Review: Graze.com
Almost a month ago, I stumbled across an advert in the local newspaper for a service called Graze.com. The service offered healthy food, delivered fresh to you desk on a daily basis, along with a free trial of the service. I had never previously heard of a service like this, and was understandably curious about what it offered. A quick trip to the Graze.com website explained that the service delivered a box of fresh, healthy food, direct to your home or workplace.
I received my first box from this service about two weeks ago, and a second box on Tuesday this week. After receiving the second, I thought I would write a short article on what the service offers and my impressions of it.
What's on offer?
The Graze.com box, as it arrived in the post.
Graze.com offers "a wide range of fresh fruit, delicious nuts, seeds & dried fruits, tasty crackers & olives, as well as some well deserved natural treats". A quick look through their Food List shows that this is indeed true. There is everything from freshly cut pineapple, Apple Strudel (Dried apple, naturally dried apricots & dried cranberries), nuts, chocolate buttons, cherries, cashew nuts, and much much more. The selection is incredibly varied, if sometimes a little on the strange side. There are some products in the list that I would never have tried without this service. This was certainly the case in my last box, where I received wasabi peanut crackers. I was skeptical, however they turned out to be fantastic, and they quickly got set to 'Love' in the preference section.
How does it work?
When you first sign up to Graze, the system will ask you what sort of box you want. You can choose between either an automatic system, which will build a box based on your likes & dislikes, or you can manually construct your box.
Design your own Graze box
The automatic selection works by a user first selecting what sort of box they want constructed. This is like telling the service what purpose you want the box to fulfil. The current options are: 'Eat Well', 'Energy', 'Well Being', 'Pre -Workout', or 'Post-Workout'. Once you've selected this, you tell the site the sort of food you; Hate, want to try, like, or love. Graze then constructs a box based on your preferences, and can work a little like Amazon's Recommended Products system. Graze will always try to send you your preferred items, however if some items are out of stock (Grapes were when I first signed up), they will send your next preference.
Graze can also let you construct your own box, selecting what you want in each section. I guess that this option could remove any healthy benefit that you may gain from using this service, though it is great for the more picky eaters among us.
The boxes themselves are divided into three sections. one large, one medium, one small. The large is fresh fruit, the medium is a dried fruit selection / mix, and the small is normally some form of snack food.
The boxes are shipped via Royal Mail priority mail, which means it should arrive the day after it is shipped. I've only had two so far but neither has been late, and both have been very well packaged, and arrived in perfect condition (even though it has suffered the internal mail system).
How much does it cost?
Inside of a Graze box
The standard box, which consists of one large section, one medium section, and one small section, is priced at £2.99. This includes next-day delivery. I would argue that the service is well priced for what you get, however the same could be achieved for less if you made up a box yourself. The disadvantage this would have is the amount of time it would take to build your own selection, and you may not get to try some of the more exotic options Graze has on offer.
In my opinion, I think Graze has found a currently untapped market. Their products appeal mostly to the busy office-worker or businessman. The product may air on the expensive side in today's climate, but very well priced for what is on offer.
Want to try it out?
If you would like a free trial of this service, which will get you one free box, then please use the following code when signing up: VGWR1QH
Links
- Graze.com (link includes free trial box)
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August 15th, 2009 - 14:37
Hi,have checked out this website and im going to order one now! really excited, however i am looking at constructing my own box do you know how to do that? and how much do you get in each section? thanks xx
August 17th, 2009 - 02:08
Thanks for reading my article. I’m glad it’s been of some help. In the self-constructed boxes, you should still recieve one large section, one medium section, and one small section. If you take a look at the pictures on the article, it should give you an idea of how much you get in each section. Unfortunately I’ve never constructed my own box, but they should be the same as the auto-built one.
I hope that helps! ^.^
February 24th, 2010 - 12:20
so how much did that company pay you for this article?
February 24th, 2010 - 13:42
Absolutely nothing. I reviewed the product after I tried it of my own accord. I heard about it through a newspaper article, decided to try it, and just thought I should review it. Guess I wanted to try my hand at writing a review, and it seemed like a nice simple something to start with.
March 15th, 2010 - 11:28
This company are a rip off, the contents are not worth £2.99. You can not contact Graze directly, they have no telephone number. I have forgotten my password and have asked for it 3 times, it has not arrived. I contacted them with a technical fault, they still haven’t replied. They keep taking my £2.99 each week and I can not stop them. Now my bank have had to to write to them to tell them to stop taking the month, this can take a month. So they can continue to take £12 and yet I can do nothing about it. My bank have told me they are not impressed with companies like these who take a regular figure each mont but it is not a direct debit or standing order and so you can not easily cancel your order.
March 17th, 2010 - 18:27
All I can really suggest for contacting them is to use the ‘Click here to send us an email’ link available at: https://www.graze.com/help/contact then select that you can’t log in. I’ve had nothing but good experience with them so far, but I accept that there may be issues others have that I don’t. Good idea trying to cancel it with your bank. i’m sure they’ll be able to put a stop on all transactions to them eventually. Try contacting them again none the less to see if you can expedite the process.
Thanks for your feedback, and best of luck!
May 6th, 2010 - 12:21
I love Graze!
The contents are definately worth £3 although I prefer the Graze Nibble box which gives you 4 selections of nuts, seeds, dried fruit etc. I’ve been to my fair share of health food shops and you just can’t find the selection and combinations that Graze offers.
I have to say I haven’t had any problems financially, but I have had to cancel direct debits through my online banking before which hasn’t been a problem. Also, for all financial things like Graze, my online mobile phone account, Paypal etc, I do ensure I have the passwords should any problems arise.
Good luck in sorting out the problems and just keep enjoying those boxes every week!
July 7th, 2010 - 11:17
THESE ARE COMPLETE CON ARTISTS, You get offered a free box and they take your card details saying they wont take any money without your consent and low and behold after your first free and totally rubbish box with contents in worh about 50p from the weigh house they keep sending them twice a week which costs £6!!! This is the dearest bird food i have ever bought.
July 7th, 2010 - 13:39
I seem to be hearing very mixed things about Graze from people. Personally I’ve never had a bad experience with them, and neither has my Uncle who also uses the service. It sounds like they are kinda hard to contact directly if people have problems though, which is a shame.
Admittedly I’m not getting the boxes at the moment as Im trying to cut down on what i’m eating overall.
Thanks for the information about your experience. I’m sorry you’ve not had the best time with them, and I hope that any problems you have with the service get resolved to your satisfaction.
August 12th, 2010 - 22:41
I agree that they are complete con artists. They offer a free box and as I got the link to the site from O2, I was only a little worried when they asked for credit card details “to verify details?”. I came back from holiday to 7 boxes on my doorstep that I am sure I never ordered and the money had been taken from my account. After two contacts they have only offerered me refunds for three of the boxes. The box contents seem reasonable but I did not order or want them. I must also mention that it is a circuitious route to cancel completely on the website. ie you get options to only cancel for a week or a fortnight etc. If you are going to order the free box and do not want any more then I suggest that a print out of each page you go through is worthwhile.
August 13th, 2010 - 12:01
Hi Stuart. Thanks for the feedback. I’m sorry to hear you’ve had a negative experience with the service.
It unfortunately does sign you up automatically after the trial period. I guess in some ways its no different to most free trials; they work on the basis you’ll forget to unsubscribe.
September 3rd, 2010 - 22:49
I have just had my first Graze box and was impressed. I opted for the Nibbles box as it seemed the best value.(First box free and second half price with the o2 rewards). As items such as nuts and dates are expensive anyway I thought with the postage included as well it is a fair price. It will be interesting to see how it goes. For those who want to/have had problems cancelling it is easy. Just go to https://www.graze.com/help/faqs and it tells you how to. If I have any problems I will post again.