Relay Foods

This is a great service. I’ve used it four times while I’ve had coupons. Here are the pros and cons about this service:
PROS:
1. Convenient delivery and unpacking
2. Support local farmers and companies
3. Access to organic produce at somewhat reasonable prices
4. Unlimited deliveries at $ 30 for a month (I think)
CONS:
1. Higher prices on some items
2. There are no same day deliveries
3. Local farmers milk glass jars require a deposit that you get back when you return them
My favorite products are the trinkling springs organic milk and the Ninth street organic bakery items. I’ve personally gone to Walmart and compared the same items sold on relay and found that it’s 2 – 3 dollars more than Walmart. Without the coupons or discounts, relay can be expensive and difficult to keep which is tough because we loved the milk and convenience !

I LOVE Relay. I could go on and on about how happy I am to get convenient, quality, farm-​fresh food at designated pick-​up spots in DC but I instead want to highlight their customer service. When I have received wilting kale, mushy tomatoes, or other produce that I would typically skip over in a grocery store because of the quality, Relay credited my next order immediately! Also, the recipes on their website are amazing — try the Thai peanut chicken.
Naturally I’m going to add a shameless plug for you to try it yourself — use code H7SWQ4 for $ 30 off your first order!

This is the best grocery service I have ever encountered. It is not a subscription service, you pay each time for your groceries so you don’t get suckered into something you don’t want/​forgot about.
Relay always has really great fresh local specials, which is something you don’t generally find at regular stores like Giant/​Food Lion/​etc. It’s competitively priced, which is great. The best part is that you can pick out your groceries online, for example on your lunch break at the office, and then just pick them up at your location or have them delivered to your door. Talk about saving precious time!
If you use promo code D59QYD you can get $ 30 off your first $ 50+ purchase — if you don’t believe how great it is, then give it a shot and get some free food out of it!

The idea of Relay Foods seemed great. I think they were having a deal for introducing themselves and I signed up through by a friend’s suggestion. However, it really seemed like a scam when they charged me $ 36.90 the next month without my having any notion of subscribing to them. I didn’t want the service because pick up was an inconvenience for me and I never got anything from them again. And because of the ghost charge the next month, I would recommend my friends to not buy either!

WE started using Relay Foods originally for the access to the local vendors without actually having to go to the farms themselves. We try to eat certain things organic and local and we love the options. The sales are always pretty amazing, and we have learned if there is something on sale, we stock up on it (especially meats and seafood).
Picking up the food is a breeze (but of course, I live close to several drop off sites), you just give them your name and out comes all this exciting stuff! Everyone is super friendly and you can easily turn away anything that you don’t is acceptable. Yes, the prices of some items may be slightly higher than other places, but quite a few are less, so it evens out.

Truly a life changing service. I’ve been using Relay as my primary grocer for months now and I can not say enough positive things about it. There is a pick up location right behind my apartment, so I am a bit spoiled, but even if it wasn’t so close, the fresh and local produce make it worth it. It’s basically a giant farmers market (+ more), online!
It should also be noted that their employees and customer service teams are excellent. They really care about the quality of their products and the happiness of their customers. They are always quick to respond and the employees that are on the pick up trucks are always happy to see you. Their enthusiasm over high quality, local products is contagious. I feel like I’ve done something good after every purchase. Helping out local farmers + purveyors and cutting out the big name companies.

Relay Foods first pulled me in with their deal of $ 30 off your first purchase of $ 50 (
). Since then, I have been shopping almost exclusively from Relay. It is an amazing online food ordering service that I started using since I live in a part of Washington DC where it is difficult to conveniently access good and fresh foods. Relay has numerous pickup locations where after ordering, you simply go to the location that works best for you and pick up your order! They have good prices and high quality products. It has completely changed the way I do groceries.
What I love about relay is that you can see profiles of all of the farms and local businesses that they source from, and the profiles explain why relay is partnering with them. You can also filter foods based on local, organic, gluten-​free, ect
I highly recommend all Wolf Creek products and Radical Roots Farm products (local and organic)

I love Relay Foods! I live in a area of Baltimore where grocery shopping is a nightmare and Relay has been a life saver (probably literally). I have been using Relay for about 9 months. I had two minor issues with a few bad tomatoes and funky cucumber and I just chatted with them online and they refunded my money immediately. I would say their prices are a tiny bit lower than Whole Foods, but ordering online has reduced our overall monthly grocery bill quite a bit because it is easier to meal plan around what is on sale.

My first order from Relay Foods was fresh, but in the next three orders, some of the produce has been rotting or moldy. I no longer use the service.

Relay Foods has been life-​changing — and I’m not exaggerating! Using their website is super easy. Just pick out all the food you want and then decide if you want to pick up your groceries at a local area pick-​up spot or have your food delivered (thank you for having so many convenient pick-​up locations in Baltimore!). They have so much variety of groceries and you can even read about the farms/​where your food is coming from.
I’ve ordered from Relay twice now and I’ve been extremely satisfied with my orders. I mostly order meat and pantry goods, but they’ve all tasted great. I can really see and taste the difference in the meat. I recently ordered a «5 Day Dinner Pack for 2» which comes with enough meat for your meals all week at an awesome price.
And pickup is a breeze! You just park near the truck, give your name and one of the friendly staff members quickly grabs your order for you. They even double-​check to make sure that all your food is there. There have been last minute substitutions for items that were out of stock or price changes because the weight of the meat was a little more than I purchased online, but they allow you to reject the substitutions if you don’t want it.
And of course, there is the awesome refer a friend program. If you refer someone to Relay they get $ 30 off their first purchase of $ 50 or more and Relay credits you $ 30 to your account for your next purchase of $ 50.

Obsessed! Want the best food in DC to come to your door? Relay Foods. Great pickup and delivery options, wonderful website, easy process and the best farm-​to-​table local foods. Hardly step foot in a Whole Foods anymore, and best of all, it saves money! Also, owner/​operators are extremely responsive and proactive. It doesn’t get better than this!

This is based on my first order. Really happy with the product and service. Steaks and salmon very good. Bagels not so much. Your drop off points are not perfect for me. But I can’t wait to make and get the next order.

Yes, the $ 30 off of $ 50 code for customers (
) is great, but let’s talk about the company. They have Whole Foods quality local products and are probably a little less expensive than whole foods. You also get a good variety without being dependent on what is on a store’s shelf. I’ve written a couple of reviews of them on my food website but I know Unilocal doesn’t want us posting web links.
Some of my favorite products that they carry:
Mission Home Oatmeal Wheat Bread (only $ 2.50) and Pumpkin Bread ($ 3.75).
Eden Organic stone ground mustard with cider vinegar ($ 2.50).
Hungry Hill pure raw Virginia honey (pricing by size)
Nature’s Yolk Café Free brown eggs ($ 3, or $ 4.50 for organic).
Family Ties Pies (varies)
Farmhouse Culture kraut (varies)
Salazon Seal Salt & Caramel Dark Chocolate ($ 3.75)
They have good sales too, which change weekly. They also have a good # of pickup spots.
Down side:
$ 3 service fee for orders under $ 50. They also cancelled a couple of pickup spots which I liked (Springfield and Reston).

A great online grocery store to use. They also have amazing deals especially for first time users. $ 30 off a $ 50 order is pretty hard to beat. This can be used in DC metro area, Baltimore, Charlottesville, Richmond and other places. Try it now and save!

I order from Relay about once a week for the past few months, I really like the quality of the food and the care that they take in packing it in ice, etc., given the heat of the summer. Whenever I contact them to ask for some assistance, they are very helpful. It’s extremely cool that you can shop from local, organic farmers online and have it delivered to your door.

I’ve had negative experiences getting my groceries delivered before so I wasn’t sure if I would like Relay. I was on my lunch break and someone approached me about trying it out so I gave it a shot!
Really easy to order online… you can save your favorites and see what other people like. They give you a 2 hour window and deliver until 10 at night, which was perfect. The delivery guy was on time and super friendly. He even unpacked the groceries for me!
I would definitely use them again! Thanks!

I HATE grocery shopping. Seriously I despise it so Relay is for great for those of you who like food shopping as much as me. The seem to offer a lot of deals. I got the «half bounty» for free my first time. You can get $ 10 off your first 5 orders with Bikeshare. And they are doing free home delivery for a month for new DC customers. Score!
I wasn’t super impressed with the «half bounty» but it was free so I’m not complaining too much. If I had paid $ 40 that would be a different story. I feel like for produce Washingtons Green Grocer or a farmers market has better quality. Also, I got grapes with seeds. Ack… who wants seeds in their grapes!!! That is such a pain. Generally speaking the stuff just seemed to go bad really quick.
The perk with Relay though is that they have normal stuff too. You can get organic mushrooms, but you can also get poptarts or diet coke. I like this because with WGG you get a produce delivery, but I always have to go to the store anyways to get other stuff. And the produce at Giant scares me so I refuse to do Peapod. Overall the prices seem on par with what you’d pay other places. Like I said there are also promotions so check it out. They don’t have everything, but they do have a lot. And sometimes they sell out of stuff which can be annoying. As an added bonus sometimes they give you extra stuff. I ordered one banana and got 3. I ordered one packet of PB and got a whole box. Also, the website is a little clunky if you want to change something, but customer service has been nice when I called/​chatted.
Overall I really like the service and will probably continue using it. When my free delivery runs out I’ll probably just start picking up because there’s a drop site close to my apt.

Love the idea — not a smooth experience in practice.
I’ve ordered grocery delivery from Freshdirect in NY, Giant and Safeway in DC, shop at Whole Foods when I can make the trip over, have subscribed to a CSA in the past, and have used BlueApron and Plated grocery/​meal delivery. I’d say my experience is pretty widespread so I can give an accurate review.
I first heard about Relay Foods while strolling on Barrack’s Row. A few people with shirts and iPad wanted us to browse right there and SIGN UP THERE. I asked if I could browse later from home (because I honestly don’t want to run my hands all over a public-​use iPad before dining) — but the rep said then I couldn’t get THAT AWESOME DEAL THERE and that he also wouldn’t get a commission. Understood, but a little desperate and made me feel uncomfortable.
Then I predictably forgot about it ;P Whoops.
Later I saw a facebook ad for the tasting box (Relay Foods — hope this is useful information in deciding if your marketing efforts are effective or not: D), and decided to try it out, and put some other on-​sale items in my cart, because I predictably behaved as they expected me to, and compensated for the discounted/​subsidized box by buying more stuff.
The delivery — I guess it was smooth enough? Except the guy would have dropped it off at the wrong apartment a floor above me had I not called and checked. BIG PROBLEM. There was no name or anything information on it either, so if that apartment’s residents opened it, they couldn’t even be a good samaritan and return it to me! I later double-​checked my order in case it was my fault for entering in the apartment incorrectly. It was correct.
Produce — green bananas were green on the verge of turning brown, skipping through the yellow stage (happens unless I age them in a paper bag, but I still like to get them on the greener side), cilantro was half wilted to slime. I’m glad it’s local and organic, but come on.
Tasting box — unfortunately for me, I bought extra on-​sale stuff separately, and a lot of the tasting box consisted of the stuff that was on sale… My own fault I guess. You’d think I’d want double of something if I liked it enough to buy it? But meh, just felt like I wasted money instead. The rest of the box that wasn’t repeat was weird — never gonna use except maybe once, or if you really like BBQ sauce.
Now I have these giant rubbermaid boxes to store around until they come pick it up… I think it MIGHT be preferable to drop off the stuff, but then you’d have to be home at the time of delivery, so it’s a trade off. It would still be nice to have the option.
I’d hope the «bounty box» would be better than the tasting box, because NONE of this stuff is useful or wanted. But judging by the cilantro and bananas, I’m not that hopeful produce will be better, but at least more useable. Overall, it’s a great concept, and I’ll wait for the execution to smooth out, if ever, before ordering again.
EDIT: I just price checked Michele’s Granola — it’s $ 6.49 — $ 6.99 on their website. Relay Foods sells it at $ 7.50 MARKETING IT AS $ 1 OFF (Originally $ 8.50?). DECEPTIVE PRICING! I haven’t checked other items on the site, but I’m willing to bet that’s not the only item. PEOPLE, DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE. It’s impossible to check up every item, so you have to be able to trust your service… and I can’t trust this. Now I’m really upset I have 3 bags of this… Also, why uptick the price on this when you’re already charging delivery fees (or delivery SUBSCRIPTION fees) that are higher than anyone else? Now I’m certain I won’t be back anytime soon.
EDIT AGAIN: apparently the delivery fee renewal and the produce box renewal to unsubscribe are on different pages… Annoying and inexplicable system. Bad user experience design that makes no sense

Beautiful. All the awesomeness of a CSA but without the commitment! You basically order whatever items you are in position to cook :) I love it — super friendly customer service and the food quality is legit.
I ordered the «Half Bounty» (among other things) and received a ton of fresh local produce! (see the pic)
2 pints of grape tomatoes
1 pint of concord grapes (YUM!)
3 zucchini
2 cucumbers
2 eggplants
3 green bell peppers
3 apples
11 tomatoes (mostly plum tomatoes)
My advice: definitely go for it!

It was a very sad day when I realized that not only was I too lazy to cook, but I was also too lazy to shop for groceries. Walking to the store after work seemed like such a long journey.
I signed up for Relay Foods at a metro station. An ambassador was there with an iPad, offering $ 90 worth of groceries for $ 50. I get to save money and save myself a trip to the grocery store? Sign-​me up!
They have a nice selection of items online, both organic and conventional, though I’ve been too lazy to search the website in detail, and I usually just add the first items I like to my shopping cart, stopping when I’ve reached my spending limit.
Though I was initially trying to save myself a trip to the grocery store, I typically choose the pick-​up option so I don’t have to pay for delivery. I still prefer picking up pre-​packed food to actually shopping for food! They have a number of locations for pick-​up throughout DC, MD, and VA, and I pick-​up my groceries at the Eisenhower Metro Station, one metro stop away from my house.
Your order is stored in one or more boxes on a truck. You may take these boxes with you, or move all your items to one or more bags. During my first pick-​up I chose to keep the box, but soon realized half the weight of the box was from ice packs. Those ice packs are nice for my food, but not for my weak arms, so the second time around I chose to move everything to bags, which made for a much easier trip home. (That was one heavy box I had to carry on the metro the first time, even if it was only a stop).
After my first pick-​up I realized the chicken I ordered was missing, but when I sent an e-​mail to customer service the next morning, they responded within ten minutes or something crazy like that, offering me a refund for the chicken, as well as a discount on a future order. With customer service like this, I’m sure I’ll be using Relay Foods for a while.