Patricia,
We aren't fortunate enough to have a Penzey's brick-'n-mortar store near us, so my wife had been buying from their catalogue. But now that they have an Internet site, we use that instead. Their wares have always been top quality, and when you include the shipping charges, it makes their goods slightly more costly than a supermarket, but the added expense is well worth it in my opinion. Their spices and mixes are always fresh, and have a much longer shelf life than what you can get at the supermarket. We give them a very solid "thumbs-up" for quality.
KJC
PS - If you like quality meats, try some other Internet sites as well. A few of our favorites would include Nueske's (Wisconsin) and Harrington's (Vermont) for hams, pork, premier bacon, sausages and the like; Omaha Steaks for restaurant quality beef at prices only moderately above supermarket beef, once you purchase enough to quality for coupons, specials, discounts, etc... We now have an Omaha Steaks outlet just down the road from us, so we tend to buy there and get in-store specials as well. However, when you're first starting out with them, the prices are quite high. Alaskan Harvest has excellent fish and shellfish, but prices are not a bargain. However, the restaurant quality their products have again outweighs the additional costs.
For all of the above, the products are shipped with 1 to 3 day delivery times, usually frozen solid and packed with dry ice. We live in the deserts, and the products are almost always still frozen like a rock when they arrive, usually by Fed Ex or UPS. Only once was the product spoiled (fish from Boston and Alaska; ham from Vermont), and that was because a huge snowstorm grounded all of the Fed Ex planes in Tennessee pre-Christmas, and it was something like 10 days before the shipments arrived. All of the vendors involved made good, and reshipped fresh product once we notified them. No hassles or problems at all... |
