Grove Collaborative

Grove Collaborative is an online shop for natural cleaning, laundry, paper and personal care products that you can put on auto refill. You pick the items, choose how often each one ships, and Grove adds them to your cart before every order. It carries its own Grove Co. line plus more than 150 other brands, from Mrs. Meyer’s and Burt’s Bees to ATTITUDE and New Chapter.

Our take: Grove is one of the easiest ways to move a whole household to less toxic, lower plastic products without hunting brand by brand. It is no longer the cheapest way to do it, since the old 5% subscription discount is gone, and the $29.99 VIP membership only pays off if you order regularly. If you already like Blueland or Who Gives A Crap, think of Grove as the one stop version of that idea.

How the Grove subscription works

Grove is not a mystery box. It is closer to a refill service for your cabinet:

• Choose your products and check Subscribe on the ones you want refilled, at the frequency you pick.
• Preview your next order on the Reorder Essentials page, where you can skip, reschedule, edit or cancel each subscription.
• Seven days before your order date, your scheduled items land in your cart. You can still change the date, add one time items or remove things until the order ships.
• Ship Now any time if you run out early.

Subscriptions are optional. Grove is clear that you can shop without monthly shipments. There is also an iOS and Android app to manage upcoming orders.

Grove VIP and Green Rewards

Grove used to give 5% off subscribed items. That discount has been retired and replaced by Green Rewards, a cash back style program with a free tier and a paid tier:

Is VIP worth it? Do the math on shipping first. Without VIP, every order under $79 costs $6.99 to ship. If you place an order of $30 to $78 every month or two, VIP pays for itself on shipping alone after about 5 orders, before you count the rewards. If you only shop Grove a couple of times a year, or always order $79 or more, skip it.

One warning: VIP renews automatically every year at $29.99 plus tax, and it is separate from your product subscriptions. Cancelling your subscriptions does not cancel VIP.

What can you buy, and what does it cost?

The catalog covers cleaning, laundry, paper goods, hand and dish soap, personal care, clean beauty, supplements, baby and kids, pets, kitchen and home. Some typical prices for the Grove Co. house brand:

Prices on third party brands are in line with regular retail, and Grove will price match an individual item if you find it cheaper elsewhere (send the link to [email protected] before you order; it does not apply to first orders or bundles).

The Grove Co. line: what stands out

Grove’s own products are the main reason to shop here rather than at Target. Our favorites:

• Concentrates and glass bottles. The multi purpose cleaner concentrate is mixed with water in a reusable glass spray bottle, so you stop buying full plastic sprays. Grove says the formula is 92% plant based and cuts 2x more grease than other natural brands.
• Laundry detergent. Ultra concentrated, 97% bio based, with 5 enzymes for stains. Two tablespoons per load, 43 loads per carton.
• Bamboo paper. Toilet paper, paper towels and tissues made from bamboo instead of trees. The monthly set includes 8 rolls of bath tissue, 6 rolls of paper towels, 2 boxes of facial tissue and 8 pocket packs, for a household of 2 or 3.
• Seasonal scents. Limited edition hand soap, dish soap and candle collections rotate through the year.

Every Grove Co., Rooted Beauty and Sustain formula is Leaping Bunny certified cruelty free, and Grove screens product ingredients against a long list of banned chemicals, including PFAS and formaldehyde, before anything goes on the site.

The plastic angle

Grove’s big mission is moving Beyond Plastic. Every order is 100% plastic neutral, meaning Grove funds the removal of as much plastic pollution from nature as your order contains. It also pushes refills, glass bottles and plastic free products, and publishes a plastic scorecard. Offsets are not the same as no plastic, and some third party brands still come in plastic bottles, but the Grove Co. line has clearly moved further than most supermarket brands.

Shipping, returns and service

• Shipping: free on orders of $79 or more; free from $29 for VIP members and on your first order; $6.99 below that. Shipping is carbon neutral.
• Where: contiguous US only. No Alaska, Hawaii, territories, APO/FPO or international orders.
• Returns: contact Grove within 30 days of delivery for a prepaid label and a full refund.
• Samples: seasonal samples show up under Deals for existing customers. Heads up: a sample in your cart replenishes as a full size product in your next order unless you remove it.

Is Grove Collaborative worth it?

Yes, if you want one place to buy cleaner, lower waste versions of the things you use every week, and you like the idea of never running out of dish soap again. The subscription controls are flexible, nothing is forced, and the Grove Co. products are genuinely good.

Pros

• Huge range: Grove Co. plus 150+ vetted brands in one cart
• Flexible subscriptions you can skip, reschedule or cancel per product
• Refill systems and bamboo paper that cut real plastic and paper waste
• 30 day returns with a prepaid label, plus price matching

Cons

• No more 5% subscription discount, only rewards
• Shipping costs $6.99 under $79 unless you pay for VIP
• VIP auto renews at $29.99 a year and is cancelled separately
• Contiguous US only

Compared with single brand subscriptions: Blueland is cheaper for tablet based cleaners and hand soap, Who Gives A Crap wins for bulk toilet paper, and Thrive Market is better if you also want groceries. Grove is the pick when you want all your home basics in one order. See more eco friendly subscriptions.

How to cancel Grove

To stop one item, go to the Reorder Essentials page (grove.co/pages/essentials), expand the product and select Unsubscribe. To stop all future shipments, open your account settings and cancel all services. If you also want to end VIP, contact Grove’s customer service; that membership is billed once a year and is not tied to your subscriptions. If you were charged $29.99 unexpectedly, that is almost always a VIP renewal, and Grove says it will help if you did not want it.

Grove promo codes and referrals

Grove runs regular sales, buy one get one deals and holiday promos on its Deals page. The most reliable perk for new customers is a referral: when a friend shares their link, you get a free gift set with your first purchase, and they earn $25 in rewards. VIP members also get $10 in rewards when they join.