Misfits Market Review – Affordable Organic Produce

Want to try out organic produce but find it’s too expensive?

Luckily, there’s a new service that makes organic more affordable. Enter Misfits Market.

How Does Misfits Market Work?

Misfits Market operates under a simple concept – selling organic fruits and vegetables that supermarkets won’t. Hence, the “misfits” in the name. Farmers usually sell this misfit produce at a lower price and pass the savings on to you.

The main benefit of the service is that you get access to fresh, organic produce at a fraction of the price. We’re talking up to 40 percent cheaper than grocery prices, and because Misfits Market only carries organic products, the their cost savings on food are much higher.

Misfits Market also helps solve America’s growing food waste problem. Most of this unwanted yet still viable produce gets thrown away. By always being able to sell the stuff, farmers get to recoup their losses. This, in turn, encourages them to produce even more for future consumption. It’s a virtuous cycle.

The service runs on a subscription basis. You get to pick from their smaller “Mischief” box or the bigger “Madness” box. You then specify how often you would like to receive the box, and it gets delivered to your doorstep.

The content of the boxes is random – you don’t know what you’ll get every month. Randomness can be a good thing if you like surprises, but not so much if you’re the one who wants to plan meals.

Misfits Market’s packaging is environmentally friendly. The box and lining are biodegradable and don’t have reusable plastics or cellophane wraps. For vegans, this is a complete dream.

Types of Food Available

Misfits Market carries a wide variety of organic fruits and vegetables. As we mentioned, the contents vary from box to box, but they do maintain a list of produce that might make it to your next delivery.

Now before you think you’ll be getting bad-quality or close-to-being spoiled produce, that’s not the case. You’ll be surprised at the excellent quality of these products, scratching your head on why the supermarket passed these on.

It turns out there are a lot of reasons why supermarkets do this, even if the produce is entirely edible. The vegetables might have some blemishes or bruises that don’t look so good, but the food is utterly delicious to eat. Some pieces might be too big or too small for groceries to sell.

The produce you receive in a box, however, isn’t as deformed or blemished as you might imagine. The stuff we got looked good, and some pieces are indistinguishable from those at the grocery or farmer’s market.

And Misfits Market stocks some of the good stuff. There are the usual suspects like lettuce, broccoli, and celery, but you sometimes get access to exotic produce like Swiss chard, summer squash, Kent mangoes, and oversized zucchini. You also get seasonal fruits and vegetables, which is something to look forward to.

Pricing

As mentioned, Misfits Market offers two sized boxes: the Mischief and the Madness box.

The Mischief costs $22 and contains 10 to 13 pounds of fruits and vegetables, enough to feed two people in a week. The Madness costs $35, with 18 to 22 pounds of produce that can satisfy a family of five. The bigger box has more variety compared to the smaller one, so you might want to factor that into your decision.

Now the question is, is it saving you money?

We compared the price of the box vs. the supermarket cost of each piece it contains. Now, since we’re talking about organic produce here, we tacked on a conservative 40 percent increase to account for this.

Our first Mischief box came in at $19.50 (with shipping) thanks to a 25 percent coupon off our first order. All in all, comparable store stuff would be about $45, netting us a sweet 56 percent savings. So far, so good.

Subsequent boxes cost us $23.95 with shipping. As for comparison, it came in at close to the $29 to $31 market price. So, savings have dropped down to around 20 percent, but still a good figure.

But this is something to be aware of when getting the Misfits Market service. Since every month features different produce, the price and cost savings vary greatly. The good news is that it’s always lower than what grocers charge.

Alternatives

• Thrive Market – Great for packaged organic foods.
• Grove Collaborative – Focused on organic and clean sourced items, but no produce.
• Brandless – With a super easy price structure and very simple packaging, Brandless gives you affordable organic options for a variety of products.

Pros

• It saves you money – While it fluctuates, the cost is still significantly lower than if you buy it in the grocery store.
• It’s convenient – You get high-quality, organically produced food handpicked and delivered to your doorstep.
• It’s organic – You get organic produce straight from farmers themselves.
• It’s sustainable – It helps the environment, as well as the farmers, by helping reduce food waste.
• The quality of the food is good – It’s not bad or ugly like “Misfit” Market makes it sound. The fruit and vegetables are delicious and passable.

Cons

• It’s unpredictable – The contents of every box are random, so you don’t know what you’ll get in advance. For some people who plan meals, surprises can be problematic.
• The weight of the food can vary – As we noticed from our past three deliveries, the amount of produce in the box is not consistent.

Overall, if you want a regular diet of organic produce in your daily life, we recommend Misfits Market. It’s cheaper than supermarket prices, plus it’s much more convenient.