Market Wagon aims to bring a farmers market right to your doorstep in Champaign-Urbana
Order fresh produce or prepared food online and have it delivered to your home
All About Market Wagon
According to the “about us” info on its website, Market Wagon aims to bring a farmers market right to your doorstep. Working with local farms, food artisans, restaurants, catering companies and more, Market Wagon makes a one-stop shop that changes offerings from week to week, making it super simple for customers to shop local without going to lots of different places.
Market Wagon in Champaign-Urbana
When you navigate to the Market Wagon website, you’ll enter your zip code to shop the Central Illinois site. This covers from Peoria through Bloomington to Champaign-Urbana and down through Decatur over to Springfield, too. This means you’ll recognize many of the vendor names in the Central Illinois Market Wagon site, but there will be some outside of our immediate area from Bloomington-Normal or beyond that you’ve not heard of before.
The cool thing about Market Wagon is you decide exactly what you want to get from your selected vendors each week, so it’s really up to you how you shop. You’re going to pay a flat $8.95 delivery fee for your order, which truly, all things considered, is a steal of a deal for the convenience of Market Wagon.
About the Produce
Just like you would shop at the farmers market (or the indoor markets in the winter), there will be certain things available each week based on what the vendors have to sell. Be sure to read the specifics, like how much you’ll get of each item when you add it to your cart. You can order from as many vendors as you want with no additional charges; it is literally all rolled together in one delivery fee.
About the Prepared Food
Now, Market Wagon has always had a partnership with local food vendors but this is one area that really exploded in its offerings during 2020. Many local caterers pivoted to selling prepared meals in 2020 and Market Wagon provides a unique vehicle to get an order from, say, Piato in Urbana, for just a container of soup or a single serve-entree. How about a family-sized meal from El Toro? These meals are all delivered cold, with many frozen, so they come with clear and convenient instructions on how to prepare at home.
Logistics of Ordering
In Champaign-Urbana, you’ll want to place your order by Tuesday night (well actually Wednesday at 1 a.m.) to be delivered sometime on Thursday. You are not obligated to commit to any kind of recurring order when you place one order.
Just shop and fill your cart with whatever suits your fancy and enter payment info to complete your order. That’s all you have to do! Straight from the Market Wagon website, “There is no contract, no subscription, and no minimum order to receive delivery. Buy what you want, when you want it.”
Logistics of Delivery
Receiving your delivery is contactless and (not surprisingly) super simple. For your first order, there’s literally nothing you have to do; for subsequent orders, they ask that you please set out your cooler bag(s) and ice packs from previous weeks on Thursday morning so they can use them again. You’ll receive a text when your order is out for delivery and another text once your delivery has arrived. No doorbell, nothing to sign for, and in the cooler winter months, you don’t even have to rush out there to get your food off the porch right away.
Option to Order Holiday Meals
One timely note: if you want to pre-order a holiday meal, there are a number of vendors that have their pre-orders loaded into the Market Wagon system. Check out the options on the last page of “Entrees, Sides & Soups” to see what may be available when you’re shopping.
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