I’ve been getting a vegetable box delivered to my house every week for over 10 years. I administer it online, and change my order from time to time, but mostly the same things just turn up. I’ve been trying to work out why this feels like a *farm* service not an *online* service.
Aside from the fact that the carrots often need a good wash, I *think* it’s because it doesn’t feel data driven. Sure, they presumably know the contents of every box I’ve received, but I’ve never had an upsell or a personalised recommendation. I just get the box I ask for.
Presumably, lots of brilliant marketing people have told them over the years that this is suicide. But also it’s not in their interest to personalise. I can’t stand chicory, but I still have to get it in the box at chicory time, because otherwise, where does the chicory *go*?
For a reason I can’t put my finger on - which might be all clever faux naïf branding - it feels like a symmetrical relationship, aided by the web, not an extractive one which could end up linking my vegetable consumption to my life insurance and my job prospects.
And I think why I like it is because it feels a bit like the web did in 2006. A bit clunky and rubbish, but reliable. Not magical and abstracted. And I get some vegetables out of it too, and have to cope with turnips and physalis and tomatillos, wch is prob good for me.
I like it because I get to choose a bit (less roots) but not completely (turnips and chicory). It arrives every week and just works, but isn’t needy. It doesn’t send push alerts or ask me to rate my courgettes. Which makes me wonder: which other bits of the Web stopped in 2006?
