Misfit Market Cost Analysis And Review: Is It Worth It?

Last year, I started hearing about a new and different food delivery service: Misfit Market. We’ve mostly stayed away from these companies and continue to get our groceries from the supermarket or farmer’s market. We did get a coupon for meal kit delivery service Hello Fresh once, so we did that for a few weeks and wrote a review of it. (Verdict: Hello Fresh charges a 200% convenience tax) I know about the other big grocery delivery services, but have never used them because I’m sure the shipping costs are outrageous.

We’ve even done a CSA in the past, where you pick up a weekly box of produce from a local farm that you pay for in advance at the beginning of the season. (Think hundreds and hundreds of dollars) But I’m basically opposed to goods-by-mail subscriptions services. That includes clothes, razors, snacks, socks, ties, and all other manner of “lifestyle” crap you can get delivered to your door by a company that is hoping you’ll forget to cancel your subscription.

What makes Misfit Market different is that they take the produce that supermarkets don’t want (think the ugly, misshapen stuff) box it up and send it out to you. Plus it’s all organic. And since the they can’t sell it at regular grocery store prices, it comes at a significant discount! So not only is this delivering something you need anyway (food), but it is helping keep food from going into the trashcan! (Insert rant about food waste in America here) When I found out that they started shipping to the Albany area, I signed right up.

We signed up for the Mischief Box, which is supposed to be enough for two people. It should have 10-12 pounds of produce in it. We signed up for bi-weekly deliveries. With a 25% off coupon, our first delivery was $19.50 with shipping, and subsequent boxes have been $23.50.

It was exciting getting that first box. Unlike meal delivery kits, you don’t know what you’re going to get from Misfit Market. You can go on the website and get an idea, but you won’t know for sure until you open the box! Some people might not like this aspect because there’s food they won’t eat, or they like to plan meals ahead. But for us, the surprise is a plus. We will probably eat anything, and we like to use our creativity to use up everything in the box.

The boxes of vegetables are very well packaged. The cardboard box has some kind of insulating lining that is biodegradable, and usually the vegetables are packaged as you’d get them at the grocery store. Here’s what we got!

Week 1

What a haul! Here’s what it would cost for us to buy the same things at conventional produce prices at the grocery store, as close as I can guess.

Two baby bok choy ($6.00), 8 oz of grape tomatoes ($2.00), a head of lettuce ($2.49), four pears ($3.00), four russet potatoes ($1.00), four poblano peppers ($2.50), five carrots ($1.00), two cucumbers ($1.60), lacinato kale ($3.00), two onions ($1.00), two lemons ($1.00), four oranges ($2.00), two onions ($1.00), one head of garlic ($0.69), and one romanesco cauliflower (our grocery store doesn’t even have this, so I’ll round up from a regular cauliflower and say $4.00).

That’s $32.28 if we had bought this as conventionally grown produce at the store! And remember, Misfit Market only stocks organic produce, so figure another 40% premium for organic, and you’re close to $45.00 worth of produce!

Week 2

A little lighter this week. Four pears ($3.00), 8 oz. of grape tomatoes ($2.00), three turnips ($2.00), two small butternut squash ($4.00), a bunch of carrots ($1.50) , a beet ($3.00), two avocados ($2.40), four summer squash ($2.00), swiss chard ($2.50).

One bad thing about the second week’s haul? That beet SUCKED. Honestly, I don’t know what it was, but it was one of the worst vegetables I’ve ever had. It tasted like salt and dirt after we roasted it. I don’t know what was up with it, but the beets we got the next week tasted fine.

At any rate, that is $22.40 worth of conventional produce by my calculations. And probably $30 or so if we were buying organic at the grocery store.

Week 3

Four apples ($3.00), 8 oz. grape tomatoes ($2.00), two smaller beets ($4.00), two cucumbers ($1.60), an eggplant ($2.00), a celeriac ($3.00), three oranges ($1.50), two orange peppers ($2.50), and a five carrots with the tops ($1.50).

Boy, they love giving away grape tomatoes! The price I come up with is $21.10 for this box, or $30.00 for organic. Too bad I didn’t think of taking photos of the meals we made, huh? The beets got roasted, the celeriac went into a soup with leek, the cucumbers went into lunch salads…

Week 4

Four small potatoes ($1.00), two oranges ($1.00), savoy cabbage ($2.00), three pears ($2.25), one mango ($1.50), two broccoli ($3.00), grape tomatoes ($2.00), ONE PARSNIP (idk 25 cents?), a leek ($2.50), a European cucumber ($1.80), collard greens ($2.70), and another five carrots with the tops ($1.50).

The total on this one is $21.50, or $30.00 organic. Seeing a theme here? Most of these are turning out to be close to the shipping price of $23.50, although I am erring on the conservative side with the price estimates. But yeah, the first box seemed to be heavier than the rest. I thought they might be doing that on purpose to get you all excited for your new subscription service, but another reviewer on YouTube said their boxes fluctuated a lot.

But I have to say, I recommend Misfit Market. I might be preaching to a limited audience here, because according to their website, they only deliver to the northeast now (April 2019). So if you live anywhere south or west of Pennsylvania or New Jersey, you are basically out of luck. Maybe there’s something like this in your neck of the woods. You can sign up for e-mail alerts on their website to find out when they deliver in your area.

I have a coupon code for 25% I could give you to use… but I won’t! Just to be clear, this isn’t some paid advertisement. I really love this service and think a lot of you all would, too. You can find a 25% off coupon somewhere else on the web.

Any subscription services you’ve been enjoying?

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