Good food delivered right to your door; Schwans.com.
Written: Aug 10 '06 (Updated Aug 10 '06)
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I remember it well growing up; the rev of the engine as the Schwan's truck pulled away from our neighbor's house on his way to ours. You could hear the truck coming down the street, knowing full well that good food delivered right to your door was on its way. As we lived well out in the country away from town, many of our meals were either supplemented or consisted totally of food from the big cooler truck. The food was high quality and in some cases slightly higher priced than what you could find in the stores, and their 'snacky' type foods were a favorite with my sister and I as soon as we got off the bus.
Fast forward to today; my wife and I live within city limits, about five blocks from the largest grocery store in town. We have no problems making it to the store, and grocery shopping is something that our kids look forward to. Being as cost-conscious as I am, you might think that we do not use the Schwan's food service anymore, right? Wrong. Every other week Steve (our route representative) arrives at our door with a selection of food ordered through the website, www.schwans.com. Not only is the food great tasting and priced reasonably well, the convenience of having it delivered directly to your door make this a great deal. The ice creams are some of the best we have tried, and their selection of food seems to be ever-increasing. But back to the website…
After several frustrating experiences where Steve had just left when my wife or I remembered something else we 'needed' I started to use the website to place my orders. The Schwan's website is easy to navigate and is set up specifically with the continuing customer in mind. The site is not pushy with its sales tactics, although some suggested sides and recommended add-ons are shown as you place your order. The site contains all of the food items available from Schwan's, even some that are not going to be on the truck unless you order it via the website. Ranging from snack food items such as chicken wings, popcorn chicken and fried specialties to whole meals prepackaged, your food needs can probably be met by the big yellow truck and the accompanying website.
Ordering is made simple in that a good search tool will allow you to find anything you want. Additionally the user can browse the categories via drilling down from tabs such as Main Dishes, Sandwiches and Sauces, Breakfasts and Beverages and Ice Cream, Desserts & Treats. By far my favorite way of shopping is to use the Favorites tab as I can add items that we frequently purchase and browse and choose when the order needs to be placed. This has helped me to remember items that I otherwise would have forgotten, thus satisfying the customer and earning a larger sale at the same time. As you add items to your cart the order on the right of the screen will increase, giving you a running tally of where you stand as well as a quick reference to what you have already ordered. Dropping items is simple as well, and once your order is complete you can proceed to checkout.
Checkout is fast and easy. The order is placed and logged, and the materials should arrive on the truck given enough lead time, generally two to three days prior to the delivery date. The site does allow for scheduling deliveries outside of the normal route days, but at least in our area this will not work. The routes that our drivers run are long distance, and therefore it is difficult at best to deviate from these 'normal' deliveries. No problem here, as we have come to expect the big yellow truck and the friendly Steve every other Monday. Payment is made at the time of delivery, and at least in our area this consists of only check or cash. Perhaps in some areas credit cards can be used, but not ours. It seems a natural extension of the e-commerce idea that the user could pay for the order via credit card online at the time of the order, but as of this writing this is not possible. Once the order is submitted, a confirmation email is sent and the order is on its way, scheduled for your normal delivery day!
A side benefit of the Schwan's site is the Home and Gifts section. For every dollar that you order via the website you are given 1 point to be used in the Home and Gifts area. There is a wide variety of 'stuff' available here, including cooking hardware, utensils and kitchen clutter. The downside of this is that you cannot use only points for the purchase, but rather use the points to reduce the cost. For instance, a set of tumblers normally priced at $20 might be available for $15.99 plus 150 points. As the deals haven't been that great and I have had no real need for the material available we have yet to take advantage of this. However, if a friend were to get married soon we would probably use this for some wedding gifts, as the price reductions are good and the stuff would make a good gift… Perhaps as Christmas rolls around we will use this for some knick knack gifts for relatives, as well. I would sure like to be able to use points to reduce the cost of the food items, but this isn't possible as of now.
Overall the Schwan's website has helped to streamline our ordering needs and ensures that we get what we need. Gone is the time when we were under the gun to place an order only to forget a few items, and this pleases us as well as increases the sale. I recommend this website for your food needs!
Recommended:
Yes
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