Ugly Vegetables, Pretty Price?

Misfit Markets is a company that takes food that doesn’t make the cut for supermarkets and saves them from the landfills, cutting down on food waste. Based in the Philippines, the company sells farmer’s “ugly” produce at a discount of “up to 40%.” However, does it stand up to this pledge? How much does it actually save you?

Though I’ve heard of this company for a while now, I’ve only just placed an order with them on Thursday. The box arrived on Saturday. I didn’t do too much pre-research into comparing the price of the food I’d brought to the prices at my local grocery store that I typically shop at, instead just buying stuff I normally would until I reached the minimum order cost of 30 dollars (USD). Just for reference, my total cost of goods was $30.02 and shipping was $6.99 but I applied a referral code for a $10 discount so I paid $27.01.

Almost everything I’d brought was organic so let’s compare the prices to my local grocery store. 

Cucumbers

Oddly enough, my local store doesn’t actually sell organic cucumbers individually so I took the nearest thing: Cucumbers English Hot House. They are currently on discount for $1 (normally are $1.99). 

On Misfits Market, an organic cucumber cost 1.29 (29% increase). They actually sent me 2 (not sure if by mistake or not), though, so if it were not on accident, it was cheaper on Misfit Market

Red bell peppers

My local store sells a package of 2 organic red bell peppers at a whopping $5.49. Misfit Markets sells them for $3.59. (34.6% decrease). At the same time, the ones I got from the store were a fair bit larger than the ones I received.

Green beans 

My local store sells non-frozen, organic green beans in packages of 10 oz while Misfit markets only had it at 16 oz. Converting the prices for the 10 oz into 16 oz gives $7.20 (which is ridiculous). Compare that to the $4.49 Misfit markets charged. (I’ll note that it is possible to get a 32 oz package of non-organic green beans at my local grocery store for $6.99 which works out to $3.52 per 16 oz) (37.6% decrease)

Russet Potatoes 

My local store charges $4.99 for a 3lb bag of organic russet potatoes while Misfit Markets had them for $3.99. (20.0% decrease)

White Onions

Funnily, I actually like yellow onions more but Misfit Markets didn’t have those (or at least I didn’t find them) so I bought white onions instead. At my local grocery store, 2 white onions were $3.46 but they were only $2.40 at Misfit Markets. (31.2% decrease)

Avocados

Full disclosure, the avocados I brought from Misfit Markets were small hass avocados but the store only had normal sized ones so the price might be slightly skewed. I paid $3.32 for the 2 avocados at the store and $3.40 on Misfit Markets. (2.4% increase)

Carrots

My local market sold 1lb of carrots for $1.79 while Misfit Markets had them for $1.99. This was interesting because, as you may have noticed, it’s one of the few times it was cheaper at my local store. (11.2% increase)

Broccoli

1 head of organic broccoli was $2.69 at my local market but $3.99 on Misfit Markets. This is the largest margin by which my local market was cheaper. (48.3% increase)

Asparagus 

Organic asparagus was hard to find in my local market and was only sold in packages of 12 oz at $0.42 an ounce. Converting that to 16 oz (the amount I bought online), gives $6.72 for my local grocery store price. However, Misfit Market sold the 16 oz of organic asparagus at only $2.99. (55.5% decrease)

For those of you who didn’t have the patience to read through all of that, here's the summary: most of the foods were cheaper on Misfit Market, with an average discount of 9.78%. The best 3 things to buy on Misfit Market were Asparagus, green beans (organic), and red bell peppers (organic). The worst were broccoli (organic), cucumbers (organic), and carrots (organic). 

In total, I would have spent $36.66 in the local store to buy (mostly) the exact same amounts of the same things I had brought on Misfit Markets, about what I would have spent had I not had that 10 dollar coupon. However, with US gas prices hovering near 5 dollars, the 5 mile to and from the store in my 20 mpg car would have tacked on another 2.5 dollars making it a tad more expensive to buy from misfit markets. 

As for the quality of the produce, with the exception of a very oddly shaped cucumber and carrot, they were basically the same as from the shop so I definitely recommend buying from Misfit Markets! 

How do these prices compare to the prices at your local food markets? Feel free to try out Misfits Market and if you already have, please let me know what you thought about them. 

PS if you’d like to support me use this link to sign up to Misfit Markets.