Our Delivery Service

The term ‘home delivery’ encompasses our service in the broadest sense, but our methods of bringing your goods to your door may differ in a variety of ways. ‘Store to Door’ is our way of delineating the types of orders that get handled directly by our Commonsense drivers, versus ‘courier orders’ which get collected and distributed through our third-party courier services.

Our driving days are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Courier picks are Monday-Friday.

Orders get packed and sorted in the evening before driving days (Sunday evening, Tuesday evening, Thursday evening) and are kept in the chiller to await dispatch.

The best time to submit an order is 24 hours before your intended dispatch day. This does not guarantee your delivery (particularly for nationwide deliveries or in an escalating COVID-19 Alert Level scenario), but helps ensure everything has entered our picking system in a timely fashion.

Our service times are as follows:

approximately 9:30 am – 12pm: Central Wellington (CBD), Te Aro, Aro Valley, Karori, Kelburn

approximately 12pm – 2pm:  Mt. Cook and below to the southern bays and eastwards to Miramar and surrounding peninsula

approximately 2pm – 6pm:  Northland, Thorndon and above to Porirua and Lower Hutt are serviced in the early afternoon to early evening.

We will leave your order at the door as we’re operating a no-contact delivery service.

Please note, this is NOT a refrigerated service.

We are delivering store-to-door Monday through Friday within a range of 5km from our Mount Eden store. If you are just outside of our range then we will send your order with our couriers. 

Please note, this is NOT a refrigerated service.

We love our products and hope you do too and that’s why we are happy to send them out to you, wherever you are in the country. However it is important that you understand we do not operate a refrigerated service and for nationwide deliveries, non-perishable items are preferred.

We rely on couriers for nationwide orders and their schedules can often be a bit unpredictable and outside our control. Alert levels and holidays can also exacerbate things, making it even more difficult to pinpoint how long things will take. When ordering we therefore suggest applying “The Over-night Rule”: i.e. if an item is left unattended overnight, will it still be ok to consume? Here are some of our thoughts:

Meat / Dairy products – we’ve had mixed results in sending these with our couriers. Frozen meat tends to do better than chilled meat as it takes a lot longer to defrost and they act sort of as ice packs keeping the whole order chilled. We pack these in recycled polystyrene boxes with recycled ice packs.

Produce – also some mixed results, especially for leafy greens. Heartier fruits and vegetables like root veggies and citrus do fine outside of the fridge, while lettuce and kale tend to turn fairly quickly, unfortunately. We try to pack these with damp towels and food-grade paper to ensure freshness, but in the warmer months things can turn much quicker than in the colder months.

Other Refrigerated Goods – things like hummus and dairy-free products can be sent out with ice packs and extra care.

Fragile Items – these usually turn out fine, but leaks and breakage can occur. If your items arrive damaged or broken, please let us know.

Non-perishable Items – these are the safest to send with the least amount of risk. Even still, we take as much care as possible to ensure there is no damage to your products in transit.

The type of order may determine when your goods will be sent out. Perishable items will be held in our chiller over the weekend so that they get picked up earlier in the week, and thus ensuring that they do not have to sit in a holding depot over the weekend.

If you are unsure if your order will be sent with courier, feel free to email at any time: [email protected]. 

Product availability changes seasonally.

Due to the organic nature of our stock fresh produce may be out of season and imported goods may be unavailable. Please choose ‘substitute’ or ‘do not substitute’ on the Check Out page if you would like us to substitute items with similar types of products or different variations within the same product range.

Because our delivery services operate out of our physical shops, availability is always in flux. We regularly monitor in-store goods and make adjustments to our online shop, but sometimes items may become unavailable before we are able to fill your order. If we do not pack an item you’ve requested you will not be charged for it. If you would like to receive them at another date, you will have to place another order. Please feel free to contact us to check on availability of goods before ordering.

You may cancel your order if we haven’t yet processed it. In the event that you’d like your order cancelled for any reason, please let us know as soon as possible by emailing with “Cancel Order” in the subject at:  [email protected]. 

After we’ve cancelled the order, an email will be sent to the email address you’ve used to make the purchase with details about how our payment system works and more information about returned funds.

Please note that if the order has been processed ready for dispatch you will not be charged for the goods but may be charged a $5 handling fee.

Payment is by credit or debit card only.

Your card details are safely encrypted and we do not keep details of your card number.

Payments will only be processed after your order has been packed, so you will only be charged for what you receive.

We standby the quality of our products,. Please email us if there were any errors in packing your order, and we will address these as soon as we’re able. Request for refunds are considered on a case-by-case basis subject to reasonable interpretation of our warnings regarding perishability. It is helpful if you are able to provide us with full details, including photographs of sub-standard items where appropriate.

When you place an order with us your bank "pre-authorises" the money which makes it available for us to use if we proceed with the order. However, for anything not processed or in the event of a cancellation, your bank releases it’s pre-authorised hold on the money and it becomes available once again for use in your account.

Rather than show up on your statement as a refund, any payment to Commonsense showing on your statement should simply disappear. The time it may take to be released varies and depends on your bank. We have no control over this process.

For more information on authorisation holds please follow this link.

NO FEES ON ALL ORDERS OVER $150! 

All other orders have a delivery or click and collect charge and the cost depends on where you live. In order to send the live sale to our packing system you must purchase the automated courier selection – our packing teams will always find the best option for delivery of your goods, and will only process the actual cost that is applicable to your address.  

Click and Collect: $5 for all orders under $150.

Wellington Region

Wellington Local (Central Wellington/Porirua/Upper Hutt) - $10.00

Kapiti Store local deliveries Otaki to Paremata (Thursday only) - $10.00

Wellington Outer Area (Paraparaumu to Fielding) - $12.50 

Auckland

Mt. Eden Local (within 5km of Mt. Eden store) - $10.00

Auckland (outside 5km radius of Mt. Eden store) - $12.50

Auckland Outer Area (Pukekohe, Drury, Tuakau, Pokeno, Kumeu/Huapai, Whenuapai, Riverhead, Maraetai, Beachlands, Whitford, Silverdale/Orewa, Dairy Flat, Whangaparaoa, Waiheke) – POA

*please note, you may be charged initially for $15.50 and that is calculated based on your proximity to our Wellington City store. We will adjust this charge for you when we process your order.

North Island – sent by courier from Wellington

Shorthaul (Wairarapa to Whanganui) - $14.50

Longhaul (North of Whanganui)- $15.50 per 10kg

South Island – sent by courier from Wellington

$16.00 per 10kg

Rural Delivery

Please allow 2 additional business days for delivery and an extra $4.75 shipping fee.

Please note: as RD addresses will generally take at least 48 hours to deliver please do NOT order perishables for these addresses.

Our business is certified Carbon-Positive.

All orders in Wellington City are delivered by our own 100% electric van. Other deliveries are carbon-neutral as we offset all our emissions in a scheme certified by Ekos.

Orders are packed in recycled cardboard boxes with newsprint wrapping where necessary.  We encourage customers in Wellington City to leave the cardboard box out when the next delivery is due so we can collect and re-use it.

By placing an order with Commonsense, you are indicating that you have read and understood these terms and conditions as set out on this page. They represent the contractual terms between us governing any online transaction and are legally binding. We reserve the right to refuse or cancel a delivery at any time.

Click and Collect is available in our Wellington City, Kilbirnie, Milford and Mt Eden stores. This is our newest service created for your convenience. It may work a little differently from other stores, so please be sure to have a look through this page for any questions you might have.

When you place an order online you’ll have the option to choose ‘pick up in store’. If pick up at your store is unavailable, please let us know so we can gauge interest and grow from there.

Days for pickup are: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

Pickup time is: any time after 2:30pm on the day following the date that the order was placed. In other words orders for pickup must be placed the day before collection. Orders placed on Friday-Sunday will be available on Monday from 2:30pm.

As of now we do not have a dedicated pickup zone, so all click and collect orders will be kept chilled in our back refrigerators. Just come on in and let any of our staff know you’re here to collect an order. You’ve already paid, so there’s no need to wait in line.

The best time to submit an order is 24 hours before intended dispatch. For example, our main delivery hub in our Wellington City shop sends orders out the door on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning, so that means having your order in the morning of the day before is your safest bet. This does not guarantee your delivery, but helps ensure everything has entered our picking system in a timely fashion.

Please note: if you live outside of our store-to-door range then your order will go out with couriers. These deliveries can be unpredictable at times, especially under escalating COVID response levels, and therefore placing your order early in the week helps to ensure that things leave our store with plenty of travel time before the weekend.

Our Wellington service times are as follows:

Approximately 9:30 am – 12pm: Central Wellington (CBD), Te Aro, Aro Valley, Karori, Kelburn

Approximately 12pm – 2pm:  Mt. Cook and below to the southern bays and eastwards to Miramar and surrounding peninsula 

Approximately 2pm – 6pm:  Northland, Thorndon and above to Porirua and Lower Hutt are serviced in the early afternoon to early evening.

For orders outside of Wellington, please contact our Auckland or Kapiti stores for more info on delivery routes.

There is a notes section at checkout that will let you include anything you’d like. Please use that space for any kind of gift-note, dietary restrictions, delivery specifics, or any other special request.

If you wish to provide us with further information after placing your order, feel free to send us an email at [email protected] being sure to reference your order number.

No. Our small shop in Wellington City handles the majority of our packing, which means we have quite a large area to cover. In order to keep things as efficient and therefore reliable as possible we have to stick to our regimented breakdown of delivery areas below.

That said, where extraordinary circumstances apply, we will do our utmost to be as flexible as possible.

Unfortunately not. For now, orders can be collected from 2:30pm the day after your order was placed. As this service is brand-new we’re keeping it simple but we will be welcoming feedback as to how this system can be improved.

We understand how frustrating it can be to wait on products that you need. We try and get orders out the door as quickly as possible, but many factors may impede this. 

Some of our favourite products come from overseas, and unfortunately lots of things can slow or even stall them from appearing on our shelves. Even when we get rough ETAs from our suppliers, there is never a way to be absolutely sure about availability. Usually, if we can’t complete a large portion of your order, we will cancel it and let you know why.

If your order is delayed our team will try our best to keep you informed, and updated. If there are any substitutions you’re happy with – e.g. a different flavour within the same product line, or another brand that you’re familiar with – please let us know at checkout in the notes section and we will accommodate your preferences as best we can.

We do our best to ensure your orders are packed correctly and with the best quality products, however human error means that sometimes items get left out. The best thing to do is to let us know right away and we will help you get it sorted. 

If there is anything that is unavailable at the time of dispatching your order, you will not have been charged for this even though it may initially appear in your bank account. At the website checkout, we only place a ‘hold’ on the funds we are entitled to take if your whole order is filled. We do not accept any payment until after we’ve physically picked the items from our shop and prepared them for packing.

If an item is out of stock or unavailable, we don’t process and finalize that amount. Our third-party encrypted service, and others like it, will not send an alert saying that the amount is “refunded”. Therefore if your hold was $100 for an order, but we could not send a $10-item, your final charge will be $90 with that $10 being released back to your account as change.

Banks differ on how they display our charges, but we never charge twice for your online orders. The first payment is the hold for your total – it’s the total amount that your bank has set aside for us to then finalize your sale. The second charge is the final processing of your sale where we’ve withdrawn the amount after completing the picking and packing of your order.

There is no way for us to charge you twice from an online order because we use a third-party encrypted service that allows only one transaction per order. In the event that two charges show up on your bank statement, there will have only been one sale completed – that is to say, actually taken by us – while the other will be show the hold amount.

Any discrepancies between the two amounts mean that the remaining sum will be released back into your bank for your own use. Our third party software only sends us money for your completed sale, and nothing else.

We’re here to help, so please feel free to contact us with any queries.