Proper Good Review 2024: Pros + Cons Revealed

Overview

Proper Good is an excellent service with regard to the particular niche it fills. If I were to sum up the whole Proper Good business as a meal delivery service, it would be with the phrase “Speedy Light Meals.”

Generally speaking, the Proper Good meals come in microwave-safe packages that can simply be placed in a microwave and heated within 90 seconds or so. That’s really fast! Plus, the meals are shelf stable so that you can store them in your pantry for months.

However, its biggest downside is that all its meals fall in the category of “light” meals. The menu includes soups, oats, curry, chili, and more, but there are no hearty meals like the ones available on the Factor menu.

So, Proper Good meals are perfect for a healthy snack or a light breakfast or lunch, but they might not be a great choice if you want to chow down on a substantial meal. Still, if you understand that that’s the niche that Proper Good is filling – it's a great service.

Proper Good’s Menu: Decent Selection of Light & Easy Meals

Meal Options: There Are 7 Meal Types on the Menu

The Proper Good menu has 33 different items that are divided into 7 different meal types: Oatmeal, Overnight Oats, Soup, Chili, Curry, Sides, and Bone Broth.

Spread throughout those options are a fairly decent number of proteins and vegetables. Surprisingly, there are even a few different types of ethnic cuisines offered. For example, the Chana Masala Curry comes from India, and the Southwest Chili is obviously, from the Southwest.

There are plenty of options if you select items from all 7 categories. However, if you limit yourself to a single category, you might find yourself with fewer options than you’d like. For example, Overnight Oats only has 5 options to choose from.

Most meals can be heated up within 90 seconds in the microwave. Many of the meals, if you prefer, do have stovetop-heating directions, which will take longer. The total actual time varies more from meal to meal when heating on the stove.

Customization: You Get Some Level of Personalization + You Can Filter Meals

At Proper Good, you can customize the meal type, dietary need, and the selection of meals in your subscription, but you can’t customize the recipes of the meals themselves. If this is something you want to do, Home Chef or HelloFresh may be better since these services allow you to customize your meals before placing the order.

You can apply a filter so that you can pick from meals that suit a specific dietary preference, but meals come as they’re prepared and can’t be modified. You can’t swap out the types of beans used in the Chili or anything like that.

You can filter out 2 allergens: gluten and dairy. Other allergens can only be removed by inspection. However, as the site lists the ingredients and allergen information on its Nutritionals page, that’s not difficult to do.

Overall, there are a total of 15 filters that can be used individually and together. This makes customization of the selection of items pretty flexible and easy. The dietary preferences, for example, can be tailored as follows: Keto, Plant-Based, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, and Low Sodium.

Although It’s a limited list, all the other nutritional info is available by inspection.

Proper Good’s Menu at a Glance 

Unboxing: Neatly Organized & Recyclable Packaging

The box is very well organized. Everything is pre-prepped and ready to go with each meal packed within the box. The labels are clear, concise, and informative containing information like the expiration date, nutritional information, and preparation instructions.

Generally, most of the meals last around 8 months, although this does vary from meal to meal. Also, it’s good to know that the meals are shelf-stable and don't need to be refrigerated until they’re opened. Of course, once opened they should be consumed within 3 days.

Pretty much everything in the box and the box itself is recyclable to some degree. The box, the toppers, and the envelopes are all recyclable at your curbside. The plastic pouches (plastic #7) are recyclable in some locations. If you don’t have the means to recycle them in your area, you can send them back free of charge to Proper Good to be recycled there.

Cooking With Proper Good: As Simple As It Gets

Generally speaking, the Proper Good service is significantly different from other meal delivery services, like Purple Carrot or Blue Apron. In a way, it’s more specialized. For example, when it first came on the market, it only offered soups. Now, it has several other options, but I still get the feeling that it has its own unique character.

As noted above, there are about 33 different meal options available on the site. All are readily microwavable (or ready for the stovetop, if you prefer), and they all look tasty. The ones that intrigue me the most are:

Chana Masala Curry: This meal is entirely plant-based as well as low-sodium. It's filled with chickpeas, tomatoes, and a number of North Indian spices.

Red Pepper Meatball Soup: This soup is both keto-friendly and gluten-free. It’s made with grass-fed beef bone broth and is ready in 90 seconds.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup: This soup is a low-sodium meal with zero added sugar. It’s made with cheddar cheese and turmeric, and an organic chicken bone broth.

All the meals are shelf-stable and last several months (many around 8 months). They come in packages that are readily microwavable or can be prepared on a stovetop.

Naturally, if you prepare something on the stove, it’ll require a few extra pans or dishes to clean up than if you simply microwave the meal and eat it straight from the pouch. Regardless, cooking the meals is simple whichever route you take.

Prices: Proper Good Is Affordable

Sides are available to order as single items and start at <$3 per portion, but if you’re interested in soups, chilis, and curries, you’ll be looking at >$5 per portion.

There’s no limit to the number of bundles you can order, nor is there a limit to the number of individual meals you can order. If you order 6 meals or more per week, the price per portion drops (if you’re ordering soups etc) and shipping is free.

Shipping is $5 for orders under $25, and free for those above. Additionally, Proper Good also offers a number of promotional items including a Happy Spoon, Proper Cozy Socks, and a Walmart Free Meal Coupon.

Shipping & Delivery: A Very Streamlined Process

Proper Good primarily ships to the contiguous 48 states of the US. However, shipping internationally and elsewhere may be possible, but you have to contact customer service and arrange the details through them.

It’s an easy process to reschedule or make other changes to your order or subscription, however, it’s not necessarily convenient. In order to make a change to your order or subscription, the company suggests you contact their customer service to assist you and walk you through the process.

While this is relatively simple, it does require a text, email, etc… rather than simply following a specified series of written steps on your own. The company does provide a brief video here: https://eatpropergood.com/blogs/a-proper-good-blog/proper-good-meal-subscription that will walk you through the steps for a few procedures to modify elements of your customer dashboard.

Of course, most of the items in your dashboard are clearly labeled, so, again, it’s pretty easy. I’m just a stickler, and I like written lists of instructions as opposed to videos. But that’s just me.

Another plus for Proper Good is the fact that the company offers tracking. It’ll send you an email with the appropriate information as soon as your order is shipped. 95% of deliveries should arrive on your doorstep within approximately 4-5 business days after the day on which they’re ordered.

How Proper Good Works (Step by Step Guide)

Proper Good has an excellent sign up and account management system. Unlike many meal delivery services, Proper Good doesn’t require you to sign up before ordering. If you want to order 50 individual meals one at a time or altogether – you can. And then you can sign up (or not) as you desire.

How to Sign Up (Just 5 Simple Steps)

The sign up process isn’t particularly difficult. Basically, it amounts to simply checking a flag in the first step and then proceeding with an order. The procedure is as follows:

1. Select meals/fill cart (Click Subscribe to Save 20%)

2. Provide contact and address Info

3. Provide shipping Info

4. Provide payment Info

5. Confirm

And you’re good to go.

Managing Your Subscription

Managing your subscription, pausing and canceling plans, and such is simple. It’s not detailed in writing in the FAQs. The company suggests you contact customer service to find out the information.

That’s simple to do, but it does require an email or text, which, as I said above, is inconvenient, since you have to wait for a response. I would prefer that Proper Good does as many other companies do and provide the list of steps needed to perform any task (like cancel a subscription, pause a subscription, skip a week, or whatever) written down in an FAQ dedicated to that question.

There are FAQs for all those questions, but many of them just refer you to Customer Service. Canceling your subscription is an exception. It refers you to the company’s Subscription Page here: https://eatpropergood.com/blogs/a-proper-good-blog/proper-good-meal-subscription

As illustrated in the video on that page, you can manage your account through your dashboard. Your dashboard is pretty self-explanatory and gives you the ability to do any of the following: add/remove meals, change/skip order date, change address, change payment method, and cancel the subscription.

Customer Service: There’s Room for Improvement

Proper Good’s Customer Service system had no option, that I saw, for immediate contact. The listed options were, at the present time, limited to: text, email, and/or email form. I didn’t find this very impressive.

The company mentioned a chatbot (which would’ve been great), but I couldn’t find it where the company said it was supposed to be. As a result, any contact with customer service is likely to take some time before they get back to you. As a matter of fact, I sent an email to customer service, and after 3 days, they still hadn't responded. 

Having said that, there are still a few perks that come with the Proper Good customer service. Specifically, Proper Good gives you extensive details on what you need to do to return an item purchased should you be unsatisfied for some reason.

If you live in the 48 contiguous states, you can return items for free within 30 days after buying them. The items need to be unused and in the same condition they were when you got them. You also need to show your receipt.

Once confirmed, Proper Good will provide you with a prepaid mailing label to return the item. Be aware that the whole process may take several days to complete.

How Proper Good Compares to Other Meal Delivery Services

• Proper Good vs. Home Chef: Proper Good is less expensive than Home Chef by the meal. However, in my view, most of the meals offered by Proper Good seem to be more geared toward lunches, snacks, and breakfasts rather than a good hearty dinner. As such, Home Chef wins this match-up as it offers a full-fledged, highly customizable meal delivery service.
• Proper Good vs Green Chef: Finally, and this is true of the above services as well, Proper Good can’t really compete in terms of the quality/quantity of the meals they offer. Although Proper Good is an excellent choice for snacks or light meals and the fact that a subscription is NOT required is also a selling point, if you’re looking for substantial meals/dinners that will really hit the spot, Green Chef is a better choice.
• Proper Good vs. Blue Apron: Again, Proper Good, on a meal-by-meal basis, is less expensive than Blue Apron. Having said that, Blue Apron is a larger meal delivery service with a far greater number of “dinner” options. Other people might be able to get by with a 12 oz. bowl of Proper Good for their dinner, but not me. I need a little more.
  

The Bottom Line: Is Proper Good Worth It?

Proper Good is definitely worth it as a meal delivery service. One of its greatest strengths is that you can easily customize your order. You can have orders as small as 1 item to as many as you want. You have the option of ordering bundles of 6 meals, but if you just want 5 meals or if you want to tack on a few extra meals, it’s easy to manage.

The only downside is that most of its meals are just light meals. Portion sizes are approximately 12 oz. or so. As someone with a big appetite, that’s just not enough food for me.

FAQ

Where Can I Buy Proper Good?

There are a few other places at which you can buy Proper Good dishes besides its website. Specifically, Proper Good products, including soup, can be found on-line at Amazon or on/off-line at Walmart. Of course, as the company grows, it may become available elsewhere, too.

Are the Proper Good Ingredients Organic?

Proper Good isn’t a certified organic company. Although it may use the occasional organic ingredient here and there, most of its products will also include ingredients that aren’t organic. Regardless, the company still strives to use high-quality natural ingredients that are easily recognized and understood.

What is the Proper Good Shelf Life?

The shelf life of Proper Good products like soup (or anything else) will vary depending upon the particular product. Having said that, a rough estimate is around 8 months. That means you can store Proper Good products in your pantry (as they are shelf-stable) for a pretty long time.