Here’s a spreadsheet from Hidden LA of restaurants that are selling groceries. Shows neighborhood and type of offerings.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1PUnnQeNmqJiXbnUle5NzsDgxJzDfbRfMwE8ehasOmk4/htmlview
Slight clarification, Daniels normally doesn’t sell to the public.
Does anyone have experience with Canton Food? Is everything in bulk packages? Or is the produce and meats in more manageable sizes?
They don’t usually sell with an online shop but if you contact them directly I don’t think you need a business license to purchase from them- they were on my list to purchase from unlike Rocker Brothers who never agreed to sell me anything.
I’ve purchased from them quite a bit. Some things are pretty bulk sized (like cases of meat, boxes of tomatoes, large bags of produce like LAX-C) but others you can buy individually. It’s where I get single boneless legs of lamb, duck, etc. They are VERY clear about not allowing photography which might be why it’s a little hard to lurk on Yelp before visiting.
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Got it. Interesting, on their site they said they didn’t sell to the public before.
RE: Canton Food
Thanks! I was thinking of produce and some meats but if they’re in large packages, it might not be viable. I was hoping that with their location and hours, if I hit them early there would be minimal people…
Did that seem like I meant customer carelessness? I meant driver carelessness. 
I tend to get produce from LAX-C (spinach in I think a 2lb bag, 4 heads of cauliflower at a time, tofu) and lamb and duck from Canton Food. If I were buying a bunch of stuff right now I might try and get it all from Restaurant Depot
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Yah, that’s great. Except the store employees assembled and bagged our stuff, put it in the cooler, but didn’t know it hadn’t been picked-up until the next day when I called. I still blame Mercato for this. The store employees bent over backwards to make things right.
Mercato’s dealing with exponential growth so things will go wrong.
It’s still good that employees pack the order. I’m done with Instacart and other services that use untrained gig workers shopping along with regular customers.
I did experience this and a longer than usual wait time with Yummy Market for the first time recently. Like The Rolling Stones said - I didn’t get what I wanted (certain brands) and they were out-of-stock on many things, but I got what I needed (water, bread, peanut butter, san lucas ribeyes, tofu, vegetables, sesame oil, kerrygold, cats favorite food, vegenaise! ice cream, booze).
They’re a small company and definitely feeling the squeeze with new customers and demands. The 2-hour wait they’ve been promising was finally realized 
but compared to grocery deliveries taking days or cancelling I still think they’re the ticket.
Yah, I agree. That’s another thing I like about Yummy - everything (shopping, bagging, delivering) is done by Yummy employees. We’ll watch and see how Mercato develops. This is a trial-by-fire for them.
Things ain’t easy but it could be much worse.
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This is great, thanks!
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Wanted to share my experience with Mercato. Overall we had a pretty mixed experience. The plus is that we were able to get some excellent produce and poultry from the Original Farmers Market in Mid-City, and we are happy to have tried some great new stuff.
The good
- Awesome selection, mostly reasonable prices for the quality. Never cooked a turkey leg or duck fat before, and the fresh herbs were excellent.
- No stress over getting an available delivery slot, although ordering from multiple vendors pushes back the first available date.
The bad
- The two week trial for free delivery is great, but the minimum order for free delivery is $35. This would normally be fine but the vendors we ordered from focus on either produce or meat. Seems like they should make an exception for the Original Farmers Market, where everything is grouped together.
- We had two delivery drivers (contracted through Doordash) since we ordered from two different vendors, although both are at the Original Farmers Market.
- The delivery drivers arrived at the exact same time and did not maintain their physical distance from each other. Neither of them wore face coverings.
- The andouille sausages we ordered were out of stock and weren’t delivered. Mercato still charged us for it, and their customer service didn’t respond to my message within 48 hours as promised. I sent a follow up to them after a week and still nothing. Ended up filing a chargeback with my credit card for the sausages.
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We got an Instacart delivery from Costco this morning. I ordered 28 items; 6 were substituted for similar products (cheeses and prepared entrees). The only thing I couldn’t get was Kleenex cubes. I’d filled the cart last night but there were no delivery times available. Went back to it at 7:30am and got a 5 hour window; delivery came at 10:30. All but the rotisserie chicken were in sealed containers so we sprayed all of them with Lysol on the porch and wiped down the packages with warm water once they were inside.
Probably overkill but made us feel better. We haven’t been anywhere but a pharmacy drive thru window and a couple of pizzas-in-the-trunk in 3 weeks. Think something Asian in the trunk soon.
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Cue plot of next Transporter movie.
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My latest order from Ralphs/Instacart was a disaster. I painstakingly specified “No Substitutions” for every single item. I got 8 bags of corn (I am allergic) tortilla chips instead of Beanitos. I got regular blueberries instead of organic. I got 2 bottles of pot and pan cleaner instead of regular cleanser. I got some expensive teas I never ordered. I got Earl Grey tea which I like but would never order because oil of Bergamot can impair potassium absorption; it is no fun waking up at 3 A.M. screaming in agony because of a charley horse in my upper calf which has happened several times.
I am beyond disappointed; I am angry.
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That does sound like a complete disaster. Especially when you specify no substitutions aren’t they supposed to at least text with you through the app before making any substitutions? In pre-pandemic days, I was a more frequent user of Amazon Prime Now than Instacart and I did find that if you checked no substitutions they took it seriously and delivered the order without substitutions, albeit even pre-pandemic, you might be getting a fraction of what you ordered. Of course, pre-pandemic it wasn’t so maddening because (1) your nerves weren’t on edge like they are now; and (2) you knew you could always run to the store yourself and get the omitted items.
Too bad they don’t have Fresh Direct in California. Although delivery dates there are becoming a problem, Fresh Direct has its own warehouses and its own employees and except for maybe paper goods, you get what you order. I’m busy everyday ordering on both the West Coast for myself and the East Coast for a relative so I have wide experience across all these various apps. I have an Instacart delivery coming Friday in New York because I couldn’t get a Fresh Direct slot and based on @DogbiteWilliams’ report, I’m having trepidation. I too painstakingly checked no substitutions.
Yep, I would be too. That’s as bad as it gets.
My mother reports that if you can get a Fresh Direct subscription (which she did just last week after starting to experience difficulty in scheduling an open delivery time), you get a standing weekly delivery slot.
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Oh, and I know a couple of the wholesale purveyors here in LA are working on e-commerce sites and home delivery. Not an easy thing to build from scratch, but it’s coming at some point, hopefully soon.
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