02 July, 2010

One Bad Apple

When I originally started working at my job, it took about six months before I discovered the awesomeness that was Good Apples. Man, was I excited. Fresh produce delivered to my work? Sweet. I was all over that.

I ordered just veggies at first. They had this farmers box you could get - assorted veggies or assorted fruits from local farms. I loved it because it gave me a bunch of options and fresh veggies. Then I found out they carried Stripfresh and Callifonte products, which I tried and LOVED. They were both what I was looking for - homemade quality and reasonable prices. Awesome! :) 

After a while, it got too expensive for me to be shopping Good Apples AND grocery shopping, so we reduced our spending and went to the commissary more. Recently, I was hoping to find some more good  options like the farmers baskets and wanted some Callifonte (Fontana) pasta sooo bad, and wanted some good marinara to go over it. I navigate to the link, and it's gone.

WTF.

There is the new Good Apples - the "Virtual Farmer's Market" - complete with a veritable plethora of packaged - and imported - foods. Now, they'd had some previously, and I wouldn't complain about that. I like a lot of packaged foods and I love a lot of imports. However, they barely have any local foods left, and no farmers baskets, plus half of their links - with images of things they used to have, like the frozen pasta and Stripfresh - go to empty pages with "nothing meets your request". 

I don't know the details - whether Stripfresh and Callifonte left Good Apples or vice-versa, but I know that I can't find some of my favorite products (or the farmers baskets, which were amazing!) anywhere on Good Apples, and I'm seriously bummed out about that. Yeah, they have Newman's Own and Delallo and they still do have some local stuff, but it seems to be moving farther from fresh, local product and closer to grocery-store norms. I think it's great that I can still get that stuff delivered, but...

I feel like Good Apples has stepped away from their mission. Yeah, all that organic produce is great, but how much did it cost to ship it here? What about the packaged goods? The local stuff has a much lesser impact on the environment, and plus, it boosts our local economy. It also was SO delicious!

I'm just so bummed out that I can't get the things I bought there anymore, but I'm more upset that it looks like a totally different store (and that their website is so full of out-of-stock or unavailable pages!) and it feels like their business with Right By Nature has made them less of a "Good" place to shop.

I'm still trying to decide if I still want to shop with them. I guess it just depends on whether they keep sliding farther from what they're supposed to be. The stores seem no better in any way than Market District. I can't get it delivered to work or home, but at least I won't feel like the store is lying to me.

2 comments:

  1. I don't even know what the commissary is?

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  2. We used to love Good Apples but now that McGuinnis Sisters is on my way home, we don't order from Good Apples. We haven't in well over a year. I just stop on my way home. Also on Dave's way home there is this other little store that has great locally grown produce (and a few kinds of fresh pie each day).

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