I know most of you avoid advertisements on line through ad-blockers or memberships or whatever, but as I have posted, I actually like seeing the advertisements (they are often hilarious) so I let the internet wash over me, not filtered exactly but presumably algorithmically tailored to my tastes.
…did I say TASTE? Because for quite a while now, I have been deluged with adverts for Goldbelly, which I ignored until today, when my fascination with their often-dizzyingly-unhealthy-yet-undeniably-delicious-looking food photos made me stop and ask, “okay, who the hell are these people?”
Huh. It actually seems they have a defensible business model, helping small businesses (restaurants and small shops) to sell their goodies more widely, on line. But since I’m in Hawai’i, I figured … “nah, not for me; either the stuff they offer won’t ship to Hawai’i, or the shipping would be so insanely expensive that it wouldn’t be worth it.”
While that is probably true, they do claim to ship to all 50 states and they let you shop for products regionally, so out of curiosity I looked at their Hawai’i products. For the most part, I wouldn’t buy any Hawai’i products from them, since I can do better on price, what with living here and all…but their Maui Gold pineapples are actually offered at a pretty good price (I just don’t know what I’d do with 8 pineapples).
Has anyone else looked into them? Do you recommend any products from your region, based on a combination of deliciousness and price?
Now I’m intrigued, as I’ve never heard of them before. But damn - $149 for Peking Duck? I’m sure it is pretty good and I like Peking Duck…but damn. I can be a spendthrift on good food, but seems like I could do better locally.
Yeah, my guess is that they only make sense if you really have a hankering for some delicious food that isn’t local to you, and you are willing to pay crazy-high prices to get it.
That’s why I’m kind of curious if there are some foods out there worth getting. 8 Maui Gold pineapples for $89 isn’t a terrible price; I’d probably pay $8-9 for a good pineapple here on island. So maybe there are some worthwhile items. (Who the hell needs 8 pineapples, though? Only if you are having a big party.)
I browsed looking for local faves. Damn, they’re expensive! Manhattan Beach Creamery is good ice cream, but definitely not worth $18/pint. Same for Philippe’s Original French Dip. In my top 3 French Dip sandwiches and great at $9.65 whenever I need to go downtown. But $150 for 6 sandwiches?? Forget it.
I just looked at the New England region and didn’t see anything there that I would pay for. Some great looking Boston cream pie and Junior’s cheesecake, but the prices are comically high.
The mark-up really is pretty massive. I guess it may be necessary to make this kind of proposition work. But a local Indian burrito place is selling six for $125 on Goldbelly. Meanwhile they are $13/piece purchased locally . Perusing those menus is making me hungry, but not quite enough to get past the sticker shock.
ETA: But maybe I’d feel differently if I lived in Baker, CA. Being in a major urban area I think there is too much decent food nearby to make this work for me.
I sent my son some Lou Malgnatti’s frozen deep dish pizza and it was expensive but I think they liked it. I probably wouldn’t have done it due to the cost but it was his birthday and he had taken us there when we both happened to be in Chicago a few months earlier, so it was more about the memory.
It also means I get tons of their ads and everything does look really good.
My cousin sent me a couple things from Carousel Cakes to celebrate my election in November.
They arrived on time, shrink-wrapped and frozen. I think they were frozen. Maybe they left the location frozen and had ice packs and were semi-frozen when they got here. I stuck 'em in the fridge. The red velvet cake was pristine (as in, freezing and wrapping didn’t muss the frosting) and I can’t really say anything about the Tollhouse Pie as it’s kind of meant to be a slab of dessert anyway (I didn’t really like it. It was like pecan pie but with walnuts and chocolate chips).
If you’re sensitive to over-packaging, they do have to use a lot of packaging. I got 2 items and they came in 2 boxes, each with their own bottom, middle and top pieces of Styrofoam. Plus the chill packs. I do believe the chill packs were dry ice as I am pretty sure I was surprised to find they were completely empty by the time I got around to throwing them away.
I say if you have a hankerin’ for a food you’ve heard about and can’t travel to try it, or something you miss from somewhere you’ve lived or visited, and the price is right - try it!
That’s not just any piece of fruit, though. Maui Gold pineapples are about 10 times better than regular pineapples. I’d pay $8-9 in the farmers’ markets here in Hawai’i for one, easy. So it doesn’t strike me as utterly unreasonable to pay $11 when it’s being shipped somewhere on the mainland.
If you are set up right, pineapples are sort of the gift that keeps on giving - one can plant the frondy top that you lop off to cut it up - my mom kept a pineapple growing in a tub that got moved out onto the deck in the summer and back inside for cold weather. As I vaguely recall, it was about 2 years between planting the top and picking a pineapple off the base rosette of pointy fronds. But I have a black thumb [I kill air ferns following the instructions exactly] so I rarely have any interest in trying to grow anything.
The best thing about goldbelly is the convenience…
It’s an easy way to send a gift to somebody. Send a favorite food, or something a bit different than what they usually cook at home.
And for a single purchase you don’t care about the price, you care more about it getting there on time.
I’ve used goldbelly for birthday presents, and always had good results.
I see the ads all the time too, prolly based on my search history.
ISTM that their market is, “I saw about X online (in some far off city) who has the best Y in the world! I want to check it out and I’ll gladly pay for it!”
It’s been more than 20 years since my parents were last on Hawai’i and my dad still raves about how much better the pineapple was there. Might place an order.
Yeah, I used to grow pineapple when I lived in Micronesia. Pro tip: the plant will usually only fruit once, but you can make it fruit again by putting some crushed eggshell into the center.
We have a few pineapples in the ground here, but they’re languishing. One did produce a fruit, but the rats got to it before it was ready to pick.
I’ve ordered St. Viateur bagels from Montreal through them - because montreal bagels are my favorite. They arrive, I slice them and freeze them and I have bagels for ages.
There’s nothing particular from the Atlanta area, but I have ordered King Cake from Gambino’s before - direct from the restaurant then, as it was before goldbelly. I’d consider ordering that again if I had a gathering to take it to.
. Perusing those menus is making me hungry, but not quite enough to get past the sticker shock.
(I didn’t really like it. It was like pecan pie but with walnuts and chocolate chips).