Schwans

[vtfireman85]

Does anyone use them? They have an online app and you can place an order and it gets delivered. Is there a big sales pitch? Decent quality stuff? Anything else to know? 
my mother in law is at a stage where cooking has become difficult and not much fun for her, and she doesn’t like anything my FIL prepares. 
they don’t seem to do gift cards but I thought of just getting her a sampler to start with and then setting her up with the app to order. They are part time here and part time in GA so I assume that could be delivered there as easily? Input welcomed 

 

[searcyfarms]

2 minutes ago, vtfireman85 said:

Does anyone use them? They have an online app and you can place an order and it gets delivered. Is there a big sales pitch? Decent quality stuff? Anything else to know? 
my mother in law is at a stage where cooking has become difficult and not much fun for her, and she doesn’t like anything my FIL prepares. 
they don’t seem to do gift cards but I thought of just getting her a sampler to start with and then setting her up with the app to order. They are part time here and part time in GA so I assume that could be delivered there as easily? Input welcomed 

 

my grandparents and inlaws used to but they are too danged expensive - when I cant squeeze a chicken and crack n egg its gonna be a sad day for me - sorry about your MIL, can she run a  microwave or heat up leftovers, possibly cook a pizza or what kind of stuff does she prefer that she makes or would pick that is already prepared ? 

 

just trying to see if there was something she could purchase that your FIL could heat up for her or if she only will eat home cooked food ? 

[vtfireman85]

8 minutes ago, searcyfarms said:

my grandparents and inlaws used to but they are too danged expensive - when I cant squeeze a chicken and crack n egg its gonna be a sad day for me - sorry about your MIL, can she run a  microwave or heat up leftovers, possibly cook a pizza or what kind of stuff does she prefer that she makes or would pick that is already prepared ? 

 

just trying to see if there was something she could purchase that your FIL could heat up for her or if she only will eat home cooked food ? 

At this point it is an ambition thing, shes kinda got the time she has left, good days and bad, he is a pasta and red sauce/ ham and American cheese kinda guy and she was always a gourmet cook says she just doesn’t have it in her anymore and is looking for heat and eat options. I understand Schwann probably doesn’t have healthy going for a lot of pre made food, but i don’t think that will be a big issue for her. Just looking for some options that might just help her enjoy something she has always gotten a lot of pleasure from. 
i looked at the meal delivery things but they all seem to be stuff to prepare for people who have never known how to cook, with her it is the other way around 

[Big Bud guy]

I didn’t know they were still in business.  They used to be popular but then got bought out and the new owners ended truck deliveries and that pretty much ended them.  I liked their ice cream products but not much else from them. 

[searcyfarms]

6 minutes ago, Big Bud guy said:

I didn’t know they were still in business.  They used to be popular but then got bought out and the new owners ended truck deliveries and that pretty much ended them.  I liked their ice cream products but not much else from them. 

they are still around, they are based in marshall, MN, i used to work on their mailing equipment when i was a field engineer for pitney bowes, too my cooler with me and the mail room folks kept me fed with busted cartons of whatever some forklift driver smashed they couldnt sell, its good food, never had anything from them i really didnt like the tasted of just pretty spendy for my cheap pnut butter upbringing

[TractormanMike.mb]

I still see their trucks running around here. Their stuff is supposed to be of superior quality but it comes at a cost. They stopped in by us a couple years ago and dropped off a flyer. My wife bought some ice cream bars because it was a hot summer day and figured it would be a nice gesture since the driver took the time to come back to our place, we live at the end of a dead end road. 

[dale560]

Pretty much the same thing years ago. Mom and dad would get the big tin of vanilla ice cream and a couple frozen pizzas. Later on a pack of sundae cone and sandwiches and a plastic pail of ice cream. It was always very good. Except the pizzas were greasy. I think a couple times they bought that juice but that was bad.

[searcyfarms]

useless information, most of their trucks ran may still run on propane

the ice chests on the back ARE NOT chilled or ran during the day - there is no refrigeration unit on the truck they plug the truck in at night and there are steel bars in the truck that are frozen down to over -50 and the bar keep the units cold ALL DAY, how crazy is that 

[Big Bud guy]

8 minutes ago, searcyfarms said:

useless information, most of their trucks ran may still run on propane

the ice chests on the back ARE NOT chilled or ran during the day - there is no refrigeration unit on the truck they plug the truck in at night and there are steel bars in the truck that are frozen down to over -50 and the bar keep the units cold ALL DAY, how crazy is that 

I’ll give some more useless information.  Like I said earlier, they quit truck deliveries.  Last I knew, if you wanted something from Schawns, you ordered online and the stuff was delivered in a cooler by UPS.  

[Lazy WP]

They own Tonys pizza. Plants in Marshal Mn, and Salina Ks. They got in some trouble with the DOT for logbook violations and shut the delivery down. Used to track us down in the pastures!! Quality is excellent! Price is outrageous!! Now you have to pay for shipping. 

[sandhiller]

I remember them since early childhood. 

Dad was an icecreamaholic

Always bought those big yellow cans (seemed like 5 gallon) of Vanilla ice cream. 

Later on when I had my own family the big yellow truck would make it clear out to the ranch 11 miles of bad road out to the ranch

I thought all the products was good quality although very expensive. 

When the boys started getting bigger I had to wean us off of them, just couldn't afford them. 

I just mentioned it to the missus and come to find out she is still mad at me for banning them from our house😄

She says the reason they don't home deliver any more is cuz we quit buying from them🙄

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

1 hour ago, vtfireman85 said:

Does anyone use them? They have an online app and you can place an order and it gets delivered. Is there a big sales pitch? Decent quality stuff? Anything else to know? 
my mother in law is at a stage where cooking has become difficult and not much fun for her, and she doesn’t like anything my FIL prepares. 
they don’t seem to do gift cards but I thought of just getting her a sampler to start with and then setting her up with the app to order. They are part time here and part time in GA so I assume that could be delivered there as easily? Input welcomed 

 

I've been getting Schwan's off & on for almost 25 years. Great food, great service!!! This last year or so, the quality has gone down, the prices have gone up & since everyone & their uncle is ordering from them, food can be scarce. Their product also tends to disappear for a while when they need to change up/out the product. Case in point, the chocolate marshmallow ripple ice cream disappeared for almost a year, to get replaced by chocolate marshmallow. It's a not-very-chocolate ice cream with mini marshmallows & tastes downright bad. Had the worst reviews of anything I had seen on the site (2.1 ⭐). Think it might have been on the site for 3 or 4 months. They also discontinued the rocky road ice cream cones at the same time as the good chocolate ripple ice cream. The sausage, egg and cheese croissant sandwiches vanished for a while before coming back a bit smaller with a greasy, half cooked sausage patty. Tried frying the patty once & ended up with a brown half-dollar sized "patty" when it was done. The ham & cheese omelets disappeared for a while, to come back smaller & $6 more per box of 6. Don't bother with the holiday spiral cut ham. It doesn't taste bad.... it just doesn't taste like much & certainly nothing to write home about. The bacon & cheese egg patties are the same, flavorless waste of money. The General Tso's chicken is very good, as well as the Mandarin orange chicken & the chicken cashew. The southern style biscuit dough is excellent & those biscuits are the foundation of my B&G with hybrid red eye/sawmill gravy. The dinner rolls are great, too! Most of the pizzas are surprisingly good. The breakfast deep dish one is danged good! The shrimp offerings are a bit pricey, but very good for what it is. Mom gave the Alaskan salmon fillets a good review, but those are pricey as well. That was as of a couple years ago when she was still with us. Would hate to see what they charge now. They have.... or at least had some type of cheesecake bites that were very good! The plain cheesecake is also very good & we used to put huckleberry preserves on it. Made it 100x better yet!! The apple berry blossoms are fairly new & really good. The key lime pie is to die for.... or from if you eat the whole thing. The crinkle cut fries are also very good & the only thing that comes out of an air fryer that tastes any good. Their summer sausage is so-so. The bacon sucks. The hotdogs suck. The Angus burgers suck. A lot of their meat offerings suck, really. Just stick to your local deli for that stuff. If they still have the ancient grain breaded cod fillets, those are very good!! At any rate, I could rattle on all night about their products past & present. I will say there hasn't been a delivery here in a couple months. It's a bit too expensive, the new route driver is a pleb & a robot & they were bought out by a bloody South Korean holding company & will be rebranding themselves by  the 1st of the year. I say p!ss on them, personally. But.... it's your money, spend it how you want. Oh, as with all delivery related stuff, the route drivers are hit 'n' miss. I lucked out with 2 very awesome drivers for most of the time I've  done business with them. The newer district sales manager is a good ****, too. He did a few ride alongs with the second-to-last "new" driver on my route. Became enamored with my dog & was somewhat shocked when I told him the boxes of omelets in the order were for him. The manager ended up emailing me a 15% off my next order code & said to make sure to order the dog an extra box of omelets. Just remember the fact that Schwan's is going downhill with the rest of the world. So, don't expect much. However, they have quite the broad menu & it may benefit your mom to get meals going that route. YMMV Yadda, yadda....

Mike

[Farmall1066]

Grew up with a lot off the Schwanns truck. My wife and I bought quite a bit from them the last 10-12 years, but not so much anymore.  Our current driver is awesome, she spills the beans a lot on in inners of Schwanns!! Some good, some not so good tellings!!  I believe they are now owned by a Chinese company, their quality keeps sliding, while the price keeps climbing.  We haven’t bought from them for a little over a month now.  
 

[iowaboy1965]

As far as I know they still deliver here. Driver would put stuff in the fridge/freezer in kids garage in town if door was open. Other wise they will leave order on front door I an insulated bag. We used to get their chicken breasts all the time. Very tender and tasty. Wife still has a few things dropped off at kids house. Not sure what any more but a few things. Always used to be good quality stuff but expensive as others have said. If quality has slid its been recent. I didn't know they were bought out. Sad.

[MTB98]

50 minutes ago, Farmall1066 said:

I believe they are now owned by a Chinese company,

Not Chinese but South Korean.  The Schwan family still operates the home delivery business  

“In February 2019, the company announced it had completed the sale of 80% of the privately-held company's stock to CJ CheilJedang of South Korea, effectively ending the Schwan family's control of the company. Schwan's will operate as a subsidiary of CJ, but the family will continue to control 100% of the operations of the Schwan's Home Delivery Service.^[5] In March 2022, Schwan's Home Delivery announced that it was rebranding as Yelloh, a reference to the color of its trucks.”

[IH Forever]

7 hours ago, Big Bud guy said:

I’ll give some more useless information.  Like I said earlier, they quit truck deliveries.  Last I knew, if you wanted something from Schawns, you ordered online and the stuff was delivered in a cooler by UPS.  

Maybe in your area but they have not completely quit truck deliveries.  They are still running around and stop at my employer about every 2 weeks.  They really push you to preorder online so they can stock the truck accordingly, but you can still just order off the truck when they stop as long as they have what you want.

Quality is very good, just comes at a price as others have said.

[1480x3]

Bought from them since the 70s till they went to online order only, if i see the truck at my neighbors & ask to buy a box of ice cream sandwiches he cant sell them to me. For years we filled out a form in case we were in the field & left it and cash on the kitchen counter, when we came in the house there was change on the counter & product in the fridge. Every other thur IIRC

[bcsmta]

We still get home delivery  stops every 2-4 weeks free delivery on $50 orders. My wife is diabetic and they do have     Healthy frozen dinners and small portions of meats. Pizzas are little speady but cheaper then a Casey pizza.

[hardtail]

8 hours ago, sandhiller said:

I remember them since early childhood. 

Dad was an icecreamaholic

Always bought those big yellow cans (seemed like 5 gallon) of Vanilla ice cream. 

Later on when I had my own family the big yellow truck would make it clear out to the ranch 11 miles of bad road out to the ranch

I thought all the products was good quality although very expensive. 

When the boys started getting bigger I had to wean us off of them, just couldn't afford them. 

I just mentioned it to the missus and come to find out she is still mad at me for banning them from our house😄

She says the reason they don't home deliver any more is cuz we quit buying from them🙄

 

Careful trapped at home in a storm with the misses, these things can derail instantly 

[Diesel Doctor]

Excellent quality on most stuff but spendy.

The Gold Rush Bars are to die for.

They used to have fresh peach ice cream, seasonal, but that is no more.

Dang, that was good.

[stronger800]

Truck stops here once a month, in NY.  It’s all good stuff.  If not home, we leave a note, and they put it in the garage freezer.   Tried to figure out how to order online.,,but I couldn’t 

[Jesse in WI]

31 minutes ago, Diesel Doctor said:

The Gold Rush Bars are to die for.

When I was much younger (in the mid 90s) my grandparents would get the Gold Rush Bars delivered. Nothing was better after supper in the middle of summer. 

Thanks for reminding me of the summer vacation days.

[nepoweshiekfarmalls]

Stops at my work and stocks the freezer every 2 weeks.  Bennie loves ice cream!

Love the golden nugget bars.

[EquipmentJunkie]

What A Crock Meals advertises on a radio station I frequent.  https://www.whatacrockmeals.com/  I decided to try them for a change when I wanted something more gourmet.  The food was excellent quality, instructions were easy to follow, and their portions were generous.  The price was strong, but I expected that.  It might be nice to keep them in your back pocket to supplement more generic meals elsewhere.  They are based in the greater-Philadelphia area but ship most anywhere.

[Steve C.]

1 hour ago, Diesel Doctor said:

They used to have fresh peach ice cream, seasonal, but that is no more.

Dang, that was good.

That was my favorite.  Had chunks of real peaches in it.

They used to have outstanding pot pies, too.  We used to get some stuff from them when we were on the farm, but that was almost forty years ago.

Still see a truck around here once in a while.