I’ve just wasted an hour plus looking for fair deals on mail order food from companies such as Omaha Steaks.
I’m thinking, hey, no problem, I’ll order some cool food things online and have it delivered to family and friends and get a good deal doing it and it will be stuff they will really enjoy unlike ugly shirts and socks and gift cards which are thoughtful but do not require any real effort and since I take my gift giving seriously …
I just passed on a deal that would have shipped four Philly Cheese-Steaks for, I hope you are sitting down, $99. Excuse me. I beg your pardon. And I think that was half off! How is that possible? I am stupid, it is debatable, but I am not that stupid. It reminds of that scene from a Steve Martin movie when Steve’s character gets upset because of a wedding cake costs $3,500 or something like that and that was an 80’s movie. So Steve’s wife is telling him to calm down and the wedding planner guy is all offended because Steve even questioned the price of the cake.
Steve sticks to his guns. It is flour, sugar and frosting how the hell can a cake cost $3,500!!!
Anyway, back at it. All I want is a fair deal. I do not over pay for anything. I will not buy crap either. I will patiently search for a fair deal and an item that is nice.
I just made two deals on Groupon. It couldn’t have been much easier. You type in the zip code of the giftee. A menu pops up. You select what category of gift you are interested in, in my case, food stuff or restaurants. You then select the deal that appeals to you most and indicate it is a gift at which point you must enter the giftee’s email address and even better you can select when you want the girst to be sent (I picked the Monday before Christmas).
Two down time to move down my gift list.
I got half off on stuff I know they will use and enjoy. No wrapping paper, standing in line at the post office, etc. Yes, now I do feel a little smarter. I such a good gift giver. I usually shock people, in a good way, with my gifts.
@GoNoles85 You may like the Cheese cake factory offer mentioned in the good buys thread.
Purchase a $25 gift card online and receive two vouchers for slices of cheesecake for free. I think today is the last day.
Thank you, I will check them out. I came back to post that if I don’t get at least 50% I pass you by! It is Cyber Monday! The buyer is running the show! Also, on Groupon, under things to do, American Escape Rooms seems kind of fun for young people who want to mix and mingle (hey, they are young) and has a fair deal but I am still shopping.
Super perishable food like meats takes a lot of $ to ship.
Some food items are less pricey because they don’t need to be shipped cold.
Historically, food purveyors don’t discount a lot for the holidays and aren’t into cyber Monday discounting. I’d focus on quality over savings when choosing a food product personally.
The best online shopping deals are usually on clothing and household items on Cyber Monday. I work off “wish lists” but have been able to save 20-50% off a few items today.
Kicking myself on one item I wanted to buy because I chose to wait until today to buy it to see if it would be more on sale than it was yesterday and now it is out of stock.
Ha ha! I just saw Boston Coffee Cakes to be sent for $49.99. I can buy these at any grocery store around here for $5.99. The dollar store has pretty tins and bows. Be careful out there!
I struck a few more deals. I got mini-golf and gator food tickets for two that I will give to my youngest son b/c I know he likes a certain girl and it is the perfect excuse for date night with her. I got a downtown food tasting event for my older son while he is back in town over the break because I know he still likes a girl who is still in town, and maybe he can ask her to go with him. They taste food and go from bar to bar. That sounds like fun.
Yup, like deb922 my CC is smoking too. I am getting at least 50% off but I suppose they mark it up to $300 and then tell me I am getting half off!! I also got a three pack of thermals that are really cool and will keep two for me and gift the other to the little guy who is my same size. I need to shop for my wife some she is so damn hard to shop for but so far me and the kids are making out like bandits. Back at it …
Yup. I didn’t read all the fine print but so far the deals I’ve made are okay with me and will make interesting and utterly unexpected gifts and will create memories and what the heck isn’t that what the holidays are for? I’m visiting some college buddies in a few weeks and I can already see that deals on Groupon can cut our entertainment costs in half if I shop now. I can’t seem to find a catch really. I think Groupon is the way to go when shopping although I suppose Amazon creates great customer loyalty as well. But you really can’t beat Groupon from a shopper experience perspective. You save money, pick what you want, no lines, no parking, no hassles, that is hard to beat.
I gave the Omaha Steak Co, literally 5 different chances to earn my money today alone and they are obscenely over priced for what you get. They throw in things like potatoes but I don’t need those. The cuts seem tiny and there isn’t even beef there for what they are charging and that is supposedly half off. What someone said earlier is simply smarter get a coupon to a local butcher and let the giftee pick it up. Cheaper. More value. I don’t get Omaha’s business model at all.
I decided I rather customize what each recipient gets and bought the food items on sale yesterday at Costco and am filling a large USPS flat rate box. The extra stuff that doesn’t fit will have to go into stockings or be part of other gifts. ;-).
I haven’t been excited by any deals so far other than CPK and Cheesecake Factory and of course Costco. So many on my list have too much “stuff,” so I’m going with consumables.
Did the cheesecake factory gift cards (have done them every year for the past few years) - I give the gift cards as gift and usually keep the piece of cake for myself.
