The official recipe box and door to door selling thread

Dr Lobster*
Posts: 2104
Joined: Sat 30 Aug, 2003 20.14

Earlier this evening I was delighted to be disturbed by the sound of a grown man tapping on my door representing, of all things, Gousto food delivery boxes.

i'd never really heard of them before, but when i looked online it seems a pretty stupid idea - a expensive tesco delivery service - i can't imagine why you wouldn't just order the bits you need and get them delivered from tesco for 1/3 cheaper.

i can't believe companies still try pressure selling on the doorstep... i had a spate of talktalk kept coming around trying to sell me broadband, but they seemed to have stopped doing that now.

do you get much of this sort of thing out your way?
Alexia
Posts: 2999
Joined: Sat 01 Oct, 2005 17.50

Double glazing salesmen a couple of weeks ago, garden improvements yesterday.

First one - aw, how nice and retro.
Second one - are you saying my garden's a mess you git?
cyberdude
Posts: 25
Joined: Thu 04 Aug, 2016 20.32

One (particularly sexist) salesman came to our house, but wouldn't let my mother sign the contract.
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tillyoshea
Posts: 364
Joined: Sun 23 Nov, 2003 14.34
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne
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I live in a Local Authority No Cold Calling Zone, which I think means I'm a vulnerable elderly resident.
simonipswich1
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat 30 Apr, 2016 00.24

We've got the No Cold Calling Zone here, it's great! When someone does knock who shouldn't, we get their information FIRST then tell them we're reporting them! They leg it pretty quick! Still at least we don't get the God Squad round anymore!
bilky asko
Posts: 1400
Joined: Sat 08 Nov, 2008 19.48

Dr Lobster* wrote: Mon 08 Jan, 2018 23.25 Earlier this evening I was delighted to be disturbed by the sound of a grown man tapping on my door representing, of all things, Gousto food delivery boxes.

i'd never really heard of them before, but when i looked online it seems a pretty stupid idea - a expensive tesco delivery service - i can't imagine why you wouldn't just order the bits you need and get them delivered from tesco for 1/3 cheaper.

i can't believe companies still try pressure selling on the doorstep... i had a spate of talktalk kept coming around trying to sell me broadband, but they seemed to have stopped doing that now.

do you get much of this sort of thing out your way?
The idea of these meal kit services (like Gousto, or Hello Fresh), is the convenience of having a pre-portioned amount of every ingredient you need for a certain number of recipes, along with simple cooking instructions.

It's by no means cheap, and it's not really targeted towards people who are confident in their cooking skills. The primary market is middle class people who feel guilty for not cooking from scratch, but don't want to expend much effort into doing so.

I would never use such a service myself, but the price is probably quite enticing for people who would normally have a takeaway a few times a week (as they push the "world recipes" quite a bit).
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gottago
Posts: 260
Joined: Thu 29 Jan, 2009 19.50

I got a free Hello Fresh through work and it was very good, the food was great quality and the recipes were decent. I can completely understand why the time poor and the lazy pay a premium for it. Personally I enjoy picking stuff at the supermarket, the thrill and drama of the self service checkout UI and judging the oiks in front of me in the queue so couldn’t justify a regular subscription.
Martin Phillp
Posts: 1469
Joined: Wed 11 May, 2011 01.28

These days, it tends to be utility salespeople who knock on the door. I miss the days when it'd be Avon or Betterware agents who'd knock on the door. The latter had some products which were worth buying.
TVF's London Lite.
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WillPS
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Location: Carlton
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The only caller I've had since moving in to my current address is Virgin Media. They arrived literally 2 minutes after I had signed up online.
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WillPS
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Welcome to the board kaizmoto. Terrible thread title - might I suggest "Gousto and other food box delivery services"?

I have used both Gousto and Hello Fresh. I preferred the latter since all the ingredients came bagged in to individual recipes, the flavours tended to be better too.

Back in the days when we were allowed out of the house to do stuff like jobs, my fiancee also enjoyed being able to prepare meals occasionally too. She is not especially confident in the kitchen, and while I'm sure there are cookbooks that she could work with, having the simplicity of a paper bag with ingredients and a 6 pictured steps let her do it.

Yes, it's pricey compared to buying the ingredients, but it's an easy way of getting some variety in your meals week to week and trying something new. Way cheaper and better for you than ordering in.

I got sick of it in the end but I don't think it's bad value for what it is, might try it again soon.

As for doorstep sales, if you don't want them just put a little laminated note near your doorbell, or simply say 'not interested, thanks' if that's the case.

We did take Hello Fresh on the doorstep but had been looking at it for a while, and the guy had a decent deal.
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rob
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kaizmoto1489 wrote: Wed 28 Apr, 2021 04.14
i can't believe companies still try pressure selling on the doorstep... i had a spate of talktalk kept coming around trying to sell me broadband, but they seemed to have stopped doing that now.
The last time someone tried to sell me something it was loft insulation.

I live in a ground floor flat.
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