6 Wegmans Curbside Pickup Mistakes Pennsylvanians Keep Making
Wegmans prices its online orders, curbside pickup included, about 15% above the same items’ shelf price.
That means a $60 cart runs closer to $69 before anything gets substituted.
These are the Wegmans curbside pickup mistakes Pennsylvanians keep making.
1. Ordering Under the $10 Minimum
Wegmans sets a $10 minimum on every curbside pickup order, and a cart that falls short at checkout won’t clear.
Grabbing three items for a quick weeknight fix sounds like exactly what curbside pickup exists for.
Not quite.
You can toss in a rotisserie chicken and a loaf of bread and still land under the line, with checkout stalling until you add something else.
The fix is simple once a shopper knows it’s coming: Toss in one more staple, a gallon of milk or a box of pasta, before finalizing the order.
Skip that step, and the whole pickup slot goes to waste while you toggle back into the app to pad the cart.
2. Preparing to Tip the Curbside Associate
Wegmans’ curbside pickup carries no delivery fee, service charge, or tip, which throws off shoppers used to tipping anyone who loads a trunk.
An employee wheels out the order, loads it, and walks back inside without any prompt for a tip anywhere in the process.
That catches people off guard.
Wegmans’ delivery orders run through Instacart contractors who do expect a tip, so the habit follows shoppers over from one mode to the other.
Pickup works differently because a Wegmans employee, not a gig contractor, shops and loads every curbside order.
Bringing cash to the parking lot just for a tip is a wasted trip to the ATM.
Why a Wegmans Pickup Total Runs Higher Than the Shelf Tag
Wegmans prices curbside pickup and delivery orders about 15% above the same items’ shelf price, according to the company’s grocery pickup page.
A $60 cart at shelf prices runs closer to $69 once that markup applies, before any substitutions or weight adjustments change the total.
That markup is separate from the temporary hold Wegmans places on a payment method.
The hold covers extra charges from weighted items like produce or deli meat before the final receipt settles.
3. Leaving Substitutions on Autopilot
Wegmans’ curbside pickup asks shoppers to set substitution choices for every item, and skipping that screen hands the decision to someone else.
The app shows a suggested replacement for anything that might run out, and you can approve it or tap “Other Options” to search for something different.
Default approval isn’t automatic.
Read it twice anyway.
A shopper who wanted the family-size bag of oranges can end up with a smaller bag, or a different brand of coffee entirely.
The suggested swap just looked close enough to wave through.
Wegmans only swaps in a replacement item when the item a shopper chose is out of stock at that store.
A careful pass through this screen is the only control over what lands in the trunk.
4. Assuming a Missed Slot Waits Until Tomorrow
Wegmans holds a curbside pickup order in a refrigerated staging area only until 9 p.m. on the day it was scheduled, not into the next morning.
Missing the exact hour slot isn’t the disaster it feels like.
A shopper stuck at work can still swing by any time before closing that same day, and their order will be waiting.
Push it past that window, though, and Wegmans closes the order out for good.
No exceptions.
The groceries don’t roll over to tomorrow’s schedule.
They’re just gone, and a second trip means placing an entirely new order from scratch.
5. Trying to Add Wine or Beer
Wegmans’ curbside pickup won’t add a bottle of wine or a six-pack to a Pennsylvania order, even at a store that sells both in person.
Wegmans’ online-ordering policy lists exactly which states get alcohol through pickup or delivery: New Jersey for pickup only, and Massachusetts, Virginia, and North Carolina for both pickup and delivery.
New York adds beer to that list.
Pennsylvania isn’t on it.
You can build a whole online cart around a dinner party, wine included, and still find the bottle missing at checkout instead of waiting at the curb.
The wine and beer section a Pennsylvania Wegmans might carry in the store doesn’t carry over to the app.
6. A Hot Sub or Custom Cake
Wegmans’ curbside pickup can’t fill an order for a Market Café sub, a slice of pizza, or anything off the hot and cold bars.
That’s true no matter how good the section smells walking in.
Those departments stay off the online menu entirely.
Custom bakery orders hit the same wall.
A birthday cake with a name piped on in icing has to be arranged in person or by phone, not added to a pickup cart.
Call the bakery counter instead.
Wegmans keeps prescription refills and anything requiring an ID check at checkout, like certain over-the-counter medications, off pickup orders too.
A shopper planning a whole meal around curbside pickup still needs a separate stop, or a separate call, for the parts of Wegmans the app can’t touch.
When Wegmans Locks in Your Order
Wegmans lets you cancel or edit a curbside pickup order for free.
That grace period runs only until the personal shopper starts working through it, not until the scheduled pickup time arrives.
The countdown starts early.
A personal shopper might work through a 6 p.m. pickup order by early afternoon on a slower weekday, locking in whatever’s already sitting in the cart.
Add-on items work the same way.
Anything typed into the app after shopping begins won’t make it into the bags, no matter how many hours remain before the pickup window opens.
Checking the order status inside the app is the only way to know whether there’s still time to change anything.
That countdown isn’t tied to the clock on the confirmation email.
Psst! How much do you know about Wegmans beyond the curbside lane? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Wegmans History Pop Quiz
Answer these questions on Wegmans’ history and how the company runs today. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Why does the Wegmans logo skip the apostrophe in its name?
Payment Methods Wegmans Won't Take at Pickup
Wegmans' curbside pickup takes Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, and Apple Pay.
It also takes Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits loaded on an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card, plus a single Wegmans gift card per order.
That list has limits.
Wegmans' checkout declines international credit cards and prepaid debit cards.
A health savings account (HSA) or flexible spending account (FSA) card won't go through either, even though some of these work fine for an in-person purchase.
If you normally tap an FSA card for grocery essentials, keep a backup form of payment ready before placing a pickup order.
Without it, the whole cart stalls at the last step.
Wegmans places a temporary hold for slightly more than a pickup order's estimated total, covering any last-minute weight adjustments on produce or deli items.
The final charge lands on the receipt total once the order is complete, and the hold amount clears off the account once the bank finishes processing it.
5 Wegmans Deals Pennsylvania Shoppers Build Their Whole Week Around
Wegmans is building its first store in the Pittsburgh area, more than three decades after its first Pennsylvania store opened in Erie.
Longtime regulars already build their whole week around a handful of weekly deals, and the newest wave of shoppers is about to find out why.
5 Wegmans Deals Pennsylvania Shoppers Build Their Whole Week Around
9 Pittsburgh Habits That Confuse the Rest of Pennsylvania
Ask a Philadelphian to repeat something a Pittsburgher just said, and the confusion sets in fast.
Pittsburgh runs on a vocabulary and a rhythm that never made the trip east, and it leaves people across the rest of Pennsylvania scratching their heads.
