CSA SPUD Seattle: OMG! I've never been so excited over Small Potatoes before!

[bexx09]

I just found an organic produce & grocery delivery place!! OMG, OMG, OMG! I'm so freaking excited!!!

Ok, well I didn't really find it. It found me! I opened my inbox this morning and there was my Daily Candy Seattle email and it was all about SPUD.

SPUD stands for Small Potatoes Urban Delivery and they have an awesome selection of organic foods that you can order online and have delivered to your door. You can even get things like milk and butter. This is going to be sooooo cool! I'm putting in an order this week and my first delivery will be next Tuesday. Prices seem pretty reasonable to what I've been paying at Safeway, Fred Meyer, QFC and Trader Joe's and if I can cut out the running around that I do to those stores on the weekend it'll save me SO much time. Plus I'll be less likely to forget things - like purchasing organic produce - cause I'll be doing my ordering when I'm nice and relaxed at home.

Here's an excerpt from the Daily Candy email:

Not just any store, the Seattle offshoot of the Vancouver company dispatches bright purple trucks filled with fresh, healthy food and produce all over the city. SPUD partners with small farms and organic food companies, making it easy to eat with a conscience.

Browse the virtual shelves for everything from Kettle chips and wild salmon to cookie dough, then schedule a weekly delivery of fresh, seasonal produce. Locavores, rejoice: The site has producer bios and info on distances the food travels.

Available online at Small Potatoes Urban Delivery. Use promo code CANDYS for a discount on your first four orders.

SPUD.JPG

[jujubee]

Cool! Wish we has something like this here.

[kristen.c]

Bexx that is so cool! I bet you'll feel so spoiled when your first delivery comes. You'll have to post about it when it comes so we can all ooh and aah!

[Mavis]

That is awesome. Do they accept coupons?
I can't wait to hear about your first delivery.

[ladywaterwind]

That's so cool! You'll have to take pictures for us, if it comes all cute and stuff :)

[hotcouponmama]

Wow - very cool! We have a couple of services like that in our area, but then hey, it's Portland - do you expect any less?

[bexx09]

I'll definitely take pics and tell you how it goes!

I decided to do a comparison between SPUD and Safeway. So I just placed an order at Safeway.com - mostly organic stuff, including a good amount of organic produce. For some reason, my local Safeway rarely has organic fruit available, so the delivery service is perfect!

I had to place a $50 order, but it will be delivered tomorrow evening (Tuesday).

This weekend I'll place my SPUD order and that will come next Tuesday, so we'll see how they compare.

[bexx09]

Update:

I got my order from Safeway.com on Tuesday. It went pretty smoothly.

The delivery guy showed up on time and was pretty cute too! ;) Everything was separated - one type of produce in each bag, and other like items were grouped together. I ended up with 8-9 plastic grocery bags, plus the plastic bags that the fruit came in though.

I ordered a bunch of organic fruit - I think there were about 25 or so pieces in total - apples, oranges, pears and couple of lemons. I grabbed a couple whole wheat pizza crusts, a couple jars of organic PB (since it was on sale), a Safeway O Organics pizza, some cheese dip (not organic!, lol), a few bags of organic frozen corn, a box of organic ice cream bars and a couple boxes of chicken fries for the meat-eaters in the family. Total was right around $50, but the fruit was about $20 worth of that and will last me at least a week. I never would've been able to find all the organic fruit in one place at a local grocery store and especially not pieces as good-looking and great-tasting as the ones they sent me. (Is it just me or does organic produce in grocery stores sometimes look like it's been sitting out a few days too long?)

I definitely liked the convenience part of it - having someone else shop for my groceries, bag them and drive them to my house was definitely a treat. And I didn't have to worry about running out this week to get groceries for lunches either.

Since it was my first order, I got my delivery charge knocked off. But my next order will be $7.95 - $9.95 depending on how big of a window I give them for delivery. It may or not be worth it to me... convenience is a big factor for me, but paying an extra $10 for groceries (and not being able to use coupons on any of it) would definitely not be an every week occurence.

My SPUD order is placed, I have an email in to them about the promo code (I can't find a place to enter it!) and will arrive on my doorstep on Tuesday. The nice thing is that I don't have to be home when they deliver... plus I also qualified for free delivery there since I ordered $40 worth.

To be continued...

[kristen.c]

That sounds great Bexx!

I totally agree with you on some of the prganic produce looking pretty raunchy. I understand that because it doesn't have chemicals in it to prolong the shelf life sometimes it won't be as pristine and unblemished as traditional produce but yuck, I'd never buy celery that's already brown on the edges and wilted all over! And some of the apples look like they've been used for hockey pucks! That was one of the major reasons I stopped buying organic produce when I was living in NM and turned against it for awhile...I was tired of my lettuce turning brown just a day after buying it, and multiple times I'd buy berries or grape tomatoes only to realize they were MOLDY on the inside when I got them home! I think it was more a reflection on the stores in the area not being able to take care of the produce than the quality of the produce itself.

That's a little sad about all of the bags...You'd think they would have used paper at the very least. I hope your SPUD delivery goes well too!

[bexx09]

I got my SPUD order today and I have to say that I was REALLY pleased.

My food arrived in a large plastic purple tub... no extra bags were used, so I thought that was really cool. :) They'll pick up the tub on my next order.

The tub was pretty full... I ordered:

2 organic apples
2 lbs. organic bananas
10 organic oranges
7th Generation cleaner 32 oz.
Organic Pain Au Levain (bread that you bake at home)
2 cans of organic pizza sauce
6 Organic Whole Wheat English Muffins
24 organic yellow corn tortillas
2 lbs. organic yellow popcorn
8 sponges
box of organic saltine crackers
box of organic raisin bran cereal
2 jars of organic lemonade 32 oz.
and several different SPUD materials to pass along to friends.

Total came to $40 and some change. I doubt I could've bought that same list of things at my local grocery store and paid $40 or less for it. I probably wouldn't even have been able to find all those products at ONE store.

I got a response back from SPUD the day after I emailed them about the promo code. They added it to my account and it was good for $10 off a $25 min. order so that was awesome and unexpected (I was expecting something like 5% off, lol).

Their customer service is awesome and I LOVE that their packing/delivery methods are so eco-friendly. My only (very, very minor) complaint is that a couple oranges look bruised up and have these soft spots on them. Not sure if they got damaged on the trip down or while being packed, but it's pretty minor. I'm sure I can just cut around that part.

So I will definitely be ordering from them again. I love that they don't have a minimum order -- so if I just want to order organic produce one week, I can do that and there's only a nominal delivery charge (I think it's $3.50). That's much better compared to Safeway which has a $50 minimum order requirement and you STILL have to pay a delivery charge on top of that ($7.95 - $9.95).

So way to go SPUD -- you won the organic delivery service smackdown!!!

[derketchup]

Wow, Bexx, that's awesome! If I weren't infatuated with www.organicproduceshoppe.com I'd be buying from spud! (I know, shameless plug!)

[pwetypweas]

That's really cool Becky - and I love the fact their trucks and tubs are PURPLE! Purple rocks! And $40 for all that produce and such really is a good deal... I hate buying produce - it always wonks my food budget

[kristen.c]

That sounds great Bexx! That's neat how they pack everything in a big tub.

[bexx09]

Yeah, they totally rock. And I just realized I forgot to take pics! Maybe I can pack everything back in tonight and take a pic, lol.