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 delivery boxes. But after the launch of My Food Bag, fronted by MasterChef’s Nadia Lim (just to be clear, I haven’t tried it myself) 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.
But what about fruit and veggie delivery boxes? Would that make life easier and help during those food ruts we all fall into?
We have a ton of companies providing this kind of service in Auckland. Here’s a few from Google:
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
Mobile Produce: Does about eight packs. We’d probably get either the $20 singles pack or $30 combo pack
A couple of misgivings:
- 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?
