A few months ago, I was shopping for groceries at my local grocery store when I kept hearing this noise. The noise it turns out was a personal shopper scanning grocery items for a grocery pick up. When I asked the store associate about it, she said that more and more people were trying it. As a financial educator, I was intrigued and went ahead and signed up.

So what did I find?

- There is usually a fee involved. You can either have the store shop for your groceries and you can either A) Pick them up at the store or B) Have them delivered. The fee to pick up at the store is less than the delivery fee. I've seen them range from $5/trip up to $25/month depending on the service provided.

- Quick, convenient, easy – I just pull up to the store parking lot, I call the number provided and they come and deliver my groceries! It's that easy.

- Buying less, spending less – If you're like me, you're tempted by the cookies, cakes and other goodies on the shelves. By shopping online and picking all my groceries up, I skip all of the temptations. I get only what I need from the store, instead of things I want. Plus, did you know that the average shopper spend $2.17 for every minute they're in a supermarket? You're likely to spend 50 cents more every minute you're at the grocery store beyond the first 30 minutes! This adds up! I'm excited as I'll be doing a cost comparison at the beginning of next year to see which is better!

- Not everyone is doing it! – While the vast majority of us still like to shop at the supermarket, only around a quarter of American households currently buy some groceries online. While online grocery shopping is gaining momentum, lots of stores are jumping on the bandwagon, right now is a good time to try it if it's something you're interested in doing. (Especially since you can usually get the first pick up or delivery free!)

- There are a few drawbacks…Sometimes you're not able to find the product you're looking for in the catalog of items, the pickup time may not be convenient (you order today, you pick up tomorrow) and you may get more of an item than you realize. Online grocery shopping does have a learning curve, but so far I am happy with my results.

What about our readers? Have any of you used an online grocery shopping experience? If so, what worked for you and what didn't?