As the price of gluten-free products increases and availability decreases, it may be a good time to consider subscription.
I can’t tell you how many times recently I’ve looked at the gluten-free bagels, cookies, or crackers available locally and left them out of my shopping cart. I simply can’t justify the high price.
What I tell myself is that I’ll just cook or bake whatever I was considering. Then a day or two later when I’ve dropped everything to handle a crisis or meet a deadline and I have no breakfast to grab quickly, I wonder what I was thinking.
Sometimes it’s not that we can’t do. It’s just that we can’t do as quickly as we thought. In those moments, it’s great to have something handy to tide us over. There are different ways to make sure there’s something on hand without breaking the bank.
I can freeze portions when I bake. I can wait until things are on sale or come with a great offer. I can buy in bulk when doing so reduces costs. And I can consider subscription services.
Subscriptions to food services mean food arrives regularly. I like the certainty of that much more than the frustration of finding no gluten-free brands on the shelves except those that contain sunflower oil or high histamine ingredients. As inventories evolve, I increasingly value certainty.
Before its acquisition by Misfits Market, I subscribed to Imperfect Foods. I had a great experience! I loved the selection, the filter options that made tailoring my orders easy, and the food. I looked forward to delivery day.
I even looked forward to confirming my order and the chance to add new, exciting discoveries. I’ve never gotten the same feeling from shopping online at Walmart, Target, or Amazon (including Whole Foods). Imperfect was faster, easier, and more pleasant. I miss it.
My subscription to Jim’s Organic Coffee began in 2018. It’s even easier than Imperfect in the sense that I don’t think about it at all unless they send me an email, which they do sparingly. The service has been reliable and stable. And Jim’s Sweet Love Blend makes each morning better.
In my six plus years with Jim’s, there’s only been one price increase. That’s pretty amazing! And they’re great to work with. Early on, there was a month when they sent me five times as much coffee as I ordered. When I contacted them to see how to return the extra, they told me to keep all it for free. It really doesn’t get any better than that and that’s the only error on an order to date.
I’m exploring subscription options for gluten-free baked goods to fill some availability gaps and address price concerns. While I haven’t landed on the perfect thing yet, I’m enjoying the learning process.
Subscriptions are easiest when the system has you confirm your order right before shipping or when you use a predictable amount. That means they won’t be appropriate for everything. But subscriptions are worth considering for both reliability and price consistency at this time when everything else seems uncertain.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
