The Produce Box vs. The Produce Aisle

If you’re trying to decide if a Produce Box membership is for you, you may be wondering, “Can’t I get this stuff at the grocery store? And is it cheaper there?”

Well, the answer to both those questions would be sometimes. The grocery store doesn’t always have everything the farmers of North Carolina can offer.  And sometimes, you may not like the reasons WHY the grocery store is cheaper.

• Farmers make pennies per pound from the grocery stores, and they often have to wait 30-60 days (or MORE!) to get their payment. At The Produce Box, we pay every single one of our farmers when they deliver the food to us. 

• In addition to this, the produce at the grocery stores often comes from across the country (1500 miles on average!) or even other countries, and has traveled for days or weeks to get to you -- it's definitely not the most fresh choice or LOCAL by any means!
  
• Keep in mind, too, that by buying from us, you’re also supporting their effort to DO GOOD in our communities. Every week, we donate fresh fruits & veggies to families in need with great organizations including: PORCH (Charlotte), Second Harvest (Charlotte), Backpack Beginnings (Winston-Salem) and Urban Ministries (Raleigh).

I think we can all agree these are great points. But are they worth more of your hard-earned money?

Here’s what Courtney (TPB founder) has to say about this: “If people want change, then they have to put their money towards the efforts and programs that are working for that change. For farmers to be paid a fair price and to be paid on time, for consumers to get fresh produce every week, for members of our community who can't otherwise afford fresh produce to get it -- to do things differently often costs more. The reason food is so cheap in the many grocery stores is because they don't operate that way.”

And, if we do say so ourselves, it’s not that much more expensive. We did a little research to compare some prices between us and the average grocery store chain. A few times, our prices were actually lower, such as with broccoli (ours was 75 cents less!), greenhouse cucumbers (25 cents less!), snow peas (74 cents less!), sugar snaps (49 cents less!), and yellow squash (48 cents less!) Some items we have weren’t even found at the grocery store, especially organic items: beets, radishes, cilantro, green onions, napa cabbage and more.

To sum it all up: buying from The Produce Box benefits you nutritionally, benefits local farmers financially, and benefits families in need, and is only, on average 55 cents more per item! And remember -- all of that includes delivery!

In our opinion, The Produce Box beats the Produce Aisle hands down! If you think so too, let us know in the comments below.