Any Peapod users out there?

Marian
Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:33:19 +0000

Marian, you confirmed my fears and concerns of Peapod…how can you possibly have someone else handpick your produce or other fresh food ?



Well, in my area, where Peapod is run in cooperation with the Giant, I never had any evidence that they deliberately sent out bad food. I used to order apples and oranges from them, and I never received damaged ones. So I think that it’s likely that someone actually looked at the apples and oranges when selecting them. I think the problem with black bananas was a matter of ignorance. (Someone should have told the drivers to keep bananas in the cab of the truck.) Also, I think that Peapod has trouble keeping the interiors of its refrigerated trucks at temperatures above freezing when the temperature outside is below freezing. That could account for the frozen salad that the other poster mentioned. I had the same problem once, but I had forgotten about it.

For me, though, the main annoyance with fresh food was that you had no control over its expiration date. So basically, I didn’t buy food items from Peapod that have short shelf lives (such as salad vegetables) unless I intended to use them within a day after arrival. And occasionally, I received dairy products that were rather close to their expiration date.

Of course, another concern about produce is that when you go to the supermarket, you can change your mind about which items to buy if the whole display of something doesn’t meet your standards. Yesterday, when I was in the supermarket buying salad ingredients, I bought cucumbers instead of peppers because the peppers looked wrinkly and old. But in the same situation, Peapod would have sent me peppers because that’s what I had ordered.

Peapod DOES do a good job of keeping frozen food frozen. They do it with dry ice.

I have to say that although Peapod was essential to survival while I couldn’t get to the supermarket with a broken leg, I never used it again after I got to the point where I only needed a cane. Even though it took a long time for me to bring all the grocery bags into the house with only one free hand, I preferred being able to make last-minute decisions, to choose my own fresh food, and to not have to plan in advance to be home for the deliveries.