Dear Valued Customers, 

The decision to create tiers for delivery fees was not made lightly. Accessibility is one of Forty Acres Fresh Market's hallmark values and we want everyone in our service area to be able to access fresh, affordable food.

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The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, plus this nation's reckoning on race relations has fundamentally changed our business, bringing us customers all over the city in communities we never expected. We were and still are thrilled that so many people have chosen to regularly use our services at this time.

Forty Acres Fresh Market does not contract with a 3rd party service for delivery. Therefore we assume the costs of not only the produce boxes but also the service infrastructure, including labor and vehicles. Over the last 8 months we have learned a great deal about sustainably operating a delivery service and have found that the costs of paying a quality wage and maintaining transportation naturally increased with the citywide service area we are still committed to serving. 

 

These costs led our management team to make the difficult decision to increase our fees. While we did consider instituting a higher flat rate for all locations, periodic shifts in the locations of customer density on any given day were shown to make this model less sustainable over time. 

 

Ultimately, we chose to follow delivery industry practices and create zip code based tiers. We audited the delivery fees for similar food delivery services to arrive at the new pricing to ensure it offered value in comparison. 

 

We hope that this offers more transparency in how this pricing decision was made. Our sole intention is to create a sustainable pricing model to cover costs regardless of migrations in demand, and to continue to provide affordable fresh food at a great value so everyone in Chicago can live healthy.

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Sincerely, 

Liz Abunaw

Owner 

Forty Acres Fresh Market