It's interesting to note that the fruit and vegetable cart guys on the corners in NYC have been selling what are essentially misfit and imperfect foods since the beginning of...well, since whenever they started.
Like Hennes's berries and worse-for-the-wear carrots, the stuff in packages and clamshells you have to expect it's not all going to be usable. But otherwise one can pick and choose one's own apples, bananas, zucchini, cucumbers, etc. Dates are important to check if you can (then again, I check dates no matter where I shop); for example, he always has those packages of 3 heads of Romaine from Salinas or wherever. But yesterday when I looked at the dates (they all have "harvest" dates and where they are from, I guess since the recall problems with produce like this) - they were picked on Nov. 30th - that's a pass.
I generally go by a few times a week just to see what's available and what looks good. Prices can be extremely low - 5 limes for a buck (don't tell you-know-who), giant heads of cabbage for $2; or they can be comparable to what I might pay in Chinatown or at Trader Joe's, were I to shop there - mushrooms at $2 a package, bananas at 4 for $1.
Since pandemic times, his cart has expanded greatly, as have his hours - basically 24/7, except during really inclement weather. The cart used to be hauled away nightly; now it basically is part of the streetscape at all times. And it serves a purpose, the same as these new services do.
