worth the cost.

The third good thing (it’d be fair to mention this as well) is that for every membership Thrive Market sells, the company gives a free membership to a low-income family, which gets access to healthy food choices at warehouse discount prices.

By the way, low-income families with no access to healthy foods are more likely to be obese or overweight and suffer from heart disease.

The bad thing, however, is that Thrive Market may not be worth it if you’re not planning to order too often to cover the annual fee with savings.

But we’ve found that it takes on average three orders from Thrive Market to cover the membership fee with the amount of money you’re saving had you ordered from another retailer.

Thrive Market Shipping: Time, Package and Customer Service

If you’ve ordered something online already (in the times of eBay and Amazon you probably have), you know by now that buying something online comes at an additional cost for shipping.

Whether you’re ordering from Thrive Market, Amazon, Boxed or any other e-Commerce retailer – each service needs extra time to deliver your order to your door.

If you’re ordering online less than $49 worth of goods to be sent anywhere within the continental U.S., you’re charged with shipping costs.

All orders of $49 or more don’t incur shipping costs.

Ordering online for less than $49 incurs a shipping cost of $5.

However, if you bought the same goods at Costco or Walmart, you’d most likely overpay more than that shipping cost (for example, a jar of organic coconut oil costs $8.45 at Thrive Market, while traditional retailers sell it for $14 on average).

So it makes Thrive Market totally worth it in this regard.

Besides, do you remember the last time your grocery shopping trip totaled less than 49 bucks?

That’s why for most people Thrive Market’s shipping cost won’t be a deal breaker.

Orders from Thrive Market ship within 24 to 72 hours since they were placed – so if you’re a fan of making ‘emergency’ grocery shopping trips (think: if you’ve run out of milk and you noticed it when pouring yourself a bowl of cereal first thing in the morning), then Thrive Market might not be the best option for you.

Otherwise, you’ll have to develop the habit of planning your orders ahead to always have milk in your fridge for breakfast.

The majority of Thrive Market customers have noted that it usually takes less than 24 hours for their orders to ship.

However, getting the order delivered to your door may take up to five days.

While other e-Commerce platforms usually offer you 2-day shipping, Thrive Market makes it up for you with its 25-50% savings, which could make it totally worth it if the financial savings matter to you.

Thrive Market’s customers have also noted that their orders are arriving well-packaged and there is no breakage or other shipping issues, which can often become a drag when ordering goods online.

However, just like with any other retailer – be it Amazon, Boxed or FreshDirect – accidents do happen, as there can be some shipping issues every now and then.

In case of any accidents, Thrive Market’s customer service seems to be really helpful, as in addition to its quick responses, it offers quick refunds and in most cases will even offer you an additional discount for other goods on the website.

Thrive Market is currently not shipping to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Canada, but the company is working on extending its service there and beyond.

While Thrive Market’s shipping, delivery service, and customer service have so far been excellent, the 5-day delivery and additional shipping costs for less than $49 worth of goods may put you off a little bit.

However, the benefits of using Thrive Market have shown that it could be totally worth it.

How Ethical and Eco-friendly is Thrive Market

Thrive Market’s policies and its Thrive Gives Initiative will probably satisfy any ethical consumer.

Being an ethical consumer and buying goods from only ethical companies has become the latest trend in grocery shopping recently, as it helps the planet, saves the environment and benefits our communities.

But Thrive Market has shown that being an ethical consumer can go even further than that.

Browsing Thrive Market’s website, it’s rather difficult to miss their mission statement.

For every membership it sells, Thrive Market gives a free membership to a low-income family, allowing them to start making health-conscious food choices and preventing such health issues as obesity and heart disease.

According to the company, more than 80% of U.S. low-income families have to buy food they know isn’t healthy just to make ends meet.

With the initiative, Thrive Market helped over 5,400 low-income families start making healthy food choices at affordable prices in 2016 alone.

And 89% of those families told Thrive that it helped improve the quality of their lives and benefited their health.

So spending those $59.95 for the membership is probably worth it at least for this reason.

While the Thrive Gives Initiative remains a non-negotiable part of Thrive Market’s business plan, we – as ethical consumers – checked how environmentally friendly the company actually is.

Thrive Market wins high marks from eco-conscious experts for its commitment to the environment.

The company is using only recycled packaging with the removal of any plastic material.

Recycling a ton of paper saves more than 680 gallons of oil, 26,500 liters of water and 17 trees.

In addition to that, Thrive Market purchases carbon offsets, and is completely carbon neutral.

Every year, 100 billion plastic bags pass through the hands of U.S. consumers.

Eco-friendly companies like Thrive Market use 100% recyclable packaging that can be salvaged and recycled.

Since Thrive Market is an e-Commerce shop, shopping at Thrive benefits the environment and lowers pollution.

According to EPA, more than 17 million metric tons of CO2 come from driving back and forth to the grocery store on a weekly basis.

But that number is in reality much higher, since many families take more than just one grocery shopping trip per week.

Should You Start Shopping at Thrive Market

To determine whether or not you’d benefit from shopping at Thrive Market, you should ask yourself four key questions:

1. Does Thrive Market have all or most of your everyday foods, household and beauty goods?
2. Do all of most of those items cost less than you’d pay at your favorite grocery store or at other online shopping site, such as Amazon?
3. Is 5-day shipping a big problem for you? If not, then are you ready to develop the habit of planning your orders ahead?
4. Would you order from Thrive Market often enough for your annual savings to cover the membership fee of $59.95?

Ways to Boost Your Savings with Thrive Market

On top of saving 25-50% with Thrive Market’s warehouse discount prices, there are ways to boost your savings with this e-Commerce retailer.

After you sign up on Thrive Market, you receive your own unique link that you can share with your friends and get additional discounts.

You could, for example, share that link via your social media accounts and write a word or two about Thrive Market to motivate your followers to sign up.

Every time someone signs up using your link, he or she receives 15% off their first order, while you get $25 that you can spend on Thrive Market right away.

And Thrive, meanwhile, gets one more customer who’d be willing to use those additional 15% on top of Thrive’s affordable prices.

It’s a win-win for everybody. On top of that, Thrive Market offers frequent promotions on its website, which can significantly boost your savings with this e-Commerce retailer.

Even during your 30-day trial, you will receive one or two promotions per week.

Comparison of Prices: Thrive Market vs Amazon vs Whole Foods

By now, you’re probably wondering if prices at Thrive Market are really that low.

For your consideration, we’ve compiled a chart comparing the real prices at Thrive Market, Amazon, and Whole Foods to help you make the decision if using Thrive’s service is right for you or not.

However, we strongly advise you to take the time and do your own research and actually compare the products that you buy on a daily or weekly basis.

In such a way, you’d find out if those significant savings with Thrive Market would make a big difference for you – but for most people, they do make a huge difference.

NOTE #1: The prices provided below are correct at the time of publication.

NOTE #2: Amazon’s terms of service doesn’t allow third parties to publish its prices, which is why you’ll have to click each link to see the current price for an item.

While Thrive Market may not have every single brand and all goods each brand produces (though the company is constantly expanding the list of goods it sells), it has an abundance of health-conscious goods at affordable prices.

And typically those goods sold at Thrive Market will be much cheaper as compared to the prices at your favorite grocery store or any other e-Commerce retailer (which becomes apparent after looking at the chart above).

If you were to purchase the three first items from the chart above, it’d cost you $21.95 at Thrive Market, while at Whole Foods you’d spend $27.67 for the same items.

You’re saving $5.72 – and that’s even more than a large cup of Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks!

However, we still advise you to take the time and compile your own chart listing – if possible – all products you’d buy in a month and see how much you can save with Thrive Market.

As you can see, even if purchased those three items from the chart above, you’d already cover Thrive’s monthly membership fee (it’s a little less than $5 a month) in savings.

What We Like About Thrive Market

There are quite a few things we liked about Thrive Market:

• All goods at Thrive Market are available at warehouse discount prices (25 to 50% lower than the prices in grocery stores and other e-Commerce retailers such as Amazon);
• Thrive Market sells only the healthiest everyday foods, household and beauty goods. At Thrive, you won’t find sugary, processed foods made from artificial ingredients, all of which are linked to making people obese and prone to heart disease;
• Thrive Market has an abundance of difficult-to-find health-conscious foods: gluten-free, vegan, paleo, organic and raw foods, among others;
• Thrive Market allows you to try its service for 30 days for free before committing to the annual membership fee, something you won’t commonly find in other e-Commerce retailers;
• It takes on average three orders from Thrive Market to cover its membership fee with the amount of money you’re saving had you ordered the same goods at a grocery store or another e-Commerce retailer;
• Thrive Gives Initiative. For every membership, Thrive Market sells, it gives a free membership to a low-income family, which gets access to health-conscious goods at warehouse discount prices. The company helped more than 5,400 low-income families in 2016 alone;
• If you’re ordering more than $49 worth of goods at Thrive Market, you won’t be charged with additional shipping costs;
• Orders from Thrive Market are arriving well-packaged and there is no breakage, leakage or other shipping issues;
• Thrive Market’s customer service responds quickly, offers quick refunds in case of shipping issues and in most cases will even offer you an additional discount for other goods at Thrive;
• Thrive Market is eco-friendly and commitment to the environment. Thrive Market is using only 100% recyclable packaging that can be salvaged and recycled, the company purchases carbon offsets and is completely carbon neutral. Since Thrive is an e-Commerce retailer, it reduces the carbon footprint from driving back and forth to grocery stores.
• You get $25 for free to spend at Thrive Market every time someone signs up on Thrive using your link, which can be shared on your social media platforms. The person who signs up, meanwhile, gets 15% off their first order;
• Thrive Market offers frequent promotions. Even during your 30-day free trial, you’ll receive one or two promotions a week, which can fundamentally boost your savings with Thrive given that you’re already saving between 25% and 50% with Thrive’s warehouse discount prices;
• Looking at the chart comparing prices between Thrive Market, Whole Foods, and Amazon, it can be clearly seen that savings with Thrive can be rather significant.

What We Don’t Like About Thrive Market

However, there are a few things that could make you pause before signing up on Thrive Market:

• Thrive Market is membership-based and has the annual fee of $59.95, which may be a problem for those who are already paying for other memberships. Unless you’re not going to order often at Thrive Market, the membership fee shouldn’t be a problem, as it takes on average three orders from Thrive to cover the annual membership fee with the amount of money you’re saving had you ordered from a grocery store or another e-Commerce retailer;
• Getting a Thrive Market order delivered to your door may take up to five days, which is why you’ll have to develop the habit of planning your orders ahead if you want to be using Thrive’s service efficiently. However, if the 25-50% financial savings truly matter to you, the 5-day shipping shouldn’t sound like a big deal;
• Ordering at Thrive Market for less than $49 incurs a shipping cost of $5. However, it’s easily covering the amount you’re saving had you ordered from a grocery store or another e-Commerce retailer;
• Thrive Market is currently not shipping to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Canada, but the company is working on extending its service there and beyond.

The Bottom Line

Thrive Market is rapidly gaining popularity across the United States for a very good reason: it’s efficient, it works and it gives.

Healthy eating habits are a must if you’re looking to improve your health, you’re gluten intolerant or vegan, or you simply want to eat paleo, organic, raw foods or non-GMO foods, but the prices for most healthy foods at traditional retailers are heavy on your wallet.

Thrive Market, meanwhile, may be that good solution for you, because you’re likely to find the ideal option there, and the prices won’t bite.

Thrive Market allows you to purchase nutritious foods and health-conscious personal care and household at warehouse discount prices.

However, if you are not certain that Thrive Market is truly right for you, you can see it for yourself before you actually pay the annual $59.95 fee: the company offers a free 30-day trial prior to paying for the membership.

If you do see that Thrive Market works for you, remember that you’re doing good for society and especially for low-income families, since for every membership it sells, Thrive gives a free membership to a low-income family who might be struggling to eat healthy due to high prices for healthy foods at grocery stores.

In addition to that, by ordering from Thrive Market you can be sure that you’re an ethical consumer since the company is committed to sustainability and is completely eco-friendly.