For a long time, patients with disabilities have been clamoring for an organic food delivery service that doesn’t break the bank. As simple as the concept sounds, the economies of scale to make it worthwhile for the company simply haven’t been there.
Enter Green Polkadot Box. In a nutshell, their focus is on organic and non-gmo products, low prices, and free shipping when you order at least $75. They’ve already been endorsed by several big, trusted names in the organic food industry: Natural News, the Organic Consumers Association, and the Institute for Responsible Technology.
Rabbit Out of a Hat? Or Just Business Savvy?
How is this different from what’s already on the market? A quick google will pull up a few organic delivery companies offering free shipping (and even then, it may be for special promotions only), but to cover their losses they have to jack up the prices. How is Green Polkadot able to avoid this conundrum and offer what it claims to be substantial savings over health food store prices? Staying lean and using relationships:
“GPDB does not have the typical brick-and-mortar overhead, and it spends zero dollars on marketing and advertising. Instead, it relies on key partners like NaturalNews to spread the word. So GPDB has only a fraction of the overhead of typical retailers, allowing it to share a small cut of each sale with its members while still saving members significant sums of money on their organic foods purchases. The business model is lean and structured to keep prices low. - http://www.naturalnews.com/033474_Green_Polkadot_Box_organic_groceries.html#ixzz2JLGaansi
Affiliate models have a mixed reputation in most health communities, but personally I have no problem with it. A ponzi scheme, yes. Leveraging partners to advertise for a company they believe in and paying them fairly for it? No.
How Much Savings?
There isn’t a set discount, but on average the savings are substantial: “Most products will be found at 20% – 30% below typical health food store prices. Some will be available at 40% – 50%, and a few will even be found at 60%.” - http://www.naturalnews.com/033474_Green_Polkadot_Box_organic_groceries.html#ixzz2JLHZLxIH They’ve put their money where their mouth is by blatantly challenging you to beat shopping there versus what you spend in time & cash shopping in stores.
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The Walmart-ization of Organic Food?
Not surprisingly, there have already been some calling this the “Walmart” of organic food, fearing that the cute Polka Dot is really a thinly-veiled “bully (of) producers into selling for lower and lower prices at ever lower standards of quality” – http://gaia-health.com/gaia-blog/2011-10-10/the-green-polka-dot-box-is-not-truly-organic-theyre-and-astroturfed-walmart/ To which I say, bollocks. Why can’t organic food be done on a large scale as long as it remains properly standardized? Yes of course the small, local alternative will typically be fresher, but many people just can’t afford the cream of the crop, and there are millions of disabled patients that can’t access small farms, period.
Green Polkadot strikes a happy medium between affordability and true health, and they’ve clearly stated, “We will never knowingly offer products that contain GMO.” Which means, they’ve already made a promise that Whole Foods won’t touch with their 10-foot fake-healthy shtick. A little less tearing down and a little more community support when non-GMO goes mainstream yeah?
I’m excited to see they do. I always had dreams of a Netflix of organic bento boxes, and I’m happy that innovators are figuring out ways to make “anywhere-delivery” economically-feasible. I think this make a huge difference in quality of life for disabled patients and do a lot of this for everyone:
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