A First Look at Butcher Box
Reviewing of the Butcher Box Service
UPDATE: March 3, 2020
Subscription services are not for everyone and the customer service for these services is not always quick to respond. FAIR WARNING!
For several years, we invested part of our income tax refund into organic beef. Basically, we would go in with several other folks to purchase a cow and then when it was butchered we’d collect our portion.
It’s expensive if you consider it has to be paid all in one lump sum. It’s not as expensive when you realize we have beef for almost a full year.
Or we used to. I got made at our stand up freezer because I had to keep defrosting it – plus, it was big and took up a large portion of my laundry room. Plus, the older boys were off to college so I didn’t have as many folks to feed. Plus, the youngest and husband go off to school all day so I don’t have as many meals to make.
I wanted the organic beef, but I didn’t need as much of it. Plus, I also wanted other organic meats as well.
I had been seeing the advertisements for Butcher Box for several months, but after a visit to the grocery store sent me home empty-handed (I was searching for a free-range chicken), I decided now was as good a time as any to make the leap.
Besides, there was a bonus of free ground beef for life and that’s ALWAYS an item I can find a way to use.
The ordering process was simple. I chose a variety of chicken, pork, and beef. Fortunately, I only ordered one whole chicken because the school served chicken six out of ten days after I ordered. My family is not thrilled about chicken at the moment.
It took longer than I expected for the package to ship, and then I was panicked about the delivery. We had an issue earlier in the week with the FedEx guy mixing up our address with the neighbor’s address and I didn’t want that to happen with a box of meat (especially with a momma bear and her two cubs wandering the neighborhood – but one issue at a time).
I called the local FedEx office after lunch to make sure things were still on track. The lady who answered assured me they would make the delivery before the end of the day.
As I was telling my husband about the call with FedEx, the FedEx guy showed up.
I enlisted my son to help with the unpacking.
I was surprised that the meat wasn’t in a styrofoam box – the last time I ordered meat delivered, it came that way. But this had boxes around boxes and an empty plastic bag which I suspect had once been dry ice.
We moved all the meat from the box to the sink and sorted the frozen from the thawing.
I then used the Butcher Box chat feature on the website to update them about our shipment.
We just received our first box and we were almost the last delivery of the day for FedEx. All of the dry ice was gone, and the items on the bottom of the pack were thawed or in the process of thawing.
There were four sirloin steaks, two of which were completely thawed and the other two on their way. The ground breakfast sausage was also partially thawed. The chopped sirloin tips were also partially thawed.
We brought the box in as soon as FedEx delivered – but that was 4:30 pm our time.
We checked the box, and it only had one place where it said the items were perishable. It might have been all frozen had it been delivered earlier.
I’ll keep up updated on how things go.
Thank you, Kathryn
. They immediately responded and offered me some safety tips about temperatures of meat (which I didn’t know). After using my digital thermometer to measure the internal temperature, two of the steaks were right on the edge.
Grace offered to make it right, and she did. She then sent me an email with a complete transcript from the chat, which I definitely appreciated (and it’s the first time I’ve had a chat service do that). It makes it easier to keep records – and also to blog later on about the moment.
Most of the meat went into the freezer. Some of it went into the meat drawer of the refrigerator because I know I’ll be using during the next week. I originally put the chicken in the refrigerator, but I’m think about holding off on thawing it for now.
All and all, it was an eventful start. It may not have started out the way I expected, but it’s good to know that they are willing to back up their product.
If you want to try out Butcher Box for yourself, you can use http://fbuy.me/nIZkx
Be sure to let me know what you think of the experience and I’ll keep you up to date about how I put these treats to work in our meal rotation!
Have you ever tried a meal service? Share your thoughts, concerns, or blessings!
The Mom
