Convenience Produce - Trying Imperfect Foods

My family usually buys produce at the KC City Market, a large farmer's market located in the River Market district in Kansas City. The market offers excess produce that grocery stores won't take at reduced pricing. $10-15 gets us a week's worth of food. I can sometimes get a 10lb box of bananas for $1-2. It is a great way to help reduced food waste and feed my family.

Recently, I decided to test-drive Imperfect Foods, a service which ships "imperfect" produce directly to your home at a reduced price. It isn't available everywhere, but the company covers cities in much of the Midwest and some along the coasts. A few days before delivery, you get the chance to select your produce from what is seasonally available. Then is is delivered to your door. They pick up the empty box when they deliver your next box, to help reduce cardboard waste.

This was our first box.

We spent $15 on produce and $5 on shipping. When we added up how much we'd spend on this same amount of produce at the farmer's market, it came to about $12-13. Not bad, when you take into consideration the convenience fee of having it delivered. And it is still less expensive than our regular, local grocery stores, where this same produce would have cost us around $25-30.

Some of the items were rather small, which was to be expected since size is one of the main reasons why produce doesn't fit grocery store standards. For items which were grouped quantity, like the tomatoes and apples, I would have liked an extra tomato or two for the price. Other items, like the carrots and snap peas were sold by weight, which I preferred.

Right now, I'm rather neutral about it. My husband doesn't mind getting out to go to the market, so for us, the convenience fee might not be worth it. That said, I'm pretty happy with this first box. We'll test it out for a few more deliveries to see what we think, but overall, I like what I see.