Q Talk

[Q4u]

My go-around with a $79 Springfield ham a few years ago was IT for me and food from QVC.  Huge bone, a ton of fat and $80 to boot!  No way was there enough meat on that bone to feed my family for Thanksgiving.... and did I mention it was $79????

Went to the local grocery and bought a big ham (that I could see through the transparant wrap)..... for roughly $26, fed everyone, was juicy, wasn't salty.  Will be buying my holiday ham from the grocery store again this year..... 

[Moonchilde]

It isn't *just* QVC with the expensive mail order food. Many times I'll see an item on QVC or HSN or come across something browsing online, and go directly to the company website. It's rarely cheaper, and if it is, only by a very few dollars.

Yes the cost of s&h is built in on QVC - and when you add the separate s&h on a baking website, for example, it's often as much as close to $20!

I honestly don't see this as a QVC issue but as being part and parcel of wanting "gourmet" foods conveniently presented, and being willing to pay for the convenience. Businesses (not just QVC) charge this much because people will pay it.

I can honestly say that I've never ordered online food that was worth what I paid in terms of quality. The food has never been spectacularly better tasting than what I could get locally. I do still occasionally order something, but it's really more about the convenience than an expectation of excellent quality.

Last year, QVC sold sets of cinnamon bread loaves from Greenlee's Bakery at something like $30. I was tempted. I subsequently moved to within an hour's drive of the bakery itself. Costo carried the very same loaves. I bought one ($8 I think). It was so not special. It wasn't bad, it was okay, fine, blah blah. But if I'd paid as much as QVC was asking for two, I would have been pithed.

I think it's the same everywhere. Pay for the convenience if you can and/or must, but don't expect special.

[MommaNJ629]

I live near bobby Chez and we order for holidays so I can relate to you missing him!!

[ULY]

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@Moonchilde wrote:

It isn't *just* QVC with the expensive mail order food. Many times I'll see an item on QVC or HSN or come across something browsing online, and go directly to the company website. It's rarely cheaper, and if it is, only by a very few dollars.

Yes the cost of s&h is built in on QVC - and when you add the separate s&h on a baking website, for example, it's often as much as close to $20!

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Being that I've never ordered from any other home shopping site, I'll confine my comments to QVC. Some (well a lot) of the more "gourmet" foods are priced ridiculously high. Lets not sugar coat anything. This past week I saw the stuffed. boneless pork roast for sixty dollars. I also saw the honey smoked salmon in four one pound bags for one hundred and seventy six dollars! The pork roast made me do some thinking and I decided to make one for a weekend party. A well known name brand roast was eleven dollars and it weighed more than three pounds. The price for me to make one was rather cheap and although I understand QVC has to make money and account for over head, the cost to make it and what not, I'm still somewhat dumbfounded.

[Texussgal]

I wonder if there is a specific reason for them dropping Bobby Chez?  I quit ordering crab cakes when Chesapeake Bay was no longer on.  Besides that, their seafood products are super duper expensive I think.  But, maybe there are reasons that I'm not aware of.  It can't be because they don't deal with vendors who aren't near water because they are on the east coast.  If I wanted to pay high prices like these, I could do it locally.  The nearest port to me would be Houston.  And, to be perfectly correct, Houston is not directly on the Gulf!  As for the other products, can't comment on them as I have never tried and/or purchased them.  As for the stores mentioned here, never heard of them. 

[BohemianGal]

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@Moonchilde wrote:

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@JasoninBoston wrote:

I have been tempted today again to get the Cheryls cookies!! I resisted, however! They look so good to me each time they're on!!!! 

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It depends on what sort of cookies you like. I ordered some last year and was underwhelmed. Not all that moist and didn't stay fresh all that long even when immediately frozen. Got stale-tasting well before they were half gone. i threw about 40% of them out. They tasted very blah, even for sugar cookies. Sweet blah is what they tasted like to me.

 @JasoninBoston....I agreee with @Moonchilde. I purchased Cheryls cookies for myself and a friend about 2 years ago. We both felt they weren't that good at all.  Don't feel deprived. You aren't missing anything.  I'm sure a local bakery in your area, or even a grocery store makes better tasting cookies for A LOT LESS MONEY!!!

BohemianGal

[Mistreatedbycs]

The Q was just the "order takers", food was shipped directly from the company.  The companies were paid months later after all the orders were sent out and the credits processed for all those people who "didn't like it" or "issued a quality complaint".

I understand you are selling to a huge audience but there's a point where the vendor needs their money and probably doesn't accept all the credits issued.....that's what I remember from a little burb on the local TV station that sold through the Q.

[Mistreatedbycs]

One other thought, not too long ago, there was a Kringle thread of all the bakeries that sell Kringles.

[dragthewaters]

I am way too paranoid about food spoilage to order any kind of perishable food through the mail. I won't even get home delivery of my groceries for this reason.

 @Q4u

$80 for a ham is ridiculous. Many grocery stores give you a free holiday roast of your choice if you spend a certain amount of money at the store in the few weeks leading to the holiday, with your store card. We are going to get a free Tofurky for Thanksgiving if we spend $400 at Shop-Rite between Oct 16th and Nov 24th. We are over 30% of the way there!

[wagirl]

I've tried a few food items from the Q and the only thing I order are the apples. And thats only been maybe 3 x in the 30 years I've been watching. I have found that while the food looks nice, it is always so loaded with sodium that we can't eat it and not doing the sweets, except the apples, anymore due to diet restictions. I ordered the KC prime rib roast  and got my money back, it was so horrible. and of course the horrible "******" and shrimp cakes that got tossed and my $ returned. I have remarkable stores around my area, to be able to buy the same type of things, but 100x better, than whatever is sold on TV and I'm supporting the local businesses as well. And I sure get tired of all the oohh-ing and ahh-ing and the happy dances and the weird faces from tasting. And yes---I don't watch anymore.