award tour

So Amazon is currently trying out a grocery delivery business in Seattle. They’ve been operating it for employees for a couple months now with pick-up in the offices and limited delivery in a couple parts of town. I never tried it out because I live 1 block from a grocery store and don’t even do that much grocery shopping. The big problem I have with my local QFC grocery store is that some items are oddly overpriced, especially produce. And since the majority of food I make at home is boring-ass pasta with lots of veggies the overpriced produce seems to add up. Well, after paying $6 for a pound of asparagus the other day I decided I’d give Amazon Fresh a run.

They’ve expanded delivery to lots of Seattle proper and it’s open to the general public. Delivery options are pretty decent. There’s two pick-up locations open to the public and employee-only pick-up at the offices of amazon, google, eddie bauer, and some other local companies (not microsoft at the moment). Pick-up doesn’t have any delivery fees. Delivery to your house has some interesting options. You can get unattended delivery (as in they’ll leave it at your front door) for either pre-dawn (before 6am) or after dinner (post 7pm). If you place an order at night you can get next day pre-dawn delivery, which is pretty cool. The option is only available for houses but there is a program to get your condo/apartment signed up to allow the delivery person access to the building. Unattended delivery is free with orders over $25. Attended delivery is available within an hourly block (like between 5pm and 6pm) from 7am to 10pm on weekdays (until 6pm on weekends). Delivery is free for orders over $50 or a $10 fee if it’s below. I’ve only done office pick-up so I can’t comment on the quality of the delivery service.

The variety of items on Fresh is quite good and the website is easy to use. I’d say that the only glaring omission is that the products really lack further description and you don’t currently have access to ingredient or dietary information that you can find on a product box. But since I’m mostly buying produce and stuff I already use, I didn’t really care. The best thing about the site is the prices. Compared with my local grocery store I was able to find lots of things 30 to 50 percent cheaper on Fresh. Apples, 30%. Bocconcini and Goat cheese, 40%. Red Peppers, 50%. Pesto sauce, 40%. Things like milk and cereal were the same price. You can even buy local artisan bread from both Macrina Bakery and Essential Bakery.

Anyways, I’m very happy with the site. Guess I’ll now have to get my apartment building signed up for pre-dawn drop-off.

Does anyone have a good solution for composting in an apartment? Not that I cook at home all that much but between the dinner veggies, apple cores, and daily coffee grinds, I seem to pile up a decent amount of organic waste. Has anyone tried vermicomposting, that is, composting with worms? I figured there’d still be too much smell and occasional flies. I guess I’m going to have to either complain to my landlord to get a tumbler in our backyard or complain to City Hall about the lack of organic waste pick-up in Seattle. Not that I’m convinced having huge diesel burning trucks driving around picking up dirt is the best solution either.