Any sort of monthly subscription boxes will be on topic for this thread, no matter what sorts of items they send out. Share whatever; recommendations, services to avoid, cool things you received, etc. I haven’t subscribed to any of the services, but I’m thinking about it.
I order my dog food off Amazon. That’s all I’ve got.
My wife does Stitch Fix every other month and it’s fun. At first I poo poo’ed it a little because I thought of it as kind of lazy, but they send her stuff she wouldn’t normally pick out for herself and I can see the appeal. We both agreed last night that if she got it every month it wouldn’t be as interesting.
Bespoke monthly box for men. Best part is you can opt out each month if the box is not to your liking.
Box service?
For the past year or so I’ve been getting a BarkBox each month for the dogs.
I/they really enjoyed each month’s offerings, but I recently ended my subscription. I should have gotten a free month for each of the three referrals I sent them(as advertised), but that never happened. Not a huge deal, but I felt cheated.
A “box o’ stuff” sent each month. In my case, dog toys/treats.
I get BarkBox too. Their customer support is top notch so it keeps sucking me in.
I complained that the first few boxes had soft toys in them that I couldn’t give to my dogs because they’d just rip them to shreds (I donated them all to a rescue group) so they gave me some free toys, and started sending my dogs a different class of toys which are for stronger chewers.
Then they developed the “Destroyer’s Club” that allows you to send in pics of your destroyed toys for about $4-per-toy off new toys (if spent within 30 days). So that got me shopping on their store for more toys, and letting them be destroyed, and getting more. Clever.
Also if you like an item in your box, you can order another with free shipping. This is great for me because I have 2 dogs so if I get something like a bone that they can’t share, I just order another.
Expensive and makes for a lot of toys and toy fluff in the house, but fun nonetheless.
I’m not owned by a dog, so I’ve never heard of the concept. Can you get these for people, too, and I’m just missing out on something?
Back around 1950, my mom subscribed to a gift of the month club, with a little knicknack from a foreign country arriving in the mail. In those days, anything you had that was not made in the USA was considered unique and interesting enough to be shown to visitors. She was quite happy with the things she got.
There are subscription services for every interest.
Within reason.
I use Dollar Shave Club. I can’t say its product is better than what you get at the drug store, but it is comparable and much cheaper.
If you want to extend the category to weekly boxes, I use graze.com – eight single-portion snack boxes per week.
Obvious business opportunity. A monthly box for cats.
Nothing in it, just the box.
I also use Dollar Shave club. I get just the basic 4-razor “box” each month and it’s more than enough for my face. It’s soooo much cheaper than the Gillette blades I used to get. As a result, I have no qualms about dumping the blade after two shaves, so the blades are always fresh and sharp. With Gillettes, I was always trying to wring too many shaves out of them because they were so pricey.
And they just show up once a month in my mailbox, so I’m always stocked up. Love it. Highly recommend.
I got my husband a 6 month subscription of Whiskey of the Month as a gift one year through Taster’s Club. Pricey but they sent full bottles (and sometimes glasses) of high quality product. He really enjoyed it.
After hearing a story on NPR, I signed up for Stitch Fix (for men). I got my first box a few weeks ago and was pretty pleased. I hate shopping; I go out once or twice a year and buy a bunch of khakis or slacks and button-down shirts for work and that’s about it. I don’t spend a lot of money so my clothes tend to be utilitarian and not stylish. Plus, I’m very overweight, so my clothes are often too tight or too baggy.
My first box had a pair of chocolate brown cotton pants that I love. They are super comfortable and look good on me. They are skinnier than the relaxed-waist khakis I usually get, but I love how they look and feel. Definite keeper and I’ve asked for more in my next box. This box also had a nice belt (reversible) that works with the pants and the rest of my wardrobe.
The two shirts were okay - I liked the style, but they were too tight around my middle. I had to send them back. Then there was also a body-hugging t-shirt - again, I don’t have a body type that begs to be hugged by clothes, so that went back too. But I’m eagerly looking forward to the next box.
SO does all the food boxes where you cook yourself 3 days a week. Usually a different one every week (probably at least a half dozen companies), I don’t know the details about how she picks them but many of them are free or discounted promos. No major complaints, some are generic but most are pretty interesting recipes. Prep complexity varies a bit between brands or individual recipes.
She got Bark Box once or twice too. The dog doesn’t go through them fast enough to warrant monthly, I think.
I use Stitch Fix also (I’m female). I also hate shopping, and won’t buy anything even if I go. So this is a great service for me because it forces me to buy clothing. (You lose your $20 styling fee otherwise). My favorite thing I got so far was a pair of olive green sneakers, which I would never have tried on if I just saw them in a store.
I’ve only had one box so far in which I didn’t like anything, and I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on the stuff I’ve kept.
Lurkinghorror reminded me, we also do Blue Apron for 2 meals/week. Those have been great - all the fun of cooking (which we love to do) but without having to actually plan a meal. Often we get ingredients we’ve never tried before, or learn new ways of cooking familiar ingredients, that we carry over into our regular meals. For example I was never really a squash fan (winter or summer), but now we eat it all the time because we know how to cook and season it in more interesting ways.
My daughter does Ipsy. Ten bucks a month for a cute little make-up bag of personalized beauty products. Sometimes it’s small sizes but bigger than samples. It’s usually a nail polish, make-up and some kind of hair product. So far nothing she hasn’t liked, and she’s been doing it for about eight months.
We stopped doing Blue Apron. I’m not sure why - either they’re more expensive, or the promos aren’t as good, or she just avoids the most popular.
The different services have their own foibles - some deliver on Monday, some Tuesday, etc., so our selection depends on if we might not eat at home certain nights. I believe most can be delayed a week if you’re on vacation.
Gobble, Sun Basket, Marley Spoon are the other names I remember getting.
I subscribe to Julep (make up/nail polish), Trunk Club (clothes), Stitch Fix (clothes), Fabletics (work out clothes). I don’t get them all every month. I hate shopping for clothes, so this works for me.
We also get Blue Apron and Home Chef, but not both every week. Just whenever the meals look yummy.
I’m looking into Bully Make (Bark Box for power chewers) and Hunt a Killer (solve a serial killer mystery).
I’m kind of a subscription box junkie. I would get all of them all the time if I could afford to. 