A couple years ago I did a post on how to buy from local growers and suppliers in an effort to go green and go local.  At the time my local and organic produce mostly came from the local grocery chain Henry’s.  However earlier this year Misty and I discovered a great opportunity which allowed us to have locally grown, organic produce delivered straight to our door from a local farm.

Farm Fresh To You began in 1992 as an organic produce home delivery service under the direction of Kathleen Barsotti, the farm manager of Capay Organic.  Since then Farm Fresh to You has  expanded and now delivers organic produce fresh from the fields of Capay Organic and other local organic farms straight to homes and businesses throughout California.

Over the last month Misty and I have had our produce delivered by Farm Fresh To You as the primary source for fruits and vegetables.  The produce is delivered on a schedule that works best for you, either weekly, every two weeks or monthly.  We started with a larger box of produce every two weeks, but found that it was simply too much produce for what we would use on a regular basis.  We then switched to a weekly smaller delivery, which yielded too much fruit on a regular basis but just enough vegetables for the week, so we have since switched to a medium sized delivery every two weeks in hopes that it will be just right.

Switching to Farm Fresh To You for our produce has forced us to do a number of things we weren’t doing before.  First we are hyper aware of our produce stock, which means we have been much less wasteful.  Second we are being forced to cook healthier meals using a variety of fruits and vegetables that we probably wouldn’t have normally purchased on our own.  Kale, chard, and collard greens are among some of the most common items we have been forced to find creative ways to cook with.  Had we been shopping for fresh produce on our own, we never would have introduced these ingredients into our diet.  Finally it has helped us become more organized.  Having produce delivered on a schedule forces us to sit down each week and plan out our meals.  No longer can we just wing it with whatever is in the fridge.  To ensure we don’t waste the produce we have to stick to a strict menu and plan ahead.

Overall our experience with locally delivered produce has been a pleasant one.  In fact the first day I saw the box on my door step I was so giddy I took a picture and shared the experience on twitter.  It has helped adjust our lifestyle and has made us feel a lot better about our produce buying and green living decisions.  Many produce delivery companies simply deliver produce from various locations, Farm Fresh To You is focused on delivering produce from their farms and a select few local farms they trust.  If you’re interested in Farm Fresh to You visit their website, and if you use the promo code 6164 you can save $5.

Over the years Musings For A Darkened Room has taken on many shapes. It’s main focus in 2007 was to act as a personal hub for thoughts, musings and other rants about anything and everything.  But as I began blogging more I found that I was focusing on the SEO industry and Social Media industries more, and randomly peppered the blog with other random posts about a potpourri of topics I enjoyed.

As my SEO and Social Media career has advanced and I have become more involved in the industry as a whole, built up relationships, and developed a network of followers and friends I feel that it is time to serve them best with a dedicated search and social platform that isn’t a hybrid of all of my other interests.  In the coming months I will be revealing a new project that is aimed solely at search and social media, and will feature more frequent updates on all things search and social.

At that time Musings For A Darkened Room will revert back to it’s original incarnation as a personal blog with a variety of subjects to be covered.  I can guarantee you’ll get some music posts, green living posts, possibly a few Twilight related posts and a number of other personal anecdotes and musings that are always floating around in my head.  For my search and social followers, I will update this blog with information on the new project as soon as it launches so that if you wish to update your feeds with the SEO and social media specific blog you can.

I appreciate all of my readers, and I thank all of you for the good times and interactions we have had over the years and I hope that many of you will continue to read Musings For A Darkened Room and become more familiar with the personal side of my life.

We all know that businesses are taking the web more seriously thanks to social media and the ability to interact with customers and product fans, but more and more I am finding that while their web presence is successful their infrastructure, or more specifically their franchises, aren’t quite ready for the change.

You might remember last March when Quizno’s Subs launched the million subs campaign which gave away free sandwiches.  The campaign was a huge success and drove over 2 million visits to millionsubs.com.  However, customers were outraged when they found that most of their local sub shops wouldn’t accept the coupons.

I recently ran into a similar issue with Subway’s My Sub My Way promotion which offers a free 6 inch sub with the purchase of a 6 inch sub with a drink.  I understand the whole franchise aspect of things and that many of these businesses are simply not honoring the coupons because the independent owners don’t want to front the loss.  However, in my personal experience it seems that more and more of these businesses are completely unaware that the online promotions even exist.

With an online presence and social media comes responsibility

If your company allows independent owners to opt out of your national online campaigns then go a step further and help your customers by establishing who has opted out before launching the campaign and giving your customers the opportunity to search for a location near them that is honoring the promotion.  There is nothing worse than handing someone a coupon or promotional print out just to have the employee look at you as though you were trying to pay with foreign money.

If you’re a local franchise or independently owned business get with the times and stop fighting so vigorously against these online campaigns. I understand it may take a little off the top, but in the long run your customers will thank you and probably return to your location again in the future.  The overall value of a satisfied customer is three fold that of a customer who shows up just to be told you won’t honor the promotion.  If you can’t afford to honor the promotion, then at least make sure your locations are familiar with the promotion so that customers aren’t treated like they are in the wrong for participating in these campaigns.  I can’t count how many times I have personally been looked at like a fool or seen someone ridiculed for trying to use some of these coupons or participate in these promotions.

As online business evolves companies need to start looking at how their infrastructure and business strategy is going to evolve with the change. You may have to revisit policies and processes that have been in place for ages, but in the end the time invested in this change is time invested in your customer.