By: Andy Roberts
While I groan every week when grocery shopping time rolls around, I actually kind of enjoy taking my time to browse through the pickings and selecting stuff myself, especially fresh produce. And although it’s a pain, making an extra stop to take advantage of the crazy cheap Asian markets is always worth it (of which there are many in my neighbourhood). That’s why I’ve always shunned online grocery shopping and home food delivery services.
But after the launch of My Food Bag, fronted by MasterChef’s Nadia Lim , I’ve been rethinking that stance.
Background: My Food Bag provides delivery of ingredients and recipes for 5 dinners to your door. I don’t think My Food Bag is for me at this stage; it only has two options: a gourmet option for couples at $139 a week (which is just over our entire weekly grocery budget) and a ‘classic’ option for families of four at $179. Side note: I’m pretty sure we will never be able to afford to procreate. I have also now had the chance to try My Food Bag for a week, and while it’s delicious and awesome, it’s far too expensive for us. Definitely a premium service.
But what about veggie and fruit delivery boxes? Would that make life easier and help during those food ruts we all fall into?
Some fruit delivery box services in Auckland include:
Ooooby: Has about eight different kinds of fruit/veggie boxes. The one we’d probably use would be the $28 original box with five veggies and three fruits
Produce Delivered: Has about four types of packs. We’d probably use the couples pack, which is $30
Foodbox: Does about five varieties. We’d probably use the Appetiser, which is $33
My thoughts in response:
- I am incredibly, INCREDIBLY picky about fruit. I eat citrus, apples, bananas, berries, kiwifruit, and melons. That’s about it. Most places allow you to veto certain items, though, which probably eliminates that problem.
- They all sound slightly on the pricey side. I would say we generally spend less than that (the bulk of our grocery budget consists of non-produce, like bread, eggs, cereal, dairy, meat, snacks). But maybe these actually offer quite a lot of vegetables (we definitely don’t buy/eat as many as we could).
Conclusion: Still undecided. Maybe it’s worth a shot – try everything once, right?
I have never used them myself. I consider myself quite a busy individual, but I still make time to grocery shop. It does save time, if you are willing to pay for that time though.
My ex used the grocery delivery service when he was a student. The service would definitely come in handy if you didn’t have a car. As a student, I brought along my huge expedition backpack to lug all those groceries home.
Great post with interesting considerations. I suppose it depends for each person or household how much time factors into how much they are willing to pay for the saving of transportation time and effort.
I signed up for a vegetable delivery box bi-weekly for two main reasons 1) I’m not familiar with some fruits/veggies and it’s a way to force myself to try new things and 2) It also forces me to learn new recipes/cook with these items.
It is very expensive and I am not sure how much longer I will keep using it but I do look forward to going home on Tuesdays and seeing what’s in my veggie box!
I’ve tried a few produce boxes for review purposes on my food blog, and I’m currently on a HelloFresh box (similar to My Food Bag – gives you everything including recipes).
It’s been a bit of a mixed bag – the box of organic produce (Doorstep Organics) was very disappointing, as a lot of produce went off quite quickly (I’m talking days, not weeks). My second box from a community grocer was better quality, and really good value. HelloFresh is impressing me as well, though I don’t know if I would pay full price for it (I got it for free).
If you’re happy to experiment with different fruits and vegetables, it’s a great way of expanding your recipe repertoire!
A local farm does a weekly produce box, and I love it. Recipes are included. It’s much cheaper, though; about $20 per week. Between that and the local milk delivery, we can go two weeks or more without heading to the store. While we do shop once a week, we don’t HAVE to. Plus, the sometimes-unfamiliar produce and recipes encourage me to try new foods!
We’ve tried several of the CSA boxes in the past few years. While I love the concept of locally grown produce, I found that we couldn’t customize the boxes as much as I’d like and as a result we ended up throwing away a lot of produce, which made me feel really guilty. so we stopped.
I’ve used a local/organic produce delivery service, and I actually quite liked it. The only downside for me is that I work shifts, so I’m not always home when the food arrives. Usually it wasn’t an issue, but losing the better part of a box due to it freezing when my roommate forgot to bring it in sucked. If my work schedule evens out I’ll probably consider doing it again.
I’ve been looking into food delivered directly from farms – I think they are called CSAs. For now, I haven’t found anything anywhere near as cheap as my ethnic market right down the street, but I’ve heard stories from friends of sub-dollar/lb boxes of fruits and veggies, so there’s still hope!
This is kind of a cool idea. I don’t know if there are any delivery services for local produce where I live. I like picking out my own food from the market so I don’t know if I would consider this.
I would love love love a service like this! I’m with Leslie’s reasoning: it would force me to try new things with new vegetables. My biggest problem with food is that I have roughly four healthy meals that I always revert back to making. I never experiment because I don’t know where to even start. But if someone hands me a vegetable and says “do something with this,” I would research the vegetable and try something new and it would be fantastic!
It’s not available in this land (of course, haha) and it’s probably too expensive for me anyways. But one day…
We have just started My Food Bag…great for my family with lots of left overs. Not only do I have more time but we are saving $$. Somehow when I shop especially with children it just adds up!!The other added advantage is the children are eating more vegetables and less meat plus will try almost anything. Top produce so hopefully they will be successful.
So cool to stumble across this today and very interesting to read everyone’s take on home deliveries. Thank you very much for the mention Andy!
We now also have a custom order feature available online which allows you to order the exact items and quantity you require. Would love to hear your thoughts on it if you ever decided to give the home deliveries a go.