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Spud.ca
Categories: Food Grocery Food Food Delivery Services Grocery, Food Delivery Services [Edit]
1660 E Hastings StVancouver, BC V5L 1S6
Neighbourhood: Grandview-Woodlands
(604) 215-7783
- Hours:
Mon-Fri 9 am - 5 pm
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
10 reviews for Spud.ca
10 reviews in English
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Review from Danielle B.
Vancouver, BC
5/7/2012
I totally love this service. Since I started more than six months ago, my intake of produce (organic!) has increased significantly, for the simple reason that it's there. In my fridge. All the time. Like when I want a snack ... I still buy some produce at local markets but I have the basics on hand through SPUD, and of course my beloved milk in glass bottles. The kind with cream at the top *swoons* ...
They have great sales on other items every week, and with any $35 order, delivery is free. You can have deliveries every week (they pick the day, to allow for efficient and eco-friendly driving routes), or skip a week or more at any time for no fee. I have really gotten accustomed to not carrying heavy groceries home, and I wouldn't give SPUD up, let me tell you!
Prices are comparable to stores that sell similar products, and the convenience factor is worth a lot to me anyway. I arrive home to find a Rubbermaid tote full of my personally-selected groceries, always fresh and gorgeous except for one mango, once (filed report online and was credited automatically the following week), kept cold (even frozen!) and fresh and ready to be carried all of 20 feet to my kitchen. I can select stuff for a specific recipe, or just have baby carrots and McIntosh apples on hand for snacks. They also sell potted plants, which I love - patio tomatoes and strawberries coming up this summer for me :)
The only one single thing I wish were different (and I've told them this) is I wish that I could include specific produce items as "standing orders"; they explain that different sizes, etc from week to week make that impractical but I still wish I could do it ...
In all, a heartfelt 5-star review. Thanks, SPUD! Also, if you get a customer code from an existing SPUD customer, you both get $25 worth of free groceries (new customer gets $5 off each of first 3 orders and $10 off fourth, even if not in consecutive weeks).Listed in: My Faves
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Review from Rheanna F.
Vancouver, BC
12/28/2011
I started ordering groceries from Spud last month when i was consumed by the cold of doom. I don't drive, my boyfriend had to work 14 hour days until Christmas and any physical activity caused me to cough out one of my lungs, so Spud basically saved the day!
I was really impressed with my first order and relieved to see that all the produce i ordered was the same quality as something i would have chosen at the grocery store. I find their prices consistent with the organic produce in store, and as we already purchase certain types of produce that tend to be especially chemically (like potatoes and apples) as organic, it wasn't too much of a stretch.
Now that i've rejoined society and can venture out from my cave/home again, i'm still using Spud just because of how damn convenient it is. Between walking to the grocery store, shopping, then walking home, groceries take about an hour out of my day, and there's only so much i can carry at once so I always have to go at least twice a week. Spud is great for ordering things if i'm planning on making a particular dish. I currently have an order headed my way filled with all the ingredients i'll need to make a huge pot of borscht and enough hummus ingredients to last my boyfriend and i a month! My boyfriend would pobably drink about ten litres of juice a day if he could, and in the winter, all i want to make is soup, so it's also great to let someone else carry all that heavy crap for me!
There are a few things i still buy from the grocery store. I still go to my beloved Dollar Grocer or Donald's Market for things like tea, bulk items, some produce (Spud has great sales, but i can't afford to get all my produce from them!), and eggs. Eggs are mysteriously expensive at Spud even though they carry the same brands that you can buy at the local grocery stores a few blocks away!
The little cherry on top of their service is that they'll recycle old plastic grocery bags for you! We have more grocery bags than we'll need for trash in a lifetime, so it's great to get them out of the house AND not feel guilty that they're ending up in a landfill! -
Review from Krispian E.
Surrey, BC
2/28/2012
Poor customer service. I pay weekly. Their billing department refused to allow me to pay on a day convenient for me. They insisted payment go through on a day convenient for them, and they were very rude about it. The quality of the produce wasn't that great and their prices were high. Goodbye Spud!
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Review from Deanna K.
Vancouver, BC
7/5/2011
Really, really not so good. The produce has been consistently mediocre (at best) or inedible (at worst). Do you like rock-hard avocadoes that never ripen, shrivelled peas the size of microscopic ball bearings, cantalopes that can barely be sliced they're so under-ripe, and strawberries that taste like sawdust? Well then this is the service for you! In the past few weeks we've thrown away half the produce we've received from them, and then kept popping over to the farmer's market or a fruit stand on Commercial to get delicious, ripe versions of the same things. What's the point? Are the local growers dumping all their worst crap here since they know we can't check it out before we pay for it? We're cancelling.
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Review from Carolyn C.
Vancouver, BC
2/2/2009 1 photo
Recently we signed up for the grocery delivery service http://Spud.ca. At first we felt a little bit 'yuppie' ordering organic groceries online and having them delivered to our door- but we got over that pretty fast and haven't looked back since.
http://Spud.ca is a convenient way of getting fresh, local and organic produce (and other groceries) to you weekly. You sign up online, select from their endless selection of products - from home baked chocolate croissants to purple potatoes - and within a week the groceries are delivered to an address of your choosing. I'm at work all day, so I request that they deliver it there. The items are kept cool in a big tupperware tub with ice (or dry ice if need be) and can stay cool for up to 8 hours without refrigeration.
Produce is always fresh, clean and is handled far less than your average grocery store produce. Plus you can feel good knowing that most of their items are organic and as locally grown / produced as possible. Once you place your order they tell you the average distance the food has travelled to get to your door. Nifty! And if that wasn't enough, they donate leftover food to disadvantaged families.
To make things even more easy, they have a standing order option. Each week we have $35 of fresh produce chosen for us by Spud. We can go online and change / tweak their selection, but they do the bulk of the choosing if you select this option. It's a great way to try new things. You can also have certain items automatically added to your cart each week. We go through a lot of Que Pasa corn chips and salsa, and have that automatically put in our cart each week. It saves a lot of time, and ensures that you don't forget the essentials. I'm not sure Jake could survive a week without nachos.
Aside from convenience their selection is pretty good. While we still need the occasional trip to Safeway, we now buy all of our fresh produce, milk, eggs and bread through Spud. Specialty items like pumpkin pie spice or wasabi peas currently aren't available, but as the company grows I'm sure their selection will as well.
As for prices, Spud is only slightly higher than the grocery store, and delivery is free. For convience, peace of mind, and knowing that I'm supporting an awesome local company, the few extra dollars a month I spend is well worth it. -
Review from Nadine N.
Vancouver, BC
10/2/2008
I really had high hopes for Spud. Supporting local farmers by purchasing local produce? Yes, please. Lots of organic options? Great! Delivered to my door? Fantastic! But then...dum dum dum...the first delivery was a disaster. We placed our order for the week after we returned for a trip out of town. On Wednesday, I excitedly opened the box on my porch and then I screamed "Noooooooooooo!" as I encountered a box of rotten produce. I ran inside and called Spud. Turns out that was last weeks delivery that had been sitting on my porch for a week. (It's a big porch, okay!) Anyway, the woman on the phone insisted that we'd placed that order for the week before. I called my wife who laughed at me since she knows that rotten produce is one of the things I hate most in life. She checked her email and sure enough, it said that orders would start that day, not the week before. She called Spud with the info and then sent them the email paper trail. They took a few days to get back to her and implied that it was our fault, but that they'd refund us this once. Gee thanks!
We went ahead and got a couple of deliveries, but the cost made us reconsider the whole thing. For example, one organic tomato for $2.75! It adds up. The rotten produce + blame the customer incident didn't help either. I'll be hitting up the farmers markets for as long as I can and then I'll just buy local and organic from the grocery store and walk my groceries home myself.Listed in: I amuse me
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Review from Emily H.
Vancouver, BC
4/15/2010
My experience with Spud has been entirely awesome. I think they are a great company. It would be great if they had even more local produce, but sometimes there's not all that much available, I suppose, and what they have is plenty enough for me. Their customer service agents are really wonderful too. Getting quality groceries delivered for free is hard not to love.
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Review from Un. K.
Vancouver, BC
5/26/2011
Terrible service and Spud has turned Corporate. I have since canceled my membership and moved on. I have a few friends that work(ed) there and they are not treated well and are paid quite low. I am not impressed with Spud at all.
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Review from Luisa D.
8/1/2009
I've been ordering my groceries weekly through SPUD for several years now. As a working mum with two kids the ease of being able to order my groceries online and have them show up at my house is just brilliant!! I also find that I get less of the crap that you sometimes 'impulse buy' at the grocery store which is rarely on your shopping list and usually some kind of junk food. I have never opted for their Harvest Box as I prefer to pick and choose my products. I often find that fresh produce is less expensive at local grocers and Choices. If the produce is a reasonable price on SPUD I will buy it. Mostly I buy our dairy and meat products through SPUD. I add most items to my weekly standing order which results in a 5% savings on many items. I go online every week though and update my standing order in case our needs have changed over the week. On my standing order are items like milk, eggs, a whole chicken, butter, chorizo sausage, tofu products, yogurt, juice, perogies, paper towels, bananas and roti rolls. Almost everything on our standing order is organic and most of it is local. SPUD rewards customers for shopping local. Whenever your average product distance is below 1250 kilometers, you are automatically entered into a weekly draw for a free jar of Chilliwack honey. I've never won the honey but I enjoy the challenge of trying to reduce the average distance that our groceries travel. This week my online order told me "You're a local hero! The products on your order traveled an average of only 570 kms." I didn't order bananas this week.
Their website is very easy to navigate. There are tabs at the top for sections such as Weekly Specials, Recipes & Meals, Your Standing Order, etc. You can click on each item for more details such as whether it's vegan, local, organic and if the item is a prepared dish it will list the ingredients. You can also click on the supplier for more information on their farming and business practices. There's a section for special diets making it easy to find gluten-free, wheat-free, kosher, vegan and yeast-free items. They have household products, pet products, baby products, personal care and even books available.
You don't have to have delivery once a week so it's still a good option for someone who doesn't eat it a lot. You can suspend delivery while you're on vacation or won't need their services for a while. In my area delivery is on Wednesdays. In the morning we put out our empty bin and they replace it with our new full bin(s). Our Strata won't allow us to give them a key so they leave our order in the covered area by the main door and we've never had a problem. At our old building they had access and left the bin at our front door. Delivery is free on all orders over $35 (excluding taxes, deposits, and rebates) in Vancouver. Below $35, there is a $3.50 delivery charge. A deposit is charged on insulated bags, gels paks and dry ice (all used to keep your order cool until you get home) and then these are reimbursed when you return with your bin. I have occasionally been disappointed with the quality of some items such as produce but I simply let them know and they reimburse my account 100%. Sometimes items have not shown up and they remove them from the bill once told. A copy of your bill comes with each delivery so you can check that you were only charged for what you got. Payment can be set up to come directly out of your bank account or go on a credit card. There is a deadline for placing your orders for the following week but it gives you a lot of time and you can make changes anytime before that deadline. You can earn points towards free groceries whenever your invoice subtotal (excluding taxes, deposits, credits and refunds) is $60 or more. As your order increases, you will get into higher points levels. Once you accumulate 1000 points you can redeem it for $10 off your bill.
Overall I think SPUD provides quality service, a wide array of products and gives consumers the choice to buy local and organic. I would definitely recommend them to anyone. If you're interested check out their website at http://www.spud.ca
Happy shopping!! -
Review from Michael A.
North Vancouver, BC
1/3/2011
We have been Spud customers for four years now and are really happy with the service and products. Some new people bought it recently and, although they seem a little bitchy, we intend on remaining customers because we love that this ideal is working, and we love to support local products and businesses who strive to better a community overrun with greed and exploit, until such time as they begin to do the same. Damn you mighty dollar, Damn You!!! We love doing the farmers markets to supplement our diets and sometimes boring lives, and spud ensures that we get most of those things regularly and as responsibly as possible. Once a week i sit at the computer and look at specials, make sure my list is updated and then one day, when i get home, there's an insulated tub of produce waiting for me. Like anything, you take some time adjusting to 'the system', but now we barely notice not going out as much for ingredients. It's just one less thing to do.
