If you’re curious about Misfits Market and if it’s a good option for online grocery shopping, check out our honest review! We break down how Misfits Market works, the food quality, pricing, and more.
Instead of doing a recipe this week, I wanted to post another online grocery store review for you: this is my honest review of Misfits Market.
After doing my in-depth Thrive Market review that (hopefully!) people found helpful, I wanted to do more reviews on popular mail-order grocery providers, so I decided to try out Misfits Market next.
My review isn’t going to be quite as in-depth as my Thrive Market review since I won’t be do mini-reviews of everything I bought or cost comparisons of every item (just a few items), but this is my honest review as a consumer since I purchased everything myself.
This review isn’t sponsored in any way by Misfits Market, I paid for everything for this review. However, we do have affiliate links for Misfits Market throughout our post.
I hope to do more of these types of reviews for online food delivery websites, especially from a food allergy angle! And I will try to keep these posts regularly updated as well with new changes on these stores.
Misfits Market promo code
We’re going to kick off this review with a promo code!
Offer valid for first-time purchasers only. Offer must be claimed using code MMAFF12X2 by June 30, 2025 at 11:45 PM ET and must be used in full by July 31, 2025 at 11:45 PM ET. Maximum discount of $12 applied at checkout towards each of your first two orders ($24 total value). Order minimum applies, and $35 order minimum required to redeem offer. Offer not valid for past purchases and may not be combined with other offers. Exclusions may apply.
What is Misfits Market
Misfits Market is an online grocery store specializing in “rescued” food items. Rescued food items may have package changes or imperfections, misshaped or unusually sized produce that grocery stores would reject, overstocked items, etc.
Misfits Market supports small brands as well, especially upcycled brands. And since they sell seasonal produce, too, they update their sale items weekly based on what is in season with farmers and producers.
Selling misfit food items helps to rescue food from landfills and going to waste, so this is a good way to support sustainability in the food supply chain.
How does Misfits Market work?
Misfits Market is different from other online grocery shopping sites because they only allow you to shop within specified shopping windows since they change their website offerings based on what is available for seasonal, rescued, overstock, or misfit items.
You can pick your delivery day and they will let you know when you can start shopping for your weekly delivery. When the shopping window opens, they will pre-fill a cart for you that you can edit and personalize.
You can access your account anytime to make changes to your account and preferences, shipping schedule, etc. However, you won’t be able to shop or fill your cart outside of the shopping window. The deliveries are typically every week, but you can opt for every other week deliveries instead when you first sign up.
As soon as the shop window opens, they will prefill your cart with $64-80 in items they think you’ll like based on your initial entry survey (or your previous orders), and send you an email letting you know your shopping window is open and you can change your cart if you want. The amount they pre-fill your cart is the same whether you selected a family size of 2 or 4 in your new account survey.
You can block certain items from being automatically added to your cart in the future. We did this with a few items that did not fit our food allergies to keep them from being automatically added to our cart.
You can change anything in your cart during the shopping window or skip or donate that week’s shipment instead. If you go into the Upcoming Orders area of your account, you can also look ahead and skip or donate any upcoming orders for dates you know you won’t need a box.
The minimum cart amount to ship a box is $59. So you must have a minimum order value of $59 to get the box shipped. The shipping fee is $9.99 plus a $1.99 operations fee (which was newly added after I signed up).
It’s important to note that if you do not make changes to your cart or skip it, it will charge and ship to you automatically when the shopping window closes. Just keep that in mind with the way this system is set up.
If your order does end up going through and you don’t want your box, you do have a short window where you can cancel your box if you choose.
There is no membership fee for Misfits Market unless you opt into the Misfits+ membership which is $69/year with a 2-week free trial to start.
The Misfits Market Flex Plan (March 2025 update)
We’re updating this to add a note about the Flex Plan that I didn’t know about when I originally wrote my review. A reader mentioned the flex plan in the comments and I wondered why I hadn’t heard about it, and while looking through the plan options in my account info, there is nothing listed for a flex plan.
But when you go to cancel your weekly or every other week subscription, the flex option comes up.
So you can join Misfits Market under a flex plan (no prefilled box or subscription), while still having access to the shop window reminders, but you likely won’t see this as an option until you actually go to cancel your subscription.
From what I can remember, the flex plan wasn’t shown as an option when I first signed up with Misfits, and it doesn’t appear on the account page’s plan section. But it can be accessed when you go to cancel your subscription at the bottom of the account page.
Does Misfits Market take EBT?
Misfits Market does not currently accept SNAP or EBT, but they are working on adding that to their store.
Ordering and navigating the website
Once the shopping window opens, the Misfits Market website is pretty easy to navigate, with different shopping categories on the main shopping page and on the left sidebar of the shop area (like pantry staples, meat, fruits and vegetables, etc.).
You do have to create an account and put in your credit card information BEFORE you can see what is available in the shop, which might be a hurdle for people who just want to browse the offerings before actually signing up.
Be prepared to not actually be able to shop the day you create your account depending on what day it is. I created my account on a Tuesday and I had to wait till my shopping window opened on the following day to see what was available or to add anything to my cart.
One thing I noticed about the website is that there are no reviews on the products in the shop, which is probably because their inventory changes frequently and they don’t always stock the same items every week.
Misfits Market for food allergies
Misfits Market does have a decent selection of allergy friendly foods and they have special diet search labels and categories for major dietary needs, like plant based and gluten free. And they do offer dietary preference labels on the product pages for easy reference while browsing.
One thing I noticed was that not all of the product pages included and image of the full package label, and some of the “may contain” allergen statements aren’t always written out in the product ingredients in the description.
One example of this was the Rubicon vanilla cupcakes I ordered. The ingredient list in the product description didn’t mention any may-contain allergen statements, but when I got the product, the label mentioned that the cupcakes are made in a facility with peanuts.
When I went to double-check the product page, I wasn’t able to go back to the actual product page since it was outside of the shopping window. But I was able to see a product description in my orders even outside the shopping window.
They missed including the allergy warning on this product description and the product page didn’t include a photo of the ingredient label. So that is something to be aware of, not all of the may-contain or cross-contamination warnings end up on the product ingredient descriptions.
Some of the other products do include this information, but it looks like some do fall through the cracks, so just FYI when shopping on here with food allergies.
Misfits Market does have a decent selection of allergy friendly and special diet items, however you won’t be able to see what’s available outside of the shopping window, so I did think that was frustrating.
Order and product quality, packaging, etc.
I thought my box was packed very well, I ordered a mix of pantry items, cold pack items (including eggs), and fresh produce, and everything was packed securely and nothing was crushed.
My only frustration with the packing and shipping is that the produce didn’t have bags or wraps around them and some of the damp dirt from my carrots got on my other items.
Again it was a minor concern, and the dirt was easy to wipe off things. My bigger concern was the possibility of getting dirt into my clamshell container of cupcakes if it had been slightly squashed open (it turns out it wasn’t). The cupcake container had dirt on the outside but didn’t get any inside.
I think it’d be nice to have paper bags around some of the produce that has dirt on it to keep it from getting on everything else.
Aside from that, the eggs were well-packed and secure, and the produce was fresh and undamaged from shipping.
Unlike Thrive Market, Misfits Market didn’t use dry ice when packing my cold items, just frozen packs, so I didn’t have to worry about broken packaging or damaged food items.
Shipping and packing fees
The Misfits Market ships to nearly every area in the lower 48 states and their shipping fees are $9.99, and there is a cold pack fee that gets waived once you spend a minimum amount on cold pack items (they do have a $30 cold pack order minimum).
I can’t seem to remember at what amount the cold pack fee is waived, I think it’s $50 or $60. I couldn’t see it on my previous orders or on the info page and I can’t check since it’s outside the shopping window, so I’ll update once I find out!
They did just implement a new $1.99 operations fee for their shipments after December 18, 2024.
Misfits Market customer service and refunds
Everything came in pretty good shape, however I wasn’t happy with the Flock chicken chips I ordered so I requested a refund on that. So I was able to try out the customer service and refund system for Misftis Market.
As a side note, I do not recommend the Flock chicken chips. The bag I ordered had quite a few pieces with lots of feathers on them (yuck), so I requested a refund from Misfits Market for these.
Requesting a refund was easy on the previous order page, but there is no website chat feature, so once I submitted a request for a refund, I had to wait for an email from a customer service rep.
I got a follow-up email from a customer service rep saying they’d refund me for the item, but they mistakenly refunded the wrong item (they refunded me for the Uglies potato chips instead of the Flock chips). I had to contact them again and they corrected the mistake, but it took several days from start to finish to get everything figured out.
It is great that they have real customer service people handling requests vs chatbots, but I did find the customer service response time a little slow, especially due to the refund mistake, it took several days to get things completely resolved.
Misfits Market product pricing
The pricing for the items I ordered seemed to be on par with some of our local grocery stores here, as well as places like Natural Grocers and Whole Foods.
I decided not to do a super detailed breakdown of costs for everything I ordered like I did for our Thrive Market review since that took quite a while for me to do and I realized that cost comparisons don’t always stay relevant since grocery prices can fluctuate a lot.
So here are price comparisons for a handful of the items I ordered:
| Product | Misfits Price | Other stores price |
| Atoria naan | $3.60 | $3.79 Albertsons |
| Fork in the Road breakfast sausage | $7.22 | $7.99 Whole Foods |
| Organic bunch carrots | $2.25 | $2.29 Albertsons |
| Flock chips | $6.99 ($6.32 w discount) | $5.49 Target |
| Rubicon cupcakes | $3.61 | $6.49 Whole Foods |
| Organic pink lady apples (2 pounds) | $5.41 | $3.62 Walmart |
Overall, some things were a little more expensive (like the organic apples) and some were less (like the cupcakes), but most were pretty comparable in price. Plus I got some discounts as well, so that brought the prices down even more.
So I think the product pricing on Misfits Market is pretty good overall, close to regular grocery stores or less when you factor in discounts, sales, and promo codes when available.
Does Misfits Market offer frequent sales, promo codes, and price matching?
Misfits Market does have regular sales, discount codes, and promotions that reduce the cost of your grocery bill even more.
I made my purchase for this review with their Black Friday/Cyber Monday discount codes.
They also offer a perks program/loyalty rewards program where you accumulate points for grocery orders and you can redeem them for grocery items. I haven’t used any of my points yet, so I’m not sure what types of free grocery items you can get. I’ll add an update once I try out redeeming perks points.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- No membership fee unless you are using Misfits+
- Regular sales, promo codes, and specials
- Prices comparable or better than grocery stores
- Specialty and seasonal produce that I can’t find locally
- Real customer service reps vs chatbots
- Selection changes regularly, so you can find new things to try
- You can create a set prefill items and autoship schedule if you want to put grocery shopping on autopilot
- Rescuing misfit foods offers a sustainable option for groceries
- Update: there is a flex option to shop without a subscription
Cons:
- No customer chat option, so customer service is a bit slower
- I prefer an opt-in purchase model vs the opt-out model with pre-filled carts
- Unable to look at store or shop outside of shopping window
- Fewer shop items than other online grocery stores
- Because the selection changes regularly, you might not be able to find the same items you bought previously
- Some product labels aren’t included in the product pages (just an FYI for people with food allergies)
- The flex option for shopping without a subscription can’t be found on the account page with plans, you have to access it by going through subscription cancelation
Is Misfits Market worth it? My final thoughts
Overall, I liked my experience with Misfits Market. They have specialty produce that I can’t find in our local stores. I found everything to have been packed very well (aside from the dirty veggies), the prices are good, and I like that it doesn’t have a membership fee.
I liked that I was able to find seasonal produce like persimmons and specialty mushrooms that I couldn’t find here in town. But I did miss out on other unique items (like Bhudda’s hand citrus) that they only had for a couple of weeks when I decided not to order.
I’m not a huge fan of the opt-out model vs the opt-in model for shopping, where you have to opt out of shipments vs opting into them. But since I knew that’s how everything is set up when I signed up, I could deal with it. Plus they are great at text and email communications when a cart is ready to edit or ship.
Updating to add that I like the idea of the flex plan for shopping without a subscription or prefilled box, however you do have to go through a subscription cancelation to change to the flex plan vs just switching it in the plans area in your account.
I do find the shopping window of ordering to be a bit frustrating, but I understand why they do it this way since they are sourcing “misfit” products that might change weekly.
Misfits Market does have fewer product options than other online shops like Thrive Market, however, Misfits doesn’t have a membership fee and has fresh produce, unlike Thrive Market.
Since there isn’t a membership fee, there is no risk in trying it out and seeing if it’s a good fit for your needs. You just have to be on top of box schedules and regularly check emails and texts about pre-filled boxes if you don’t want a box that week. You can also skip future boxes depending on your schedule.
I plan to keep Misfits Market as an option for unique items and interesting produce in the coming months!
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie which she founded in 2011. Sarah is based in Wyoming and has been managing food allergies for herself and her 2 children for over 20 years. Sarah was also a certified personal trainer for 12 years, as well as a group fitness instructor, health coach, running coach, and fitness nutrition specialist.
If their whole business model is based on being cheaper than standard groceries, but they’re not actually cheaper than standard groceries… what’s the point?
So I think their first/main business mission is saving misfit food, and affordability is second on the list. It also kind of also depends on where you live if this is a good option or not. I live in a small town where we have decent prices, but some people might live in areas with higher grocery prices and Misfits might be a more affordable option. I usually only buy from Misfits or Thrive Market when I want something special I can’t find locally, and I buy the majority of my groceries locally. Misfits has fresh produce while Thrive Market doesn’t, so it’s nice to have an option for specialty fresh produce I can’t find in town (like the fresh oyster mushrooms). But I definitely don’t rely on either of them for my regular grocery shopping.
Just the fact that I had to sign up and give my email address was a negative for me. Zip code I can understand but now I’m going to be receiving unwanted emails. Then adding on additional fees and still not being able to see products is unexceptable to me. I didn’t complete the payment method and have decided this is not for me but now I have to check emails and unsubscribe which is a pain. Thank you for the information. Even wanting to send a message their asking for my email again and they already have it.
That is frustrating, I do wish they let people check out their store before having to add emails etc.
Misfits Market has a Flex Plan, which does not automatically send an order.
Thank you for mentioning that, I didn’t see that as an option! I’ll look into their flex plan.
I have been ordering from Misfits since during Covid and have always been very pleased with the quality of their food, especially their meat and produce. The few times I have contacted customer service for a refund I have found them to respond very, very quickly.
That’s great to hear! I just got another order from them the other day and several of my fresh produce items were not in great shape. My first order all the produce was great, but this one I had a few issues with and I’ll have to contact them on some things. They do have good customer service I think, just not as fast as Thrive Market since TM has the instant chat feature.
Unless and until I can see the types of products and brands of products available to purchase I refuse to give you my credit card information!
That’s understandable! I do wish they let people look through their shop before making people sign up for a membership.
Very much agree!!!
I’d hoped for choices of fresh produce to fit a CKD diet. Thank you for showing labels with non-friendly additives to processed foods like oat milk & bakery that contain phosphates, a warning that special diets don’t merely signal allergens. I also appreciate your evaluation that local groceries carry comparable items; those of us whose health depends upon clean eating from dieticians cannot survive on varied choices, limited time frames & changeable options.
The changing selection and limited shopping hours can definitely be a hurdle for certain people!
dont give credit card info to anyone without seeing what they are selling. this is how scammers work. they also use the opt out method to assist in the scam….
because of these two issues it shows that their business in not based to provide the customer with trustworthy service.
While I don’t like these aspects of Misfits Market, they are not a scam. They provide a legitimate service and have been reliably operating as a legitimate business since 2018.