Spud.ca on Gabriola: update
Spud.ca is a ‘local and organic’ grocery delivery service. They serve Gabriola, and a bunch of other places, too. A while back I blogged about Spud, because I was thinking about signing up. I did sign up, finally, and have been a Spud customer for a while now. I thought I’d let you know how it’s going.
I love this service. Some of the things I buy from Spud are fresh fruit and veggies, baked goods, soap, shampoo, cleaning products, computer paper, and baking ingredients. There are also snacks, canned goods, prepared soups, frozen things, coffee, and… oh my. They’ve got quite a range of stuff. The Spud.ca website is fun and easy to use, and I can change my order if I decide not to get the apples after all this week, or realize that I should have ordered baking soda or that I need extra coffee.
Spud comes to Gabriola once a week. On delivery day, the Spud guy leaves my order on my doorstep. It’s like being visited by the grocery fairy.
I like shopping for groceries while wearing PJs and sipping a bit of scotch at 1 am. Very civilized, yes? Also: no line-ups.
Spud doesn’t carry everything I buy, so I still visit regular grocery stores. Shopping at Spud has made me way more aware of store prices, though. When an item I see at Village Foods is two dollars cheaper at Spud, it makes me realize that Village Foods is quite expensive. So now I’ve turned into the kind of shopper my mom always wanted me to be: I note prices, and what I can’t get at Spud I buy in Nanaimo. (Village Foods is for last-minute things only now.) I’m saving quite a bit of money this way; perhaps I’ll donate what I save to the Gabriola Commons or PHC.
Now, Spud doesn’t know I’m writing this, and I get no benefit from telling you I like them. But like them? Oh yes, I do. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to order my groceries.
Filed in food,Gabriola Island 18 Comments so far
18 Responses to “Spud.ca on Gabriola: update”
Michael Mehta on 02 Jan 2010 at 9:23 pm #
Village Foods plays a key role on Gabriola, but I agree with you that the prices there are much higher than necessary. In the summer I went into Village Foods to buy some liquid laundry soap, and was astounded to see it selling at $11.99. The day before I saw the exact laundry soap in a Nanaimo Safeway (which is notoriously expensive to begin with) for $5.99 (half the price!)
I believe in supporting local, but also have to look after my own economic situation. Some may argue that the cost of bringing things to the island is higher due to the ferry, and I agree that items should be somewhat more expensive. But to bring a whole transport truck over to Gabriola probably only costs a couple of hundred dollars. When one divides this cost across the thousands of items that can be trucked across in one load, the cost increase should only be single digit percents.
If Village Foods was more competitive, many people would not to go Nanaimo at all.
Gabriolan on 02 Jan 2010 at 10:01 pm #
Michael — The difference you noted in laundry soap prices is outrageous. That’s just insane! And yet, I found similar examples when I compared prices between Village Foods and its competitors (Spud.ca and Nanaimo stores).
Village Foods is over-charging like crazy on a whole bunch of stuff. My friends laugh at me for taking so long to figure this out. They’ve been shopping in Nanaimo all along, and making special ferry trips to do so.
I believe in supporting local, too, but for me that means local farmers and local food producers. I like to get beef and turkeys at Boultons’ and veggies at Good Earth. That’s local. It’s hard for me to see how Village Foods qualifies as local when they are mostly selling the same stuff every supermarket in North America is selling – they’re just charging way more for it.
cheryl on 02 Jan 2010 at 11:25 pm #
It saddens me when I see how Village Foods takes advantage of the good people of Gabriola, especially the elderly and island-bound people who have no choice but to shop at that store. This to me is plain and simple capitalism, which is totally unnecessary. Don’t take me wrong I too believe in shopping locally but one’s dollar will only stretch so far. So you have to plan your trips to Nanaimo carefully so as to make it a worthwhile trip. There is always the argument of off islanders who say “Well it was your choice to live on an island” — true, but does that give them the right to rob us? Maybe blogs like this one will help some of the Gabriola citizens to take off the blinders. One can only hope.
Just a note on Safeway, Michael. You must have meant Save-On Foods because there isn’t a Safeway in Nanaimo.
Gabriolan on 03 Jan 2010 at 1:11 am #
Cheryl — Somehow I don’t think capitalism is quite the word you were looking for.
cheryl on 03 Jan 2010 at 7:08 am #
Ok, lets try.. “selling product at inflated prices to friends and neighbors for the purpose of getting rich”. Will that work?
John Hudson on 03 Jan 2010 at 1:59 pm #
Sounds like capitalism to me, albeit a particularly short-sighted variety.
It’s a tricky situation, because so many people do not shop at Village Foods that if prices were to be reduced a lot of people wouldn’t immediately notice, and hence an adjustment of buying habits, with more people choosing to shop at Village Foods, would happen only gradually. In the meantime, Village Foods would see a net reduction in income. Of course, it looks like Village Foods are the authors of this situation, having taken a short-term approach to profit maximisation (higher prices, fewer shoppers), rather than long-term development of the market (lower prices, more shoppers).
Danielle@spud on 05 Jan 2010 at 4:47 pm #
spud! knows now!
Thanks so much for the great blog post! We really appreciate it, and I’m so thrilled that you’ve found our service both handy and affordable!
Huzzah!
Jes on 08 Jan 2010 at 11:36 am #
I too find spud to be a huge savings (though I’m in Cobble Hill and not Gabriola) not necessarily because the prices are better(sometimes they are sometimes they’re not) but because I am not wandering through a grocery store with tempting shelves full of impulse buying options. I go into my spud cart once a week with a set budget and needs list …and that’s what I get. In the past year we’ve halved our grocery bill shopping this way.
Now as far as the laundry detergent goes … I make it myself and it costs pennies … and I promise it’s really simple and actually works. I follow these instructions http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/04/09/making-your-own-laundry-detergent-a-detailed-visual-guide/ .
Gabriolan on 08 Jan 2010 at 11:58 am #
Thanks for the note, Jes! Interesting point you make about Spud — I hadn’t considered that, but it makes sense that avoiding impulse purchases would help. Cutting your grocery bill in half is amazing!
That simpledollar.com page about the detergent is most interesting. I had never thought about making laundry detergent. Wow.
Gabriola Shopper on 08 Jan 2010 at 8:22 pm #
I don’t know what stores you shop at in town but if you go into Thirfty’s and compare the prices there you would find that the prices at Village Foods are comparable if not cheaper. Yeah if you shop at a box store like Walmart or the Super store things are cheaper there but they buy a huge quanity of things and Village Market is not in competion with them. As for Safeway I have gone into a Safeway in a large city and Village Foods was much, much cheaper plus I dont have to waste my time, gas or ferry fare to get my groceries. Also when your comparing prices stick to the same brand. Don’t take Village Foods most expensive brand and compare it to Superstores cheapest brand. Village Foods deserves my loyalties as a customer. Not only do they save me time and money but also the amount of help that they give to the community is outstanding. Have you gone to any of the community events on Gabriola? Where do you think all the food comes from? Not to mention the amount of people they feed from their donations to our foodbank and PHc. I have looked at the Spud prices and it is alot more economical for me to shop at Village Foods then to order a bunch of things that I don’t need just for it to be delivered at my door.
Andrea on 09 Jan 2010 at 4:58 am #
I am halfway through my first batch of homemade laundry detergent and it is great. All the greywater water from our washing machine, dishwasher, sinks, shower, tub (but not the toilet – we have composting toilets in our 2 bathrooms) is directed to a greywater garden that we built along the south wall of our kitchen, so we’ve been buying very expensive “green” laundry detergent to avoid killing the plants. The homemade stuff is made with my own homemade goat-milk soap, and washing soda. We’ve been using the soap for a while now, and it suddenly struck me that it was crazy not to make laundry detergent as well. Most of the recipes also call for borax but I have avoided that as being potentially toxic to plants. Anyway, I’m very pleased with the results – the laundry is clean, and smells fantastic – like the unscented soap. I will NEVER go back to storebought soap. I had hoped also to find a homemade recipe that would work for the dishwasher, but no luck with that so far.
Gabriolan on 09 Jan 2010 at 9:33 pm #
Good for you, Andrea! That is extremely cool. I’ve just posted a blog entry about soap nuts – might soap nuts work in your dishwasher?
cheryl on 09 Jan 2010 at 10:49 pm #
Gabriola Shopper, I guess someone has to stick up for Village Foods. Maybe you are a relative or a family friend. But bet you are the minority. And guess what there are several excellent stores in Nanaimo that Village Foods could take lessons from. Granted, Thriftys isn’t one of them but they are only one store. And surprise – big box stores are not the only ones who offer good prices in Nanaimo. Let’s face it, in today’s economic crisis we have to make every effort to make the most of our dollar. And yes, ferry rides and gas are always a concern but that’s when you make your trips into town count, you work it into doctor trips, visiting family and friends, along with grocery shopping. And lastly I don’t think anyone is questioning Village Foods’ good community works, that was never the issue. I would just like to see some fairness in their prices. And you can’t tell me they’re cheaper than most stores in Nanaimo because I know better.
Gabriolan on 09 Jan 2010 at 11:36 pm #
Gabriola Shopper –
If you look back at my original post about Spud.ca, you’ll see that I was comparing products of the same brand, and of identical sizes. I find it odd that the shopping experience you report is different from that of everyone else I know on Gabriola. There are a number of other things in your comment that strike me as peculiar. For example, you write Who said anything about ordering things one doesn’t need? Who on earth would do that?
At any rate, it sounds like you and Village Foods are a perfect match, so you should continue to shop there. Me? I’m less impressed with Village Foods, so I’ll continue to do most of my shopping at Spud and at a variety of stores in Nanaimo.
John Hudson on 10 Jan 2010 at 8:57 pm #
@Gabriola Shopper
Let me preface these comments by saying that I shop at Village Foods almost every day, and I really appreciate the fact that there is a shop with this quality of selection available on an island this size. I have friends who live on Galiano, and have seen how limited local shopping is on that island. I like to decide on a daily basis what I am going to make for dinner each evening, and being able to pop out to a local shop and buy most of what I need is something I definitely like being able to do, and for which I don’t mind paying a bit extra. That said, though, I don’t think Village Foods should be considered above criticism and, insofar as I presume the owners of Village Foods want to attract customers, surely it is in their interest to know what criticisms Gabriolans have.
I do not shop at any ‘big box’ stores. I walked into a Walmart once, in the spirit of anthropology, and quickly left in the spirit of disgust. I have never been inside a Super Store. When I take the time to compare prices between Village Foods and the shops that I go to in Nanaimo, I am always careful to compare exactly the same products.
My favourite supermarket in Nanaimo is Fairway Market, largely because I can buy things there that are never available at any other shop either in Nanaimo or on Gabriola. Yes, I buy chicken feet and Chinese cooking wine and flowering chives and salted duck and fish balls.
For a lot of staple, non-food goods, I go to Save-On-Foods because I happen to be at Terminal Park mall regularly. And this is where I tend to compare prices with Village Foods. A product I buy regularly is Bounty kitchen paper rolls, in the 6-pack and the select-a-size format. Save-on-Foods price = $8.49. Village Foods price = $14.69. Get that? $14.69! — I’m sorry, but there is no explanation for an almost 75% price increase except the most egregious price gouging and exploitation of those locals who for one reason or another are not able to shop in Nanaimo. [Interestingly, when Village Foods puts this product on sale, it does so at a price roughly equivalent to the normal retail price at Save-on-Foods. In other words, Village Foods' concept of a ‘sale’ is normal retail price in Nanaimo.]
I wouldn’t make special trips to Nanaimo to go shopping for things that I could buy, albeit at grossly inflated prices, here on Gabriola. But when I need to go ‘into town’ anyway, you can be sure that I will take advantage of the huge savings to be made.
Recently I started ordering from spud.ca. I’m still working out how best to use this service in support of the way in which I like to decide menus on the spur of the moment, but I am very much aware of the money that I do save on items that I have delivered from spud.ca.
cheryl on 11 Jan 2010 at 8:13 am #
Yah! Finally somebody who gets it! Thank you John.
gabriola gal on 14 Jan 2010 at 7:14 pm #
I’ve just noticed recently how grossly the prices at village foods have gone up. In the past there was a dollar or two difference from thriftys which I could stomach (pardon the pun). Lately prices have skyrocketed. For example, white flour at thriftys is $10.00. VF $16.50!!! Ive notice a lot of other sneaky price increases at the Village too. You know who is paying for their donated food at the community events?? we are!! Move over y’all, I’m giving spud a try!
cheryl on 17 Jan 2010 at 1:42 pm #
Just a footnote to all of this talk of cheaper prices. Here is something of an incentive. Yesterday my daughter and I stopped in at Country Grocer in Chase River (which is in the south end of Nanaimo for those who don’t know) at the new store in the Southgate shopping center, on our way back form the dump. We decided to do some grocery shopping. We were surprised when after telling the clerk we were from Gabriola were told that if we bought more than $75.00 worth that we would receive a $9.00 on the spot deduction from our bill to go towards the ferry ride. All you need is to show your ferry card as proof. Wow! were we surprised and very pleased. Also for those who don’t know Southgate mall is only a 10 min drive from the ferry. not so far out of your way. You should give it a try, The store is well organized and clean. They also have little cafe in the store for refreshment. Wow.