At San Francisco-based Imperfect Produce, no fruit or vegetable is too small, too big, or too misshapen to be eaten. Also, in highlighting “ugly” produce with creative marketing, the company is providing a remarkable customer experience in the United States.
A weekly or biweekly subscription box delivery service, Imperfect Produce sources fruits and vegetables directly from farmers that otherwise would have gone to waste and ships them directly to consumers.
The service allows customers to choose exactly what’s in their boxes, including conventional and organic fruits and vegetables, and, more recently, hand-picked grocery items. Not all produce is “ugly” – sometimes it is simply surplus, or not a uniform size. Customers can easily skip shipments if they are traveling or not in need of fresh produce for the week.
Forbes.com quoted Reilly Brock, Imperfect’s content manager as saying: “We really like to keep it open-ended and fun – customizable. And our goal here is really to do two things: one, empower folks at home to cook more and eat healthier and have more fun in the kitchen, and the other one is to really take a big bite out of food waste in this country and rethink beauty standards in the produce industry.”
