If you’ve ever wondered how Thrive Market works, or if it’s a scam, or if it’s worth it– I’ve got all the tea! If you’re not familiar, Thrive is a online grocery store that sells natural and organic products. They have everything from snacks and pantry staples to frozen meat, and they require a membership to shop. In this post you’ll find:
- My affilate link for 30% your first order plus a free gift
- The one thing I don’t like about Thrive Market
- All the things I like to buy with examples of prices listed
- How to maximize the sales and get as many free gifts as possible
Why I’ve been a Thrive member for 4+ years
Thrive recently invited me to be an affiliate, but before that I’ve been a paying member for 4 years!
I really like them because they have:
- Good prices on organic and natural brands
- Many of the staple products I like to buy
- Fun organic snacks I can’t find elsewhere
- Generous free gifts all the time
How to get 30% off your first order plus a free gift at Thrive Market
Sign-up is super simple, and using my link here will get you 30% off your order (up to $20 off) plus your choice of a free gift (they have some very nice free gifts to chose from!). An annual membership is $60, so between the $20 off and free gift, you’ve already almost earned back the cost of the membership. And then after a year, if you don’t think it’s worth it, you can cancel.
SIGN UP FOR THRIVE MARKET —-> HERE!
The ONE thing I do not like about Thrive Market
Before I first signed up, I thought Thrive seemed shady. I strongly dislike that they don’t let you see what brands they carry or their prices before you sign up as a member. This deterred me from signing up many times. I’m not sure why they do this… they don’t have anything to hide. I guess this is what works for them marketing-wise. However, if you sign up for an annual membership and then realize that it’s not for you, you have a 30-day window to cancel and get your membership refunded, so it’s not really a risk afterall.
After becoming a member, I quickly learned that they are actually a really cool company. The app is FANTASTIC and super easy to use. And their customer service is great too– it’s mostly automated. The couple times I had something arrive damaged, I messaged their customer service bot, who took care of it immediately with no questions asked (other than asking what was wrong with the item), and issued me a refund plus gave me a $5 shopping credit for my trouble.
My favorite things to buy at Thrive Market
They really do have great prices, especially if you shop the sales. And this is what has kept me a member for so long. There are a handful of products I buy regularly that have a good enough price that it makes the membership worth it for me. I thought it would be helpful to show you some receipts from recent orders.
A couple things to note: this is 4 different orders (one in the left column, two in the middle column separated by a line, and one in the right column. Those “out of stock” boxes mean they were out of stock currently when I went into my account to grab these screen shots; they were not out of stock when my orders shipped.
Products I buy most often:
Thrive Market brand organic peanut butter and roasted salted peanuts
Thrive Market brand organic french roast coffee
Thrive Market organic vanilla extract
Chomps beef sticks
Rael organic tampons
Trace mineral drops
Jovial gluten pasta
Simple Mills crackers and baking mixes
Chosen Foods avocado oil mayo and cooking spray
Purely Elizabeth granolas
Go Raw sprouted pumpkin and sunflower seeds
34º Mates cheese crisps
Lotus Foods rice ramen noodles
How to Save the most money at Thrive Market
Okay, the fun part. As a devoted couponer in my previous life, I love figuring out how to save the most money. Besides Thrive being very easy to use (their app is great, ordering is easy, shipping is quick) they’ve got a lot of sales and freebies you can take advantage of and stack!
Weekly Sales
They are always having some type of promotion with different things on sale (just like a regular grocery store does), and usually they correspond to the seasons… so, like baking essentials during the holidays, back to school snacks in the fall, and higher protein foods in January. The sales change every week or two, I believe.
They always have good prices, but during a sale they often have really good prices on select items. Stock-up kind of pricing!
Free Gifts
I LOVE a free gift. LOOOOVE IT! This is one of my favorite things about Thrive– they have frequent, high value free gifts! You can find out about them from texts, emails, or just by opening the app. (Honestly, this is the only company I let text me offers.) They seem to go in spurts, where sometimes there will be a couple free gift offers in a week, and then it might be a couple weeks before another offer. You have to have an order of $49 to get the free gift.
Some of my favorite recent free gifts have been a 5-pack of full size Chomps meat sticks; a “lunchbox trio” with a full size package of Maverick cheddar crackers, Quinn peanut butter filled pretzels, and a protein bar; and a “protein bar and bevs” duo with a 5-pack of assorted full-size Aloha protein bars and 2 cans of Aura Bora sparkling water. Sometimes when they don’t have one of these “bigger” free gift offers, they have a smaller free gift at checkout where you can chose from a list of smaller, single serve items.
Free Shipping
Your Thrive order ships for free if it’s over $49… so of course, I wait to order until I need enough things that I reach that threshold.
Putting sales + free gifts + free shipping together: I build my cart as I discover I need things. We’re getting low on coffee and mayo, I add those to my cart. I see they have my mineral drops for almost 50% off, I add those to my cart, etc. Once I have an order of $49, I leave it and wait for a free gift offer. And once I see a free gift offer, I pounce and place my order! I’m sure there are a lot of normal people out there that just order and don’t think about it, but I pretty much never order without a free gift!
These are really really good by the way!
Recurring Orders
If there are things you order often, you can put them in a “recurring order” box that ships every month or couple months. Basically a subscription to that item (very similar to how Amazon subscription work). When you add an item to a recurring shipment, you often get a 5% discount on it.
I know some people like subscription features, but I do not. I’m not saying, I’m just saying… you can remove an item from your “subscription” whenever you want. You can also “skip” or “change the date” of a subscription shipment anytime. Effectively, you can easily take advantage of the recurring order feature and discount without actually receiving a recurring order (and I’d recommend you do!).
Special Promos
Once in a while they will text or email a special coupon for $15 off a $100 order or something similar.
Thrive Cash
This is dollar credits added to your account that you can earn in different ways: reviewing products, buying multiples of certain products, and referring your friends to join Thrive Market. This can add up! I have also received $5 Thrive cash the couple times I’ve had a problem with something in my order. For example, a product leaked during shipping, and they refunded me the price of the product and gave me a $5 cash credit to use on my next order for my trouble (which I think is very generous of them!).
If you have any questions, message me over on my Instagram page– I am much quicker to respond there!