Who delivers it better — Kroger or H-E-B?

I’m a picky shopper.

You know the kind. The type who inspects every strawberry in the carton, reaches for the milk in the very back of the case to find a later expiration date, shuffles cracked and uncracked eggs around to get a perfect dozen. I was raised in a frugal Appalachian home by a mother who knew how to squeeze every calorie out of her slim grocery budget, and she raised her boy right.

Needless to say, I have a little trouble letting go when grocery shopping. But with home delivery services on the rise, I figured it was time to give it a try. I turned to San Antonio icon H-E-B and the feisty, onlineonly newcomer Kroger to see if either could impress me.

In this battle, I was primarily concerned with three things: accuracy of the order, timeliness of the delivery and quality of the products. To keep things fair, I ordered nearly identical items from each place.

The selection included fresh strawberries, romaine lettuce leaves, vanilla ice cream, raw chicken breasts, buttery croissants from the bakery, a turkey and cheese sandwich from the deli, an avocado and fresh medium-spice salsa. I scheduled next-day delivery with both stores.

Here’s how the competitors fared.

H-E-B

I scheduled this drop for between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. and at 9:30 a.m. my delivery driver, Alicia, pulled into my driveway in a large black pickup. H-E-B uses the on-demand service Favor, which contracts people using their own vehicles to make deliveries. I received a text message that morning confirming my order’s delivery and

again when she was 4 minutes away.

After rummaging in her back seat for a minute or two, Alicia emerged holding a half-dozen bags — with both stores I received a ridiculous number of individual bags for an eight-item order — and was on her way.

My biggest complaint with H-E-B’s delivery service is the personal vehicle aspect. Those cars aren’t refrigerated, and I have no idea how clean they are. While nothing in my order looked like it had been mingling with floorboard debris, temperature control was an issue.

Most crucially, my raw chicken breast arrived at 40.5 degrees as measured on my digital thermometer. While that may sound downright balmy to us San Antonians who lived through the current winter freeze, it’s technically a half degree into what the U.S. Department of Agriculture calls the “danger

zone” of 40 to 140 degrees where bacteria thrive. The ice cream, H-E-B’s exceptional Creamy Creations 1905 Vanilla option, was still frozen at 0.3 degrees.

H-E-B delivered superior romaine lettuce — I chose clamshell containers filled with loose leaves from both stores — with no limpness or browning on the leaves. The lettuce on my turkey sandwich was a different story, appearing haggard and worn, tucked between smooshed bread that had started to split.

With the strawberries, I would have made an effort to pick out more ripe specimens. Many were quite white at the caps and sour. H-E-B handsdown wins the avocado challenge, offering a choice of ripe avocados that will be ready on delivery or firmer fruits that will take a few days to soften.

Total order cost: $46.42 after a $5 delivery fee and $5 tip for the driver

Kroger

My order was scheduled for between 10 and 11 a.m. I received a text message at 9:29 a.m. alerting me of its impending arrival and another at 10:22 a.m. after its delivery. My groceries arrived in a Kroger-branded refrigerated truck and were handed off in a similar (and excessive) number of plastic bags.

The chicken breast arrived at a very safe 34 degrees, and the ice cream, while inferior in flavor to H-E-B’s offering, was ice-cold at minus 12.6 degrees.

Kroger’s salsa — called Fresh Cravings — couldn’t touch H-E-B’s house variety, which had more heat and fresher ingredients. The croissants had a day less than H-E-B’s on the expiration date but were similarly tender and flaky. The turkey sandwich had nice, crisp lettuce but a less generous portion of turkey and cheese.

Kroger’s strawberries were exactly the kind I’d painstakingly select in the store, with even ripeness and good flavor. The romaine lettuce, however, was mostly small, pale leaves from the heart of the lettuce. The avocado Kroger selected was small and hard as granite.

Total order cost: $39.74 after $6.95 delivery fee; no option for tipping was available

The winner

While both these stores came up short in selecting goods the way I would, the ease and convenience have me willing to use both services in the future.

As for a victor, I’ll give the win to H-E-B. While I don’t like its outsourced Favor service as much as Kroger’s in-house trucks and will likely limit raw meat orders to Kroger, the quality of H-E-B’s products edged out the competition.

Paul Stephen/Staff A nearly identical selection of groceries were ordered and delivered from Kroger, left, and H-E-B.