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I purchased a Shari’s Berries voucher from LivingSocial late last year and had not used it yet, so last week, I decided to use it on myself. I will work on a longer post about the shopping experience later, but today I wanted to focus on the packaging and presentation of my berries.
The total for my 12 strawberries was $44.97, which included shipping.
The box is large for what is inside, but that makes more sense when you see the inside.
I am really into the box branding.
Here’s another side of the box.
This side is my favorite. I do have an issue with the social callouts though – I like the hashtag, that’s fun, but there’s no indication of the username for all of the social channels, which is less helpful. Sure, I will assume its sharisberries, but I think adding that would make it that much easier for someone to tag the brand in an Instagram post or tweet.
You find out quickly that they aren’t kidding about the packing on their product.
The next layer is a piece of cardboard with an ice pack on top. This is where the later trouble comes in, I think.
However, I have to give props for the branded ice pack. I think Shari’s Berries probably benefits from shipping what I assume is only a few sizes of berry boxes, so they are able to invest in heavily branded packaging.
Under the box are some messages from the brand family, and berry instructions.
The actual berry box is lovely, with an elastic band to keep everything closed.
Not pictured is the wrapped foam layer that lies on top of the berries in the box. However, even with that, you can see that I received berries that had obviously been through some stress. The box insert was bent in the center (you can see the crease), and some of the berries were a bit overturned. In addition, there were nuts and mini chocolate chips scattered throughout the box (although that seems like it would be almost impossible to avoid, so that gets a pass).
I will say though, that they do not look like these from the Shari’s Berries homepage:
I am not one to complain about there being too much chocolate, but I have to point out that there’s a definite difference between the presentation on the website and what I received.
In terms of the issues with my box, I’m not sure what happened there. It is obvious that Shari’s Berries has put thought and money into their packaging, but my box was a bit jacked.
There was a lot of open space in the ice pack portion of the box, I wonder if that heavy ice pack was flying around in transit? They did come all the way across the country.
The Shari’s Berries did completely deliver for me on taste, but I would be slightly concerned about using their service for a gift, because I was not super impressed with the state of my berries when they arrived.
Have you ordered from Shari’s Berries? What was your experience? Please share in the comments.
UPDATE: Shari’s Berries responded to this first post, and part 2 of this brand experience project can be found here.
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Thanks to 
Ooh, this wood grain one is so chic. 
I have to post the deer one, naturally. 
This is cute, even though it does look to me like one of those pictures to test color-blindness. 
I could put something in here, close it up, label it and I’m done! 
For tinier gifts, themed takeout containers are perfect. I also love that boxes like this can be re-used. 
If you want everything to match, you can get that at The Container Store. 
I love the idea of that wood grain wrapping with a cute little sticker featuring some of our arctic friends. 
I can’t find it online but you can pick it up in the grocery store for a few dollars. You open this up, slice into little discs, add sprinkles and whatnot and then bake. They are quite delicious and since you do add a bit of yourself into the process, they let you cheat in the best way.
Track Your Holiday Gift Spending
by Jamie Sanford on November 10, 2011
Let’s get into some holiday preparation ideas for the holidays! I am going to revisit some of my gift-giving tips soon, but in the meantime, I wanted to share the spreadsheet that I use for tracking all of my gift purchases. If you are like me and try to buy holiday gifts all year, the tracker is the best way to remind yourself that you already bought a gift for Cousin Sally, back in February.
So, here we go.
In addition, defining an absolute budget will help you stick it it. One of the biggest problems with early shopping is that there is a possibility that you will find something else for someone after you’ve spent your budget. If you can return something you have already bought, then fine. If you can’t, then you need to remember the item and go back for it in the next calendar year.
I would love to hear if anyone ends up using my little creation to track their holiday gifting and spending, but mostly, it is designed to use all year, for birthdays, anniversaries, baby gifts, Hanukkah and whatever other gift-giving happenings are in your life.
Track your holiday gift spending here with the spreadsheet in Google Docs.
Good luck!
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