Hacker News Reader

Comment by mmmeff | Hacker News Reader

Spam. This company is such a ripoff. You get mostly normal produce at average prices. There's literally no point. Just go to the grocery store...

View on HN

> The company, they argued, is not in the business of food waste so much food surplus: It buys excess products that farmers can’t sell to supermarkets, but could sell to restaurants, canned and processed food companies, or, as a last resort, donate to food banks. “The stuff in these boxes is not ending up in a landfill,” co-author Max Cadji, the founder of Phat Beets Produce, told me. “They’re just tapping into the same marketplace as the guys who make shredded carrots.”

https://newrepublic.com/article/152596/hungry-harvest-box-ug...

Isn't this very similar to how Grocery Outlet operates?

And farmer's markets, but... quietly.

https://www.tampabay.com/projects/2016/food/farm-to-fable/fa...

That was a very well written and researched article. As a Florida produce consumer, thank you for linking that.

The article says the situation is a lot more complicated than that. It quoted a farmer who said that much of the food it sold to Imperfect Produce had previously been plowed under. Or it had been given to a food bank for free, but the IP money help pay their expenses.

The author's main point is that too much food is being produced, but she doesn't really explain what she thinks a better solution would be.

The basic idea is good though. A supermarket in my area has a produce clearance rack where they put all the dodgy produce at significant discount, usually around 75% off. It's quite useful for produce that one is going to eat right away or cook, and the wilted and almost overripe quality isn't too different from fairly expensive family owned small produce stalls in big cities which often don't have enough turnover to keep fresh produce stocked.

Yeah. We had a store here that used to mark down the very ripe bananas about 70%. My wife thinks bananas are at their best at that point and would frequently buy a bag. I don't think the bag ever made it home without being short at least one banana.

When I tried them their produce was on par with what I could buy for a fraction of the price from Fred Meyers. Freddys isn't exactly the gold standard for produce quality though, at least my location.

I see this company as nothing more than well-off people trying to feel good.

I wouldn't have called it spam. Solutions to societal problems are a common topic here, and the submitter has a long and consistent history of quality submissions.

>You get mostly normal produce at average prices

The article says the prices are cheaper. Do you have evidence this is not so?

I was a subscriber for a while and I am pretty sure it was more expensive than the store, IIRC it was about $35 - you can definitely get more than a small box of vegetables at the store for $35.

I think the bottom line is that courier delivery is not as cheap as depot delivery (i.e. to the store) although it can be more convenient (i.e. Blue Apron, Amazon, etc) I didn't find produce boxes to be convenient at all, because unless you actively manage your deliveries you end up needing to go shopping anyways to get other ingredients to fill out recipes made from the stuff that comes in the box (like, fennel doesn't go with everything, I don't really like chard by itself, etc) and as noted above the veggies are frequently past their prime.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com