Food Delivery Services Come and Food Delivery Services Go. I could go on for a while in this vein, but let’s just cut to the chase: I’ve been Fired by Imperfect Foods.
It’s not personal — it’s everyone who they reach through “third party delivery services”, which I believe means FedEx, LaserShip and similar. They have their own drivers, and they have something they refer to as “last mile delivery partners”, which I have no idea what that means but whatever.
Backstory: this is another thing I probably would never have signed up for on my own, but my sister was doing Misfits and loved it, and they didn’t do my area, and neither did Imperfect, but Imperfect let me sign up and eventually they offered service. All of this was in the Before Times. It rapidly evolved from a produce specific operation to a general imperfect grocer. Once Friday the 13th of 2020 rolled around (or thereabouts) they closed to new customers and pivoted further to a general grocer. More recently, along with the entire sector, they have been struggling, as many people became comfortable once more going to a local grocer and squeezing produce themselves.
Another thing my sister talked me into: meal kits. She did a _lot_ of them, in classic coupon clipper fashion. She got new sign up and referral bonuses and once those tapered, she went to greener, more discount-y pastures. The only one — at the time, during the Before Times — that was very interesting to me was Sunbasket. It was great as a way to become familiar with a few new techniques and slightly more new ingredients. I skipped more and more over time, however, and the volume of packaging was worrisome with Imperfect but absolutely nuts with Sunbasket.
In search of something less packaging intense, I looked into more local options. I found Walden Local Meats early in 2020, and figured I’d do it for a month or two and quit when the freezer ran out of space. In the event, having monthly meat, eggs, etc. delivery quite rapidly became the Smartest thing I had done for a while, as they, too, closed to new customers and stopped allowing existing customers to increase their share size.
_During_ these times, I signed up for Siena, because I figured if I wasn’t traveling, I might as well get a farm share. I also signed up for Clover’s Forest Share, which was interesting, but I am unlikely to re-up for (I am more likely to sign up for Clover regular box, because they’ve expanded in my general direction). I _so_ loved Siena, I added the mushroom share, and when they offered a discount on a three year pay up front deal, I took that, too.
Siena plus Walden turns out to be a lot of coverage. We still have to buy some things at the Regular Grocer: Lactaid milk, ice cream (real and fake), apple and OJ, American cheese. R. also continues to get some things, including pork shoulder for pulled pork, at Costco. But even things we _were_ getting from Imperfect (fiscalini farmstead) or Sunbasket (Old Dog Ranch nuts) were increasingly unavailable, and I was skipping more and more. Recently, I’ve started researching where I can buy the things that I was getting through the boxes and did not know how to buy locally. Old Dog Ranch is an easy mail order ; Fiscalini Farmstead continues to elude (there is plenty of awesome cheese out there — you don’t need to feel sorry for R.).
So when I got an email from Imperfect saying I wouldn’t be able to order from them after the middle of the month, I was equal parts annoyed (okay, I really _am_ going to have to go to Idylwilde or Market Basket Whole Foods to buy Miyoko fake cheese) and happy (hey, I never need to figure out how to fill out an order so I can get my fake cheese!) and ambivalent (Track down the naan somewhere … or commit fully to making my own pizza crust? Probably the latter! ETA: Turns out the usual local grocer, Roche, carries Atoria! And I can also mail order it. Hmmm.).
The next time you are “fired”, I hope you have at least as good an experience.
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