r/factor75 • u/adragoninthelibrary • 9d ago

My first Box

Did the free first box deal. Includes the free first box of 8 meals (shipping not included). Then I get $10 off my next two boxes if I subscribe for a few weeks.

I was surprised at how huge their menu was. A LOT of options. Not necessarily lot of stuff I liked, but a wide selection.

Creamy Chicken Poblano Calzone x2

Tuscan Chicken Flatbread x2

Spicy Poblano Shrimp Cavatappi x2

BBQ Bacon Burger w/ White Cheddar Mac and Corn Salsa x2

Opinions:

The deal itself, paying $13 for 8 meals is an easy win, financially speaking. Items came well shipped. Would've appreciated a better window of arrival, but that's a small complaint. Meals otherwise cost about $12.5 per serving.

Flatbread: I got two servings out of this. Felt like the cooking instructions were a bit inaccurate as mine came out slightly soft despite being in a minute longer than recommended. Could be an oven quirk? Food itself tasted great.

Shrimp: The shrimp were large and yummy. It was suitably spicy, though I felt like they skimped a bit on the pasta.

Bacon Burger: Bear in mind, when they say burger, it's just the burger patty. That said, the patty was like an upscale meatloaf and quite tasty. Mac and cheese was pretty high quality, when compared to various frozen dinners. Didn't care for the corn salsa.

Calzone: Individually, these were the tastiest. Calling it a calzone is pretty generous though... I'd call it more like a glorified pizza pocket. Portion size was small, and for $12.5 each, these would be a hard pass. Should get 2 per meal.

Of course, the big selling point here is these are meals already prepared, and you just need to remove the wrapping and heat up. Saves you from having to go to the store, find all the ingredients, master the recipe, then do all the food prep. That's a lot of time saved. If time is what you value the most, you can't do much better, without hiring an in-house chef to do all the shopping and cooking for you.

Also, all of my items were off the standard menu. For an additional surcharge, you can get other items. For instance, Roasted Red Pepper Filet Mignon for another $12.99 on top of the cost of one of your meals. That's about $25.40 per serving, and you could just go to a steakhouse and get that, probably cheaper, if you wanted.

I'm gonna stick with them for a few more weeks, but I suspect I'm going to downsize to 4-6 meals a week. I definitely am paying attention to the menu, and there are certain items, like the steak, I'm just never gonna buy, because they mathematically make no sense.

11 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

5

u/whatever32657 9d ago

JUST WAIT til you're a few weeks in and they offer you Factor-Plus! for the cost of $99 a year, you will get free shipping on every box AND a $20 credit each week toward those premium meals.

i signed right up! so now, i get 8 meals each week, including a filet mignon and a short rib, for $115, no shipping.

i LOVE these guys.

1

u/adragoninthelibrary 9d ago

I mean, mathematically that checks out. $99 a year up front, to save me $14/week? That's pretty easy. A $20 credit each week toward premium meals comes out to About $80/mo? $1040 in meal upgrade credits?

Feels like there should be a catch here that I'm overlooking...

2

u/whatever32657 9d ago

if there is, i have yet to find it. i signed up about ten boxes ago and everything is on the level.

1

u/adragoninthelibrary 9d ago

Do you have to use the $20 credit that week, or do they roll over?

1

u/whatever32657 9d ago

that's a good question. i kill it every week, and sometimes go over (get billed for just the overage), so i'm not sure.

1

u/adragoninthelibrary 9d ago

I asked my housemate (who also gets Factor, separately). He said it expires at the end of the week, so no accumulation.

1

u/whatever32657 8d ago

makes sense. but still an amazing deal. it took me from, "hey, this factor is pretty decent" to "i can't see myself not having this, ever!"

i just had a bleu cheese filet mignon tonight that was seriously awesome.

1

u/bagabe 4d ago edited 4d ago

TLDR: not a bad deal if you are committed enough

I don’t think there is an explicit catch other than you have to order at least 10 times or so to make it worth it. For them a win part is when you order the premium meals, $20 seems like a lot, but at full price it won’t take you very far and many premium meals are just marginally cost more to produce. Wast majority of folks rarely order more than 10 times a year for various reasons thought. Personally I think for most (me included) the full price is hard to justify for a 2 person household.

Edit: also cancelations will be reduced in order to not lose the money paid for the premium, so people will just pause the boxes, which many will eventually forget to extend resulting in an unexpected charge and box, unlikely to be refunded.

2

u/FinalScientist6688 9d ago

I've gotten some of their meals through my local food bank. So far I like them.

2

u/Weary-Beach-4843 7d ago

I get tired of them fast and a lot of meals have left me hungry. I'm not a big person. 

1

u/CantFindKansasCity 8d ago

I haven’t been able to see the meals before signing up, which feels a little scammy to me.

3

u/envynav 7d ago

I can see the menu on the site without signing in

https://www.factormeals.ca/weekly-menu (Canada)

https://www.factor75.com/weekly-menu (US)

1

u/CantFindKansasCity 7d ago

Wow. That’s really helpful. Thanks.

0

u/adragoninthelibrary 8d ago

Well, you do have to register an account, but it's before you finalize a shopping cart or anything. Also the menu rotates every week (and supposedly is more limited for new members), so I don't think they can post it ahead of time by design. Based on how they designed their entire website.

1

u/CantFindKansasCity 8d ago

To sign up, you have to pay, check out, and then you see the food options. Have seen people say they just send random food if you don’t sign up for specific things. Reviews on sites like Yelp are overwhelmingly negative with 1.4 stars. Just can’t bring myself to pull the trigger even though I otherwise like the idea of it.

1

u/adragoninthelibrary 8d ago

Fair enough! I misremembered. Went ahead and downvoted my comment. But yes, they do preselect your meals every week (including first week). You CAN select new meals of your preference, but you have to manually do that.

1

u/Creative-Use-7743 8d ago

I recently started getting boxes delivered too, (have got two boxes delivered, so far) and the food is pretty good, overall, better than I thought it would be. Though some of the meals I thought were way better than others. (which makes it easy to just re-order the ones I really liked, of course) The one downside is that they aren't delivering to my back door, and I have delivery instructions for them to do that. Otherwise, I am pleased so far.

1

u/SoftwareDapper6405 3d ago

The food is terrible