Steve A.
Yelp
My mother was recovering from hip replacement surgery when Xmas 2012, in Berea KY, rolled around so we decided to order a holiday ham dinner from Meijer's for $49.95. The adequate components were the ham (it was ham, seemed cooked, and was spiral-sliced ... albeit watery and flavorless) and the mashed potatoes (easily made into something edible). But the "green bean casserole" was inedible, flavorless, soupy slop. Grey-brown goo with french cut green beans (which might have been edible by themselves, but who could tell?). And the "turkey gravy" wasn't far behind ... utterly flavorless and downright nasty! The only praiseworthy component was the pint of cranberry-orange relish, which we enjoyed long after the Xmas meal. We managed to salvage holiday meal by making our own green bean casserole (from frozen green beans, condensed mushroom soup, and self-battered/fried yellow onion topping) with and a jar of beef gravy (mixed with pan drippings from a recently roasted chicken) ... which should suggest our level of desperation upon tasting Meijer's offerings.
We've learned our lesson and hope to help others avoid such a waste of money. We have been convinced to avoid these package deals and to cook meals ourselves. We encourage Meijer's management (love your produce section!) to offer tastings of their holiday dinner components before purchase and for customers to insist upon such tastings.
One final note: both Kroger's and Meijer's offers holiday meals. We chose Meijer's because of a somewhat abrupt/rude person behind Kroger's deli counter. Both chains offer these holiday meal kits and both are inflexible about the components of the meals (no one in my family likes pumpkin pie, Kroger's). Both would be well-advised to afford some choice in side dishes, although we are unlikely to avail ourselves of their holiday offerings again (without some serious marketing efforts {grin} ... these holiday kits could be a great boon and widely sold, but not as implemented in our experience.)
Best wishes to all!
