(23 Jan 2014) Sara Pasquinelli doesn't do her shopping at grocery stores anymore.
Instead, this busy mother of two young boys purchases nearly all her fresh food from a new online service that brings produce right to her door.
While numerous supermarkets boast delivery services, Good Eggs is a virtual farmers market where shoppers can purchase everything from fruits, vegetables and meats to artisan food from local producers.
Minutes after her shopping arriving, Pasquinelli is busy unpacking bags and boxes filled with finger limes, kiwi fruit, beef short ribs and even this organic whole milk.
Pasquinelli says that for her, shopping at stores is definitely a thing of the past:
"I don't even remember the last time I went to the store for anything other than bananas and string cheese. Those are maybe the two gaps," she says.
The selection though is limited to what can be grown locally and many shoppers will be disappointed if they're after bananas from San Francisco in December.
San Francisco-based Good Eggs is among a new crop of startups that use technology to bolster the market for locally-produced foods which backers say are better for consumer health, farmworkers, livestock and even the environment.
Here on the Good Eggs website, photos display products such as chanterelle mushrooms, grass-fed beef steaks, pureed baby food and gluten-free poppy seed baguettes.
The site also features pictures and descriptions of the farmers and food makers, meaning consumers can feel that much closer to the people growing their food.
Prices are similar to what shoppers pay at regular farmers markets, and customers can pick up their orders from designated locations or even have them delivered around two days later for an extra charge of $3.99 USD.
CEO and Co-Founder of Good Eggs, Rob Spiro, says their company is part of a wave of new concepts which ultimately mean the consumer benefits:
"There's this wave of entrepreneurship and creativity happening in the food world, and Good Eggs is all about bringing that high-quality production right to your door."
Spiro co-founded Good Eggs after he sold his last company, a social search service called Aardvark, to Google Inc. for $50 million USD in 2010.
While other stores offer home delivery through services such as this Safeway truck, Good Eggs claim to offer more varieties of fruit and vegetables than most supermarkets.
Spiro says that by dealing with local producers, ultimately the consumer benefits:
"All the producers on Good Eggs are local businesses producing food with a lot of integrity, treating their employees well, treating the land well. And really they care about their customers."
The benefits work both ways and local producer, Ryan Casey, is also seeing the positives.
Out here in the fields of Casey's Blue House Farm in Pescadero (45 miles south of San Francisco) products are regularly grown for sale at farmers' markets or through community agriculture programmes. Good Eggs makes up a growing share of the business.
"It's an exciting new avenue for farmers to sell their food through," says Casey.
"They are really good at marketing and finding people and connecting people with the food, which leaves me more time to do the growing and to be on the farm more."
Once Casey's employees have finished packaging their own produce, the food finds its way here - the Good Eggs food hub, where unique orders are hand-prepared for individual clients.
This service began in the San Francisco Bay area in 2012 and has now recently launched in Brooklyn, Los Angeles and New Orleans.
Another satisfied customer heading home with local produce.
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