Weekly Grocery Delivery Could Cost Virginians Up to $985 a Year in Fees and Tips, Based on a Richmond Test

You build a $50 grocery cart, choose delivery and watch the total at checkout climb.

NBC12 bought the same 12 items three different ways at Richmond stores, and one way cost noticeably more.

Here’s what delivery fees and tips added to a Richmond grocery order, and what that means for Virginians who order often.

Note: This is general information, not financial advice. Store fees, tips and prices are subject to change.

Extra Charge

Delivery fees and tips added between $14.15 and $18.95 to each Richmond grocery order in a test NBC12 reported in March 2026.

The same dozen items averaged $49.63 across three Richmond stores, so those charges landed on an order of about $50.

Without a store membership, the charges came on top of the grocery total.

Those figures describe the extra cost per order, not a monthly or yearly bill.

The story folds fees and tips into one range and doesn’t give the split.

The $49.63 Basket of 12 Items

Delivery fees and tips landed on a basket of milk, butter, eggs, orange juice, bread, cheese, cereal, fresh meat, vegetables, pasta, tomato sauce and coffee.

The reporter bought those 12 items in person, by pickup and by delivery.

The stops were Target, Walmart and Whole Foods locations in Richmond.

No store memberships were used, and the totals included local sales tax and bag fees.

That matters if you’re weighing a membership, which can bring free delivery, though NBC12 says memberships can cost $100 or more a year.

The report was part of a joint investigation with stations across the country.

The station also found Richmond grocery prices comparable to those in New York and Boston.

Pickup at the In-Store Total

In the Richmond test, delivery fees and tips added a charge that pickup didn’t, since pickup cost the same as shopping in person.

On a basket the size of the $49.63 average, that means $49.63 in person and $49.63 by pickup.

Add the delivery charge, and the same basket comes to roughly $63.78 to $68.58.

Pickup didn’t change the total.

In the test, the gap between delivery and shopping in person was fees and tips.

So if you pick up your order, the delivery charge from the test doesn’t enter your math.

Delivery Fees Over a Year

If you order weekly, NBC12 puts delivery fees at roughly $60 a month, though the rate it used includes tips.

The monthly estimate assumes four orders, and the 12-, 26- and 52-order totals use the same $14.15 to $18.95 range.

Four orders at $14.15 come to $56.60, and four at $18.95 come to $75.80.

Even at the low end, four weekly orders cost more than one extra basket, $56.60 against $49.63.

A year of monthly orders at the same range would cost you $169.80 to $227.40, or more than three baskets at the low end.

Every other week means 26 orders, or $367.90 to $492.70. At the low end, that’s more than seven baskets.

Weekly orders for a year come to $735.80 to $985.40, assuming each order matched the test.

At the low end, that’s the price of nearly 15 baskets at the $49.63 average, and the high end comes to nearly 20.

Fees and Tips Near Washington

Near Washington, D.C., every delivery service the nonprofit Consumers’ Checkbook checked charged annual fees, per-delivery fees, service fees or a mix.

Some services also mark up the prices you’d see in the store.

Tips are separate from those fees, and order fillers and drivers are paid little and rely on gratuities.

A membership typically ran $99 a year, and it’s usually the better deal if you’ll place more than 10 orders a year.

If you order weekly, you’d pass that mark by week 11.

Dedicated services from Target, Walmart and Whole Foods, the same chains tested in Richmond, were among those that added only a few dollars per order, not including tip.

That check added a $30 tip to each delivery option, and with some other services, markups and fees added $40 or more to the totals, plus tip.

That check priced a 150-item order that would cost $300 at an average-priced grocery store, and it was last updated in November 2025.

Limits of One Test

The test used no memberships, so it doesn't show what free delivery would have saved.

The test covered three stores in one city, so you shouldn't read its range as a Virginia-wide fee.

The story gives no delivery fee for any single store and no tip percentage, so the range can't be matched to Target, Walmart or Whole Foods.

It reports one $49.63 average, so you can't tell which of the three stores had the lowest basket.

It isn't a store ranking.

One bottle of orange juice cost $7.96 at a Richmond Walmart and $6.48 at a Walmart in Fairfax, a $1.48 gap, so the basket under a delivery fee may change between Virginia cities.

Walmart said in a statement that most of its stores use the same prices, though certain commodities can vary regionally.