By: Revanche

Our 6 grocery store problem and Imperfect Produce

August 13, 2018

Within a 6 mile radius, we have 6 food sources. There’s something good at ALL OF THEM. Every single one has things that the other stores don’t and it’s led to some real inefficiencies. Three stores in a week is too much.
Costco

Things we buy and use in bulk: sliced cheese, bread, yogurt, my beloved white corn tortillas, green beans for 50 cents a can for the dogs,
Trader Joe’s

Can’t get anywhere else: sardines and glucosamine for Seamus, $3/lb ground turkey, $4 cauliflower pizza crust
Asian market

Can’t get anywhere else: very cheap specialty produce (snow peas, snap peas, peeled garlic), dried squid treats, my favorite rice crackers.
Sprouts

Can’t get anywhere else: my probiotics, regular sales on frozen shrimp, bulk staples (flour, sugar, nuts, some grains)
Safeway

Can’t get anywhere else: standard staples like generic soda flavors (used for cooking), egg noodles (which I guess doesn’t matter for me anymore since I can’t have them)
Local produce shop

Can’t get anywhere else: The cheapest and freshest produce.

Enter: Imperfect Produce

First box, $49, delivery charge waived:

2 lb Apples (for the dogs)
2 Asparagus
2 lb Avocados
8 Blood Oranges
2 Broccoli Bunches
1 Cauliflower
2.5 lbs Cherries
5 lbs Potatoes
1 Spinach Bunch
2 lbs Strawberries
2 lbs Summer Squash
1 lb Yellow Onions
3 Organic Limes
0.5 lbs Organic Shiitake Mushrooms

I had hoped that Imperfect Produce would be the answer to the produce part of this equation, eliminating the need to go to any combination of Sprouts / Trader Joe’s / the local produce shop / local Asian market, but I’m not sure that it’s the savings I was looking for. Before the discount code I hunted up, this box was $49.

It’s possible that my expectations are out of line with the real cost of produce, though. I usually hobble out of our produce shop weighted down with about 25 lbs of fruits and veggies that vary in price per pound and tends to average out to $1/lb. With this order, I had a hard time telling if that was the equivalent price we were getting because many of the items were sold per count, not by weight.

There was also a snafu with the discount code so I paid full price for this box but we will get 50% off a future box. Of the whole lot, everything except the blood oranges were delicious. They were blah.

Second box, $22 no discount plus a $5 delivery charge:

Apples (3 lb)
Broccoli Bunch
Butter Lettuce (1 ct)
Carrots (25 ct)
Kale Bunch
Potatoes (2 lb)
Red Peppers (2 ct)
Valencia Oranges
Zucchini (1 ct)
Recipe card: Turmeric Garlic Fried Rice (free)

We used everything but the red peppers, limes and one of the broccoli stalks in time. That was a mistake on my part, I overestimated how much I could cook before we had to travel. Ok, not entirely my fault, I was hit with a huge pain flare that was unexpected (of course) so I lost two or three cooking days. This is one of my biggest problems with buying fresh produce. I would freeze the produce but that also takes mobility and if I had the mobility to prep it for freezing, I could cook it.

Third box, $17 (after a 50% discount and the $5 delivery charge):

Apples (2 lb)
Blueberries (12 oz)
Broccoli Crowns (1 lb)
Carrots (10 ct)
Cauliflower (1 ct)
Corn (2 ct)
Green Peppers (2 ct)
Kale Bunch (1 ct)
Potatoes (4 lb)
Valencia Oranges (1 lb)
Yellow Onions (lb)
Organic Grapefruit (1 ct)
Organic Nectarines (3 ct)
Organic Zucchini (2 ct)

My 3 organic items were organic because they didn’t have a non organic option.

Too many of the blueberries and one of my six apples (for the dogs) were squishy. The kale was a little yellow around the edges already. That was not great. Everything else was fresh and good and crispy (if that was appropriate).

Conclusions

I’m normally 100% against delivery charges but in this case I made an exception. We also prefer to pick all my own produce but letting them pick it hasn’t caused our food quality to go down much. The places where it’s not awesome (soft spots on apples I would normally not buy) happen to be ok because the dogs eat the apples and don’t care about soft spots or soft blueberries.

This service speaks to my values of reducing food waste and happens to save me time, energy, and gas. However, there have been problems with their service:

• The first box was credited with a promotion code incorrectly. Customer service couldn’t credit my account for the value of that first discount ($30), I had to apply the 50% off to the next much smaller box.
• They just changed, effective Aug 8, the window of time we have to customize our boxes and that didn’t seem to be implemented so well.
• My fourth box never showed up. They sent me a delivery complete! text but when I searched high and low for the box, and asked them about it, they said the delivery people couldn’t find the box on the truck. Soooo why did they tell me it was delivered?

Customer service has been mostly helpful but it’s still disruptive to plan for a box of produce to land on our doorstep instead of making a grocery run and then to have to squeeze an extra errand in anyway. It’s not the end of the world obviously but it plays a factor in my using a service that’s supposed to save me time and energy, not cost it. Or j might just have had a run of bad luck, and hopefully that’s over now.

You can get a $10 credit if you use my link to try them.

:: Have you tried Imperfect Produce or do you prefer a CSA? How do you keep your produce consumption up?

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