Support NeoGAF

chicko1983 · May 27, 2017

I just had a guy at the door ask if I wanted to join their food delivery service.

The way it works is: you pick some recipes that you like, how many meals you want to make and how many people you are cooking for and then they deliver a box of groceries of raw ingredients for you to make the meals you ordered.

Apparently my suburb is one of the highest users of their service so they are offering a free trial of one box. As a person living by myself and working long hours, it is a tempting offer.

It would cost about $70 (~$50USD) per week to make three meals for two people (so I reckon that would be enough for my weeknight meals). I reckon I spend about that each week but don't have a very varied diet.

Does anyone else use a similar service? Are you happy with it?

efyu_lemonardo · May 27, 2017

I once ordered groceries online, everything was by weight so I put in 2 for 2 kg of watermelon. Ended up getting 2 watermelons which is closer to 20 kg.

Good times

Edit: other than that was very pleased with the service. Delivered on time, good quality and very well packaged.

riotous · May 27, 2017

All the time; we get Amazon Fresh.

They also deliver uncooked or partially cooked meals from restaurants; we get Ramen sometimes that way and it's great. Ramen restaurants cook their stock all morning anyways then prepare bowls on the spot pretty much the same as we do when we get the ingredients.

GuyKazama · May 27, 2017

Munchery has some good food, but overall is too expensive. I haven't found a better service.

I get all my groceries delivered with Amazon Fresh (Los Angeles)

chicko1983 · May 27, 2017

riotous said:
All the time; we get Amazon Fresh.

They don't have that in Australia yet.

Do you find that you spend more money ordering online?

riotous · May 27, 2017

chicko1983 said:
They don't have that in Australia yet.

Do you find that you spend more money ordering online?

Not necessarily; the main grocery I go to by my house is a high end one anyways. Fresh used to be more expensive but now they charge a yearly fee, and as long as you use them consistently it works out to decent deals. (Because they lowered prices)

We also buy common items using Amazon subscribe and save. Paper towels, toilet papers, cat food, etc which saves us 15% off of already good prices.

Kyoufu · May 27, 2017

For many years, yeah. If you don't need to do your groceries yourself then it's very convenient to have it delivered.

NipplesAndToes23 · May 27, 2017

I was supposed to help someone start an organic food business that delivers to black communities and churches. I've tried some of the food and I definitely can taste the difference with the chicken tenders.

Bananajama · May 27, 2017

All the time - I'm just too busy

danowat · May 27, 2017

Have done for years, ain't nobody got time to go food shopping.

CanUKlehead · May 27, 2017

Have been for about 3 years here in the UK; considering the time it saves, it's hard to go back.

gnomed · May 27, 2017

riotous said:
All the time; we get Amazon Fresh.

They also deliver uncooked or partially cooked meals from restaurants; we get Ramen sometimes that way and it's great. Ramen restaurants cook their stock all morning anyways then prepare bowls on the spot pretty much the same as we do when we get the ingredients.

They can do this? Where on Amazon Fresh can I find that option and is it pricier than getting a prepared meal? I've been using Door Dash to deliver restaurant meals or finish the cooking after delivery.

Impotaku · May 27, 2017

Most supermarkets in the uk offer online delivery so it's a pretty common thing now, we get all our food shopping online. It's so much better not having to lug all your own food home on the bus.

riotous · May 27, 2017

gnomed said:
They can do this? Where on Amazon Fresh can I find that option and is it pricier than getting a prepared meal? I've been using Door Dash to deliver restaurant meals or finish the cooking after delivery.

They keep changing things since they introduced Amazon Restaurants (through Prime Now) which is a full blown delivery service like BiteSquad or all the other ones out there.

Now they call it "Local Market" here in Seattle; looks like the Ramen we order moved over to restaurants (and I think still comes only partially cooked), but we can get stuff like ready to bake Pot Pies and even steaks from a high-end (over-priced) steak house that are marinated/rubbed and ready to cook. (from Fresh's "Local Market" section)

Varies a lot by area, with Seattle in general usually having the most Amazon based services/newest stuff.

As far as the price it's usually the same as getting a prepared meal at the same restaurant; it's more about the freshness and being able to finish the cooking when you want.

Prophet Steve · May 27, 2017

There are services like that but I'm not very interested in those. Can also just order groceries here but the minimum spending is higher than I consume in a week or so.

mrklaw · May 27, 2017

You're talking about two different things

Supermarket delivery is common in lots of places. Although we do it most weeks, I don't completely see the point as we take as long on the internet figuring out the shopping list and adding it to the cart, as we would if we physically went to the supermarket. so it's only slightly more convenient really.

But what you're talking about is more like Hello Fresh in the UK. We did them for a while and they're great but expensive. We did the three person plan but they delivered enough food for the four of us. The recipes were easy to follow and didn't take ages, and introduced us to flavours and things we wouldn't have tried otherwise. And if anyone has kids, it helped ours take more of an interest and they actually started cooking meals during the week.

We did cancel though because it was a lot more than just buying the ingredients yourself. We kept a bunch of the recipe cards and stilll make them regularly though

daviyoung · May 27, 2017

Nevermind, misunderstood. I've never done the Hello Fresh/Home Chef thing, seems too restrictive.

MidgarBlowedUp · May 27, 2017

I've been really considering this. Food for work mostly. I looked at schwans, but I don't really know what else is out there.

As for just groceries, it would be nice to have the delivered but it's just way too expensive for me. We have one of those Walmart fresh market things near me so it's only 30 minutes to pick up everything after work once every week or two.

A Fish Aficionado · May 27, 2017

NipplesAndToes23 said:
I was supposed to help someone start an organic food business that delivers to black communities and churches. I've tried some of the food and I definitely can taste the difference with the chicken tenders.

Conformation bias. Same with wine tastings. It's all marketing bullshit.

I really don't see the advantage when you live in a place where you can get things from a drive, or even a walk.

chicko1983 · May 27, 2017

mrklaw said:
You're talking about two different things

Supermarket delivery is common in lots of places. Although we do it most weeks, I don't completely see the point as we take as long on the internet figuring out the shopping list and adding it to the cart, as we would if we physically went to the supermarket. so it's only slightly more convenient really.

But what you're talking about is more like Hello Fresh in the UK. We did them for a while and they're great but expensive. We did the three person plan but they delivered enough food for the four of us. The recipes were easy to follow and didn't take ages, and introduced us to flavours and things we wouldn't have tried otherwise. And if anyone has kids, it helped ours take more of an interest and they actually started cooking meals during the week.

We did cancel though because it was a lot more than just buying the ingredients yourself. We kept a bunch of the recipe cards and stilll make them regularly though

Yeah it is Hello Fresh.

I was wondering what was stopping people from using the recipe cards and just buying their own. From the sounds of it, nothing really other than the convenience of not having to go to the shops yourself.

gnomed · May 27, 2017

riotous said:
They keep changing things since they introduced Amazon Restaurants (through Prime Now) which is a full blown delivery service like BiteSquad or all the other ones out there.

Now they call it "Local Market" here in Seattle; looks like the Ramen we order moved over to restaurants (and I think still comes only partially cooked), but we can get stuff like ready to bake Pot Pies and even steaks from a high-end (over-priced) steak house that are marinated/rubbed and ready to cook. (from Fresh's "Local Market" section)

Varies a lot by area, with Seattle in general usually having the most Amazon based services/newest stuff.

As far as the price it's usually the same as getting a prepared meal at the same restaurant; it's more about the freshness and being able to finish the cooking when you want.

Well lucky you. I'll be on the lookout for it.

Shandy · May 27, 2017

We tried it about 5 years ago. While I can certainly see the advantages, it definitely has some drawbacks as well. You hope for whoever packs it to pick good produce, some items aren't available for delivery and if you don't get something for whatever reason, you either do without or you end up having to go out anyway. Then you have to fight for a delivery slot that works for you, and the good ones are predictably competitive.

Besides, Woolworths won't deliver a roast chicken and that upsets me. What am I supposed to do, cook my own chicken? I don't want my chicken, I want their chicken.

SmokinGunZ1981 · May 27, 2017

chicko1983 said:
Yeah it is Hello Fresh.

I was wondering what was stopping people from using the recipe cards and just buying their own. From the sounds of it, nothing really other than the convenience of not having to go to the shops yourself.

Myself and my wife tried it for a couple of months, mainly to try out some new recipes as we found we were just cooking the same thing over and over again. In the end it just worked out far too expensive for what you actually got so we picked up some recipe books and began working our way through them instead.

I'm also currently looking into enrolling us into an adults cookery class and turning it into a weekly date night sort of thing.

ClosingADoor · May 27, 2017

Yes, I do. They deliver 3 meals for 2 persons. Since I live alone, I just stretch it out for 6 meals for myself.

Forces me to at least cook a bit healthy since I'm not someone who goes out and buys all this stuff from the supermarket myself.

Does sound like yours is more expensive. Over here Hello Fresh charges 36 euros for it.

Visualante2 · May 27, 2017

Avoid fresh produce, refuse all substitutes and be careful about the dates on deals. Sometimes the deals end before your order is charged.

I'm generally not a fan. They never have the full selection on the website, often excluding things like the cheapest tooth brush. They have given me meat instead of vegetarian sausages. This week they delivered out of date soya milk. They have turned up early and asked my housemate to sign for the delivery (when there was a substitute). Their bagging process is fucking stupid too. Sometimes they will use a carrier bag for 1 item.

We're locked in to some bullshit delivery saver scheme that gets us free delivery Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays. I think if you listen to music and live close to a store just go in person.

chicko1983 said:
Yeah it is Hello Fresh.

I was wondering what was stopping people from using the recipe cards and just buying their own. From the sounds of it, nothing really other than the convenience of not having to go to the shops yourself.

I cook for one so buying ingredients is usually cost prohibitive or wasteful. If you live near a market that's great but most stores want to sell you big family sized packs. I am not yet on board with the concept of cooking in bulk and filling my freezer full of frozen meals. We have had the meal delivery service in the past too. A lettuce came rotten. Wasn't a good first impression. Seems wasteful in terms of postage and packaging too.

Bony Manifesto · May 27, 2017

I used to get my groceries delivered a lot, back when it was a new thing in the UK and you got free delivery and only had to spend £25. But now you have to pay for all delivery slots (although some are only £1 or so) and the minimum order without getting a big old surcharge is £40, which is more than I spend on most weeks. Sometimes if I'm feeling really lazy, I still do it, and get a big crate of booze to make up the value.

Trokil · May 27, 2017

No, because I want to see the fruits, vegetables and fresh produce I buy. Also because I usually buy my bread at the bakery, meat from the butcher or farmer, fruits and vegetables from the farmer or on the market.

You get better, fresher, tastier stuff. Also sometimes, if they have too much of a product you will get a discount if your arrive later.

andythinkpad · May 27, 2017

Neogaf.com : Off-Topic Discussion : Millionaire to Millennials: Stop Buying Prepared Groceries Meal If You Want to Buy a Home

/s

entremet · May 27, 2017

It's honestly the best thing ever. I highly recommended it.

I'm in NYC, though. It really makes sense here due to lack of cars and busy lifestyles.

Baleoce · May 27, 2017

It would cost about $70 (~$50USD) per week to make three meals for two people

Seems high.

chicko1983 · May 27, 2017

Baleoce said:
Seems high.

Australian food prices are high.

spuckthew · May 27, 2017

My girlfriend occasionally decides to place an absurd order on Ocado (UK online supermarket) when we haven't had 'proper meals' for a while or when she starts complaining that we have fuck all to eat in the apartment. Most of the time we don't buy online, though, and I'll just buy a few things on my way home from work or something.

mrklaw · May 27, 2017

chicko1983 said:
Yeah it is Hello Fresh.

I was wondering what was stopping people from using the recipe cards and just buying their own. From the sounds of it, nothing really other than the convenience of not having to go to the shops yourself.

Well one thing is the ingredient cards don't include weights or measurements- so they'll give you a little pot with enough of spice A or flavouring B, but won't say '1tsp', you just put the whole thing in. But it's fairly easy to make a quick note and weigh some of the ingredients.

The thing that would/will bring me back is new recipes and how they're structured (plus delivering those odd flavourings you can't easily justify buying in larger quantities if you don't use them regularly)

Assuming they're offering a decent deal why not try it out? At least in the UK they don't lock you in for any period

chicko1983 · May 27, 2017

andythinkpad said:
Neogaf.com : Off-Topic Discussion : Millionaire to Millennials: Stop Buying Prepared Groceries Meal If You Want to Buy a Home

/s

I have bought a house.

I also work around 60hrs a week to try and pay it off.

mrklaw said:
Well one thing is the ingredient cards don't include weights or measurements- so they'll give you a little pot with enough of spice A or flavouring B, but won't say '1tsp', you just put the whole thing in. But it's fairly easy to make a quick note and weigh some of the ingredients.

The thing that would/will bring me back is new recipes and how they're structured (plus delivering those odd flavourings you can't easily justify buying in larger quantities if you don't use them regularly)

Assuming they're offering a decent deal why not try it out? At least in the UK they don't lock you in for any period

Yeah ok. I waste a lot of money on buying one off spices when I try new recipes. I am leaning to try it out for a couple of weeks.

Stallion Dan · May 27, 2017

Bony Manifesto said:
I used to get my groceries delivered a lot, back when it was a new thing in the UK and you got free delivery and only had to spend £25. But now you have to pay for all delivery slots (although some are only £1 or so) and the minimum order without getting a big old surcharge is £40, which is more than I spend on most weeks. Sometimes if I'm feeling really lazy, I still do it, and get a big crate of booze to make up the value.

Buy the delivery pass thing, typically about £15 for 3 months but you can get unlimited deliveries for free, even in the £4 or £5 delivery slots, provided you spend £40 each delivery.

I guess if you live alone £40 might be hard to reach weekly, was 3 where I lived when we done it.

Sgt. Kabukiman · May 27, 2017

I don't have a car so I use delivery once in a while. It's fairly expensive where I live but it's worth it. Great service every time. I was worried at first about the quality of the fruits and vegetables they'd pick for me but I've never been let down.

tedrotheredro · May 27, 2017

I use FreshDirect all the time in NYC. It's fantastic: fresher produce than my local stores, delivered in a 2 hour timeframe, pick what you want, wide selection of everything you'd need. I'll supplement it with Amazon for home goods/toiletries. The prices aren't bad for the most part, but some things are more expensive than others (meat for example), so I'll make a trip once every month or two to stock up on those items.

azyless · May 27, 2017

I don't use specialized delivery services but I've done it with my supermarket a couple of times. It's okay but I don't really like ordering fresh produce that way, and the minimum is around 50 euros, which is way above what I need for a week unless I invite people over or something.

Aselith · May 27, 2017

chicko1983 said:
Yeah it is Hello Fresh.

I was wondering what was stopping people from using the recipe cards and just buying their own. From the sounds of it, nothing really other than the convenience of not having to go to the shops yourself.

What would stop people from just looking up the recipes online and not going through Hello Fresh at all?

People interested in Hello Fresh aren't getting it because they want to do the legwork themselves. The smart play is not to be douches about it and let people "steal" the recipe if that's how they wanna do.

ClosingADoor · May 27, 2017

mrklaw said:
Well one thing is the ingredient cards don't include weights or measurements- so they'll give you a little pot with enough of spice A or flavouring B, but won't say '1tsp', you just put the whole thing in. But it's fairly easy to make a quick note and weigh some of the ingredients.

The thing that would/will bring me back is new recipes and how they're structured (plus delivering those odd flavourings you can't easily justify buying in larger quantities if you don't use them regularly)

Assuming they're offering a decent deal why not try it out? At least in the UK they don't lock you in for any period

The amounts are on the recipe for me here. Maybe it's different in other countries though.

MsKrisp · May 27, 2017

riotous said:
Not necessarily; the main grocery I go to by my house is a high end one anyways. Fresh used to be more expensive but now they charge a yearly fee, and as long as you use them consistently it works out to decent deals. (Because they lowered prices)

We also buy common items using Amazon subscribe and save. Paper towels, toilet papers, cat food, etc which saves us 15% off of already good prices.

What's the yearly fee? I did the free trial month but it's $14.99 a month after that so I cancelled, it's pretty wasteful with all the packaging and they don't have a wide enough selection to prevent me from going to any of the 3 stores I need things from. (I did have fun playing with the dry ice though, might as well put it to use)

And I did try Plated which is like Hello Fresh. I liked it, but for the price I can just buy a meal someone else prepared, and the save time and money of preparing one of their meals. I enjoyed making recipes I wouldn't normally mess with though. I think it would be better for me if I didn't have to cut the vegetables and the price was more reasonable.

D4Danger · May 27, 2017

All the supermarkets in the UK offer it as a service so you can buy anything in the store online so I do quite a bit of my food shop online these days. Just buy fresh stuff through the month because it doesn't keep.

The Greek Freak · May 27, 2017

I did twice but both times they overcharged on their regular prices AND they picked the worst fucking produce.

.J. · May 27, 2017

Won't do it for two reasons:

1) Cost, obviously. I can go to the store easily, have plenty of time for it, and so the convenience charge doesn't make sense to me economically.

2) I eat a Whole Foods plant based diet, and so a huge part of what I get is produce. I'm picky especially about fruit quality, and so giving up the option to hand pick stuff like apples, strawberries, bananas, avocado, to say nothing for greens and peppers, just isn't an option. Same reason I don't buy bagged up bunches of anything. Always some mealy goddamn apples and gross wilted liquidy spinach.

Elandyll · May 27, 2017

We tried Amazon fresh for a while, and stopped.

With Prime it was somewhat cost effective actually But

1) limited choices
2) got rotten produce twice
3) got a busted gallon of milk where the rest of that box's order swimed in milk
4) gotta remember to order at a specific time if you want a specific delivery window, particularly for week end delivery

Wasn't worth the hassle imo.

Vhalyar · May 27, 2017

I use online shopping to get some heavy stuff delivered. Water, cans, flour, and assorted non perishables. Also useful for getting some specific products that not all stores carry (looking at you, canned chipotle peppers here in Finland.) I'll usually make one order every few weeks to restock.

In Spain I tried using Amazon Pantry, but they constantly fucked up the orders. Missing/different products, in every single order.

Metalmarc · May 27, 2017

I think OP is talking like about food subscription boxes that type of thing, seems waaaaay too overpriced for a couple of meals, kinda like lootcrate for meals, though some you can pick n choose your ingredients, some you can get random if you wish

I can do months shopping almost for £50 ($64 us)

Faiz · May 27, 2017

Unless I was literally unable due to age or illness, I could never do it. I don't trust a store clerk to pick my produce for me.

Edit: I committed the ultimate forum crime and responded based on subject without reading the post. :/

So the type of subscription services you are talking about can be handy if you feel you are in a rut and low on time. We've used those before for a bit, then took the recipes and bought the ingredients ourselves for cheaper when we wanted to return to them. As far as cost goes, the ingredients supplied from the services we used are very high quality. Based on our experience, buying the ingredients ourselves have resulted in either a) very little money saved if buying the same quality or b) significant cost savings but with lower quality ingredients.

Obviously ymmv based on the service itself.

nel e nel · May 27, 2017

Metalmarc said:
I think OP is talking like about food subscription boxes that type of thing, seems waaaaay too overpriced for a couple of meals, kinda like lootcrate for meals, though some you can pick n choose your ingredients, some you can get random if you wish

I can do months shopping almost for £50 ($64 us)

Yeah, the title suggests something like Fresh Direct, but the OP sounds more like Blue Apron.

We've been using Fresh Direct for years now, and it's great. Not much more than the brick and mortar stores, but the produce is much better.

nekkid · May 27, 2017

In the UK, and get it every week. Most supermarkets here offer it and it's very popular. Delivery vans are in our street every day.

Support NeoGAF

Any get their groceries delivered?

Member

May I have a cookie?

Banned

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Banned

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Member

MrArseFace

Banned

Member

I am going to make it through this year if it kills me

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

MrArseFace

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Unconfirmed Member

Member

Banned

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Member

It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.

Similar threads