Alligator J.

I will preface this by saying that I have had a good time with my first two orders from Grove. I had seen their ads on facebook and after multiple trips to the supermarket and big box stores, I have been unable to find basic cleaning products due to pandemic hoarding. Usually what is left is the ultra expensive organic options or the ultra cheap options that might as well be made of water. I've also wanted to be more in charge of my environmental footprint.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, so I did my due diligence and looked up other reviews and how the VIP service works before signing up for the free $30 Mrs. Myers kit with the caddy, dish soap, hand soap, and all purpose cleaner. The VIP auto ship service sends items on a recurring basis, and you can add or remove items, change ship frequency, and it also adds recommends items to your auto ship cart as well.

I think this is where Grove is upsetting people. I think $20 for a year of VIP (free shipping) is a good price, but why would I need a new bottle of toilet cleaner every single month, like it recommended? The same for a 45ct of laundry powder packs, I'd have to do 1.5 loads of laundry a day for a month to use an entire bag. The recommended auto-ship frequency needs to be lowered for many of the items, otherwise people are going to be upset that they are being sent these items so often and cancel their service. This either implies that the products aren't as good as typical store brands and you need to use more to get a similar effect, or that Grove is trying to sell you more than you need, which is a bad look for a company saying it wants to be sustainable.

Overall, the product selection is good, and they allow on-site reviews so help you decide if you want to get a product, but you need to be diligent and look through your subscription items and subscription frequency if Grove isn't going to tweak its system to recommend better auto ship frequencies.