Imperfect Foods: and Why I Love Them

I was 30 seconds away from signing up with Misfits Market when a friend mentioned that you don’t have a lot of flexibility with choosing your items. She recommended Imperfect Foods. I’ll be honest, I had not heard of either of these companies. While I don’t have any first hand experience with Misfits Market, word of mouth typically affects my decision making unless I have my own experiences to attribute.

Something to note: I did NOT choose this service to REPLACE my grocery shopping. We are a family of six: four of those being kids, and two of those being teenagers. In a world with a pandemic, I wanted something to reduce my trips to the grocery store. I have a COSTCO membership and I have all of my non-perishable items ship directly to my home. But what about the fruits and veggies? You can’t exactly stock pile those and expect them to last for fews on end. I also buy 3–4 gallons of milk and Orange Juice in a trip. So I did this as a supplement so instead of shopping weekly, I could go every 2–3 weeks.

How It Works

First you’ll need to put in your zip code to be sure you’re in a delivery area.

Then you’ll choose how many “eaters” are in your household.

After you make these selections, they will bring up a recommendation for you. You can choose what “packs” you want like veggie, snack packs, etc. Don’t get too hung up on these decisions because you can change it all later if you change your mind. Keep in mind you aren’t paying for anything until your items ship and you have control over what you get.

Notice how each of those items have check boxes? You can uncheck them if you disagree with the recommendations. Like I said before…don’t get too hung up on these choices. You have control over what ships.

After you click “Great, let’s do this!” you’ll create your account and put in your financial info. You’ll also get to choose your delivery day. I chose Friday because it made the most sense for our family. I’m usually a weekend grocery shopper so I wanted to “keep with it”. Now, I will say I signed up right before snowmageddon hit…so sometimes I got my delivery on Friday and sometimes I got it on Saturday. To me…this isn’t a deal breaker. Since I chose Friday as my delivery day, I get an e-mail Monday afternoon telling me “It’s time to shop!” I get to shop anytime from Monday 1pm — Tuesday 9pm. Hello flexibility!

Just click the link “shop” and you’ll be taken directly to your account. Now, based on your preferences your cart will automatically be filled with their suggestions. YOU CAN DELETE AND ADD ANYTHING YOU WANT! There is a $45 minimum (for me that is not hard to hit) and there is $8.99 shipping. Normally, I’m a stickler about shipping fees but honestly I think of it as a connivence for not having to leave my home. They have features like “reoccurring items” and “never items”. They are just like they sound. You can have items always in your cart that you want every week as your “reoccurring items” and if there are things you will never buy/eat you could throw those in your “never items” cart.

I also love that I can skip any week I want without being penalized. Going on vacation? Didn’t eat that much this week? Need to take a break for whatever reason you deem your reason? No problem! Go to your Delivery Schedule and skip it with just a click of a button!

On Thursday, I get my “Kale yeah!” email letting me know that my order has shipped. They are currently using FedEx for those that are interested in the carrier service. I get a tracking number/link and boom, I can track my shipment. I find this helpful in case there are carrier delays.

So what are the cons? I know, I know, you’re interested in the bad stuff too right? Sounds too good to be true? Sure! No problem. I’ve been using Imperfect Foods since Jan 10th so that gives me roughly 2 months to have a round about idea on how things work and whether or not I like the service.

Based on my account history I have had 7 deliveries to date. One delivery, the blueberries all fell out of the package during shipment and spilled/smashed all throughout the box. They gave me a credit for the damaged product.

Another shipment, my entire container of pico de gallo had spilled out. They gave me a credit for the damaged product.

They have EXCELLENT customer service!

Another shipment, I received two boxes. One box had 1 cucumber in it with an ice pack. The other box (same size and also with an ice pack) had all of my other items in it . I thought it was wasteful and that the cucumber could have fit in my main box. I wasn’t upset, but I thought the packaging was wasteful. I did email them to express my thoughts in a nice way. I didn’t go all “Karen” on them. (Is that still a term? lol)

The other cons are simple things like: maybe they are out of strawberries this week. Or maybe they don’t have that special cut of ham you liked last week. I don’t get upset by this either because I’m flexible. No biggie, we didn’t HAVE to have those strawberries…we can eat extra apples or whatever we want this week.

I realize this service isn’t for everyone. Which is why I wanted to talk about as much as I possibly could about it to help inform you. I feel like they do a really good job of explaining most of this on their website. Like I said at the beginning… I place value in word of mouth. Sure, you don’t know me, but I imagine if you are reading this…you’re researching the web to see if it’s a good fit for you. I would be doing the same thing ;)

I hope this helped make your decision!

I should also note: This is NOT a sponsored post, I’m NOT getting paid to write this. I mean… I guess if you’re reading this, I’m getting cents on the dollar but you know what I mean!

If you want to try them out: I have a referral code (naturally…)