Do you get a lot of your food via mail order?

November 2, 2007 12:37 PM

Do you get a lot of your food via mail order? I mean everyday foods, not stuff from expensive specialty places. What are your favorite sources for this? (I'm in the U.S.)

Asking because I'm thinking about moving back into an isolated NYC neighborhood that's a long, multi-leg trip from any good grocery stores (and definitely has no FreshDirect service).

Last time I lived there, I used a combo of an organic delivery service (which is a good value for a weekly mixed box of fruits & veggies, but offers only a very limited & expensive selection of other groceries) plus sites like bulkfoods.com and some natural foods sites that now seem to have gone out of business or stoped local delivery.

So what are your current favorite mail order food sites? Every kind is great to hear about, and I'm especially into ones with lots of natural or Asian or vegetarian foods.

posted by sparrows to food & drink (12 answers total)

Tastybite is serviceable shelf stable and easy to prepare Indian and Thai food. I can really only vouch for the vegetarian Indian ones.
posted by ill3 at 12:42 PM on November 2, 2007

A friend uses Amazon prime for this exact reason. 70 bucks isn't much over the year (if you add time spent driving to the store + gas etc.) and you can order day to day groceries as you need (and it arrives second day; next day a lot of the time). Obviously this isn't great for fresh produce but you might look for a CSA type deal for meat/veggies and fruit.
posted by special-k at 12:47 PM on November 2, 2007 [2 favorites]

Enough about the TastyBites :)

With this question I'm trying to get people's recommendations for mail order food services they've personally used and liked.

(I mentioned bulkfoods.com, a great example -- I'm trying to find more places like that one, which people here can personally recommend. The Amazon idea is an interesting one too!)
posted by sparrows at 1:09 PM on November 2, 2007

I think Schwan's is the classic answer here, but I don't know if they're good in your area. They do have good food, I can vouch for that.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:14 PM on November 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

I haven't used it personally, but a friend of mine really likes peapod.
posted by drezdn at 2:17 PM on November 2, 2007

The way I prepare TastyBites is to....

Only kidding.

Amazon is carrying more and more everyday foods--no produce, obviously. I have found tons of stuff on there, and much of it is very reasonably priced. Getting the prime service is a great idea because the shipping costs could get outrageous. $70 is nothing for a whole year. And that $70 covers anything you buy on Amazon; do all your xmas shopping there, too.

Also look into maxdelivery.com and yourgrocer.com to see if they deliver to your area.
posted by HotPatatta at 2:18 PM on November 2, 2007

Schwan's delivery service seems to be a favorite of people I've known who lived far from grocery stores.
posted by yohko at 2:46 PM on November 2, 2007

I get Urban Organic which I really like (when I remember to opt out of certain items) and do the rest of my shopping at TJs in Manhattan. I live in an area of Brooklyn where Fresh Direct doesn't deliver (aka a predominantly black area) so that isn't an option. Trader Joe's is opening a store in Brooklyn in the near future (the one in Queens is open), and they deliver though you do have to go to the store to buy the stuff for them to deliver.

If you haven't been in the area for a while you may find that the local grocery stores have changed; I know that the big one in my area has changed and is carrying a lot more organic produce and natural foods.
posted by kenzi23 at 3:28 PM on November 2, 2007

Over the last year, we have used Peapod to stock up on staples and on heavy items. We usually make one large order a month, which easily puts us over the minimum requirement. There are generally free delivery coupons listed online, as well, so we don't pay out the nose either. I really, really like it, and would recommend it to anyone who is busy. It really helps free up a lot of time to just get stuff at the front door one day on the weekend, rather than having to go get it..
posted by gemmy at 3:47 PM on November 2, 2007

Yeah, Urban Organic is what I was referring to and I would use them for most of my produce.

I wouldn't be in Brooklyn or Queens and I wouldn't be in a delivery area of any other store mentioned here so far, except Schwan's. From a first glance Schwan's seems to focus on prepared foods but they could definitely be useful for some things!

Any mail order recommendations from anybody...?
posted by sparrows at 3:55 PM on November 2, 2007

The amazon stuff looks like it is all in bulk... is that right?
posted by amanda at 11:52 AM on November 3, 2007

everything I've bought from Amazon groceries has been in bulk packagaing. Amazon is testing a new grocery home delivery service in Seattle. I haven't used it because it doesn't deliver to my neighborhood but I do the see the trucks downtown.
posted by slowstarter at 9:59 PM on November 3, 2007