Greenling Organic Food Delivery is the Best Online-Based Service Since Kozmo

aaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Just like that. Because the old-school dotcommers (the ones that actually created websites that did something you WANTED, and kept it simple--unlike the new-wave that were just business people and didn't even GET the internet) are being reborn!

Once upon a time, whilst I was living in San Francisco, there existed this online-based company that actually provided a real service I wanted and would gladly pay money for. Actually there was another--my online-only bank that got bought out and quickly ruined--that I also still lament.

I forget the name of the bank, even though I raved about them in my Maximum PC column when I'd compared online bank services and websites; it was henceforth my bank, and I continued to rave about them to everyone I knew. It was a shining star in a sea of "just another bank"s. Best thing since the free toaster, for those that remember when banks used to give incentives--rather than penalties--for opening an account.

They were physically located in Georgia somewhere, which made transactions done by ATM or credit card real slow in California (phoneline distance thingie). But they actually gave 6% interest on checking... can you believe that cake?! Icing: the online interface itself had every feature you could imagine to make managing your finances easier, and genuinely user-friendly. Like you could direct-deposit your checks, have THE BANK receive your bills, and automatically pay them for you on specific dates, unless they were over an amount you specified, in which case you'd get an email alert marked "urgent", but it really was.

Yes, I wanna review a $600 electric bill before it's paid! And so user-friendly, you could set this up this complicated array of "what ifs" in minutes.

Capitol One put an end to it. Day one, while my account was still valid as a previous customer, my return was now 1.5%, most features I enjoyed were cut or harder to do in a few minutes, and the interface was so java/ advertisement-heavy, it regularly crashed my computer. Nice "improvements", guys. I mean, you wanna quickly check your account balance, that's all you wanna do. K.I.S.S.

Kozmo. God and goddess I loved my Kozmo.com.

Imagine: it's a cold and rainy night. You feel kinda sick, low energy, and all you wanna do is watch a dumn feel-good movie, but you don't want to get in the car, either, and head over to the video store.

Tada! Kozmo. Go to the website which has realtime availability of your chosen DVD or VHS, and it's delivered to your door in one hour. Delivered in plain brown paper bags; the driver didn't know what you chose at all (great for porn fans). You can return it in any number of dropboxes found in convenient locations throughout the city. Or at least could. ACLU put an end to that; I'm a member, but this one pissed me off as the issue wasn't racial profiling at all.

Those were the 90s. 2007: enter Greenling.

I'm one of those people that votes with their dollar since money is all politics/ corporations (same thing) care about these days; that's a different article. But food-wise, I try to eat as organically and locally grown as possible. I'm too much a night person to get to the farmer's market that ends at 2PM (no good stuff is left then--gone by 10AM--yeah "worm" joke me), Central Market and Whole Foods are both way too corporate and huge for my taste, and well, my husband was just fired from the supposed co-op (the short: for standing up for the workers and members; that's also why I love my husband), so I think it obvious why I don't want my dollar-vote there. It's no longer one, and hasn't been for a while. They're currently rewriting the charter, even, cuz they know there could be smack-down (even a license revoke) for their actions.

You should have voted the four political, cooperative, and farmer activists to board of directors instead of those laurel-crushing incumbents. That's another story too. But if you're a Wheatsville member, get involved, FAST. They're re-writing it so you can't be involved. It'll be nothing but a buyer's club; that's NOT the same as a co-op.

SO where the hell DO I buy food--a NECESSITY--without feeling like a shithead cuz I just voted with my dollar for a Republican/ Corporation?!?!

Greenling to the rescue! Austin only, and here I won't say "sorry" cuz this is one category where I want local, local, local! Locally owned and run, supports local farmers FIRST, and all money stays local, boosting local economy (yes, I can get along with Libertarians on this, and why Greens and Libs don't clash as much as you think. We picked a dumb name you can't take seriously, but aren't just a bunch of "tree huggers").

But political brewhaha aside, I pay no more for what I want, order it online, and it's delivered to my door! The interface of the website thinks of EVERYTHING you want in a real-life situation: "What if I'm not home?" "Can I just get the same things every week without reordering?" "What if I dunno what I want?" COVERED. The user interface is AWESOME; everything you want; nothing you don't. The only reason it took me ten minutes for my first order to be set up was I needed to explain our address issue so they could find us (our address says one street, but our door's on another; we have the "back" unit).

Irony: they're distributors to the major grocers and co-op as well. You might as well buy it firsthand.

And my sprouts were delivered so fresh, they were still standing upright. Same sprouts. I haven't seen them actually STAND unless homegrown, ever.

Another irony: a lot of former Wheatsville shoppers (wake up Dan; you're losing the non-deluded in your base, and fast) have recently tried to convert me to Greenling. But I'm already a convert. They even included related political actions with my first order, which Wheatsville used to be good about, but deemed no longer "profitable", just like "volunteers aren't profitable" (?!?!?!?!).

aaaaaaaaaaaaah. I can eat, and not feel like a shithead. Thanks, Greenling!

WEBMISTRESS PS: Website is FANTASTIC. You web designers (the real ones), go check it out for GUI reasons for the RIGHT way to do an e-com of this size, even if you don't live in Austin. Kudos to webmaster/mistress and/or designer on this!