I wonder how Imperfect Foods (
nee Produce) is doing. I joined at the beginning of the pandemic and even though there was a stretch during which there were errors on 16 of 17 orders I placed (mis-billings, erroneous picks, missing items, delivering our orders to my neighbors, etc.), it was still useful. Attending to those myriad issues required my time, the one non-reclaimable resource there is.
It was never a great deal but it was good enough and I liked a few of their proprietary products. However, as the pandemic wore on, we identified several other options that were all better fits for us and eventually, we ended our membership. There was plenty to not like about Imperfect but the things I disliked the most were their short shopping window and inflexible delivery time.
Each week, I'd only have about 48 hours to create and modify my order. Before that window opened on Thursday afternoons at 3pm, there was no way to just browse their selection or see what we were getting (the pre-populated items). And even though my orders were delivered on Mondays, I had to finalize them by Saturday at noon. On top of that, not being able to shop for everything we needed was burdensome and required shopping in more than one venue. The way Imperfect is set up, I don't see how it could ever be someone's only grocery conduit. I realize that this is their model/mission and for the most part, I think it's flawed. It seems to greatly favor the food producers and the seller over the shopper, and fails to strike a mutually beneficial balance.
I still receive ~weekly emails offering me incentives to come back. Recently, they've been offering 50% off my first two orders if I reinstate my membership. That's probably a small price for them to pay over the cost of acquiring a new customer but even if they were offering 2 orders for free, for me, it still wouldn't be enough overcome the things I didn't like about them. It was never really about the cost. It was all the other issues that led to our departure.
=R=
Same planet, different world