Thrive Market? Worth it?

[Ann.without.an.e]

I wish there wasn’t a paywall that requires membership to see the prices and products.

Does anyone find it worth it? 
If so, what products do you like?

[Lady Marmalade]

It might be worth it if you live in a place where you don't have access to those kind of organic, natural and whole food options. I signed up for a trial to claim a really good deal on the first order and then forgot to cancel.  So I've had it for over a year now and have only ever placed the one order because everything on that site that I might consider I can get at one of my grocery stores for less than one it costs at Thrive.  Here's an example of the pricing on some items for you:

Simple Mills Almond Flour Pumpkin Muffin & Bread Mix: Regular price $8.69, on sale for $7.99

Eden Foods Organic Apple Butter, 17 oz jar: $13.49

Thrive Market brand Organic Spaghetti, 16 oz bag: Reg price $6.49, on sale for $2.06

Annie's White Cheddar Mac & Cheese, 6 oz box: Reg price $4.09, on sale for $1.89

Mary's Gone Crackers Super Seed Crackers, 5.5 oz box: $5.99

16 oz package of grass fed organic Thrive Market ground beef (frozen): $13.99

32 oz Oatley original oat milk (shelf stable) 32 oz: $5.99

Amy's Thai Coconut can of soup, 14.1 oz can: $4.79 on sale for $2.99

They run a lot of sales, I'll give them that. I look at it every once in a while and their offerings have increased in the 14 months or so I've had a membership. Many of the things if you buy them in quantity Thrive will give a small discount, like 6 cans of soup get 5% off, or 4 boxes of pasta get 5% off.  I will say, the one box I ordered I had a nice variety of items and they packaged it really well. I had bags of chips, a couple of jars of ghee, coconut oil, dried fruit and crackers, and the chips and crackers were completely intact when I opened it. 

[SHP]

A friend had it for a while and swore by it. I signed up and saw the prices and noped out. 

[Corraleno]

Thrive claims that the reason they won't let you see their prices without subscribing is "to protect our brand partners who are not comfortable with our deeply discounted prices being publicly visible," which is a joke because their "deeply discounted" prices are higher than most stores' regular prices. And I have read so many horror stories about how hard they make it to cancel — you cannot do that on the website, you have to contact customer service and then go through multiple people offering discounted memberships, coupon codes, and other incentives to stay. They claim they offer many free memberships to low income people as part of their claim to be a super ethical company, but there have been claims that many, if not most, of the free memberships are actually given as incentives to people who are not low income in order to prevent them from cancelling. I've also read multiple complaints that all the items in the first order were automatically added to a weekly repeat/autoship order without consent. Thrive just settled a $1.55 million lawsuit in California for "flagrant violation of consumer rights and ethical business practices," for charging sneaky autorenewals without consent and posting fake "discounts." 

I looked up the prices for the items in this list at common chain stores, and only one item, the Thai soup, was cheaper "on sale" at Thrive than I could find locally. Here are some comparison prices:

Simple Mills Almond Flour Pumpkin Muffin & Bread Mix: Regular price $8.69, on sale for $7.99  Regular price = $6.79 at Target

Eden Foods Organic Apple Butter, 17 oz jar: $13.49    Regular price at Fred Meyer = $9.99

Thrive Market brand Organic Spaghetti, 16 oz bag: Reg price $6.49, on sale for $2.06  TJ's & Target = $1.99, Whole Foods = $2.19

Annie's White Cheddar Mac & Cheese, 6 oz box: Reg price $4.09, on sale for $1.89   Walmart, Target, Fred Meyer = $1.49-$1.67

Mary's Gone Crackers Super Seed Crackers, 5.5 oz box: $5.99  $3.99 on Amazon

16 oz package of grass fed organic Thrive Market ground beef (frozen): $13.99  Safeway, Walmart, Target = $7.00-8.49/lb.

32 oz Oatley original oat milk (shelf stable) 32 oz: $5.99  You get twice as much for $1 less at Target: 64 oz for $4.99

Amy's Thai Coconut can of soup, 14.1 oz can: $4.79 on sale for $2.99   Regular price is $3.69 at Target, not sure if it goes on sale

That list of groceries would be ~ $15 more from Thrive than from Walmart or Target, and even if everything wasn't available locally, getting some of it locally and ordering the rest from Amazon would still be significantly cheaper. And you're paying $12/month or $60/yr for the "privilege" of paying way more for groceries!