Foodiebox – My rant for today

OK, it’s rant time. I am pretty easy going, and it takes a bit to get me riled up. But riled up I am. Almost furious. Why? Because of Foodiebox.

This is not a Foodiebox review in the sense that I am reviewing what you get for your hard earned dollars when you buy their product. This is a rant about their business model, which has absolutely infuriated me. So much so, I am ranting on my blog…I even had to underline and use bold font to show how infuriated I am.

I received an email from this company (Foodiebox). After the usual rambling about their ‘premium’ customer demographic, which they only ascertain from their 4,300 or so facebook fan demographics, they tell us how they can connect our brand to these avid foodies – which are in reality mainly people who followed their page in the hope of free giveaways! And how do they do this? To quote them word for word …

“Intro Box: We will be needing 250 units. Our rate card is 99c per unit distributed. We are happy to do a discounted price or have two product for the price of one. One of the products could be an upcoming box. You will also receive a feedback report 45 days after the box goes out, which includes posted feedback from our customers and obviously the promotions we post of our Facebook page”

So here is what they want.

• 500 boxes of chocolates for FREE
• Us to pay them a further $0.99 per product for the privilege of giving them free product.

I wasn’t sure I had read it right, so I asked them if I was reading it correctly. This is the reply:

“Correct the brand pays 99c per product distributed and supplies product for 500 boxes.”

And they then SELL this to their customers who pay a monthly subscription. For profit. Not charity.

In my opinion, this is pure GREED. Expecting manufacturers to give 500 free boxes AND pay a further 99c per unit fee, is one thing. Selling these free products for the purpose of making profit is, I think, reprehensible (my big word of the day). So we pay twice – once for the cost of the ‘free’ product, and then an additional ‘fee’ on top of this. Justifying this parasitic greed is the promise to connect us with avid foodies. Sounds lovely in theory, but realistically, there are much easier and cheaper ways to connect with genuine foodies. Most avid foodies want to support small artisan/boutique manufacturers. I doubt they would want to support a business that makes its money from FREE product AND a fee from these manufacturers, without paying them a cent in return. There are many ways to make a profit, but this does not seem ethical or fair to me. At the very least, it is one of the worst value propositions I have been presented in my entire business career.

Their ‘avid foodie’ base is also doubtful – they admit they ascertained their ‘demographic’ from their facebook page, from which they use free giveaway promotions to lure people into liking. Of course, they don’t pay for the giveways either…that comes from the manufacturer for FREE again – I wonder if they even give away that many? Doesn’t seem like it based on the giveaways already established on their page. Wonder what they do with the remainder…Here is what they asked word for word:

“We would need 8 units of 2 of your products so we can introduce your brand to our customers. We will take a photo of the product, create a post and link the post to your Facebook page. : ) “

This business reminds me of a leech – it survives by sucking the blood of other businesses. Because of this, Foodiebox is one business I will boycott. Business is hard enough already. I don’t have time or patience for this type of business. I hope other food manufacturers boycott them too.

What do you think about this? Let me know in the comments section.