Anyone practicing a gluten-free diet knows that often you need to BYOGF. Sometimes it’s a continental breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express. Other times it’s scanning the vending machine, often succumbing to the avalanche of gluten and resorting to a pack of stale Juicy Fruit. Maybe it’s a road trip, or just your daily hour-long commute.

Enter Amazon’s Subscribe and Save service. The model is simple; “subscribe” to a gluten-free staple you know you’ll use over and over again, and Amazon automatically ships out your order in the quantity and schedule of your choosing. As a reward for the steady business, Amazon gives you a discount somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15%.

I use it for my Think Thin bars that I strategically place around my daily life.  I know during my late night study sessions, the vending machines at the library are useless. My bag always has a couple bars in it. Those of you with cooking chops can keep a steady stock of GF ingredients delivered to your door.

Take a look around. Cheaper AND delivered to my door? Sign me up.

Amazon.com Subscribe and Save

While looking at Amazon’s various sub companies for some start-up research, I ran into Amazon Fresh. Those of you in the Pacific Northwest may have heard of it, but this is news to me here in Chicago. At first swipe, it’s a Peapod competitor that, for now, serves only the Seattle/Tacoma area.

“That’s great Bill, but what does this have to do with the task at hand?”

Glad you asked. Hopefully, it’s a glimpse into the future of gluten-free shopping:

From the get-go, Amazon Fresh lets you filter products based on its nutritional characteristics. Unlike other eCommerce sites I’ve used, this filter can be applied at any time. Meaning, if you check that little gluten-free box when you first arrive to the site, you are presented with gluten-free items (774 items if you’re counting). This effectively makes Amazon Fresh a boutique gluten-free grocer. A quick glance at Peapod and I see no such feature.

Even though it’s virtual – not to mention only serving Seattle for the time being – it was a great feeling to peruse the site knowing everything on the shelf was OK for me to eat. Now if I could only say the same for my local Dominick’s.