Saving Money

Review of Zaycon Fresh – Farm To Table Food Delivery

If you’re a fan of the savings one can get buying bulk at club stores like Sam’s Club and Costco, you might want to check out Zaycon Fresh.

What is Zaycon Fresh?

Zaycon Fresh is a privately owned company based in Spokane, Washington that believes in providing quality meats to customers at a great price by cutting out the middleman. They currently service over 1200 locations throughout the United States, with over a dozen different products available for purchase including chicken breasts, salmon, and steaks.

How Does Zaycon Fresh Work?

Customers create an account on their website. Information is saved for ease of ordering and searching for products and delivery events. It also enables Zaycon Fresh to sales alerts, info on new products, as well as available coupon codes.

Customers can then search for events in the area, which will list the date, location, and products available for that particular delivery (not all products are available for each delivery event).

Once a product is purchased, which are all sold by the case, customers wait for the delivery event date. The delivery events are usually once or twice a month. Zaycon Fresh sends plenty of reminders via e-mail and text message.

The delivery events are fairly short, 30 minutes in length. Customers drive up next to a Zaycon Fresh truck, give the last name on the invoice, and the order is placed in the customer’s vehicle.

My Zaycon Fresh Experience

Registering with the Zaycon Fresh website was fast and easy. Almost immediately I started receiving emails advertising sales and coupon codes.

I was a little skeptical when I began searching for a delivery event as I wasn’t sure how far I would have to drive to pick up an order. I was pleasantly surprised to find delivery events occur regularly in a church parking lot just a few miles from my home.

As previously mentioned, delivery events at a specific location occur every couple of weeks and not all products are available each event. I was interested in the chicken tenderloins and had to wait about 3 weeks to get my product.

As the delivery event date approached, I received regular emails and text messages reminding me I was scheduled to pick up my order. I found this extremely useful as after a few weeks it had slipped my mind.

On the day of the delivery, I drove to the church parking lot to find a Zaycon Fresh tractor trailer sitting in the middle of the parking lot, with an approach lane marked off by traffic cones. There was a short line of a few cars, so I pulled into the back of the line. After a short wait, it was my turn. I opened my window and gave the person manning the truck my last name. He found my order, opened the refrigerated trailer and pulled out a box of chicken tenderloins. He put the box in my van through the open side door in my direction, and I drove off. The whole process taking just a few minutes.

Once I got home, I opened my box of chicken tenderloins to find my order was actually 10 three pound bags of tenderloins. This made storing my product much easier than having one big awkward box to put into my chest freezer.

Zaycon Fresh Price Comparison

Prices fluctuate over time, so I’m just going to do the price comparison of two of the products, chicken tenderloins, and chicken breasts, as a representation of how Zaycon Fresh products stack up against grocery store prices. If you are considering ordering from Zaycon Fresh, you should do a price comparison of the current costs from both Zaycon Fresh and your local grocery or club store to ensure it’s in your best interest to order from Zaycon Fresh.

I would recommend that you sign up to get emails from Zaycon Fresh and to look for sales or coupon codes to save money. In the price comparison below, I will include the price of the cheapest similar product I could find at Walmart, the regular price from Zaycon Fresh, as well as any currently active sale price.

Chicken Tenderloins (30-pound case):

• Zaycon Fresh Regular price: $3.19 / pound
• Walmart Regular Price: $2.46 / pound
• Zaycon Fresh With 22% coupon code: $2.49 / pound

Chicken Breasts (40-pound case);

• Zaycon Fresh Regular Price: $1.89 / pound
• Walmart Regular Price: $1.98 / pound
• Zaycon Fresh Flash Sale: $1.48 / pound

My two illustrations show why price comparison is necessary before purchasing anything.  The Zaycon Fresh price for chicken tenderloin is actually more expensive per pound than a similar frozen product from Walmart.  Even with a 22% coupon code, I received in an email it is still more expensive (although barely).  However, the chicken breast product is a different story.  The Zaycon Fresh regular price is slightly less expensive, but purchasing chicken breasts during a flash sale produces significant savings. The $0.50 per pound savings on chicken breasts means a $20 savings on 40 pounds of product.

Quality of Zaycon Fresh Products

I made a couple of meals with my Zaycon Fresh chicken tenderloins, and, well, it was chicken. It wasn’t any better or worse than any other chicken tenderloins I’ve purchased anywhere else. I purchased the chicken tenderloins as a versatile product I could use in Asian entrees, pasta entrees, salads and even sandwiches. It worked well for all of these uses.

Final Analysis

What I Didn’t Like

• Constant (daily) emails
• Large amount of product
• Waiting period between delivery events
• Not All products are available at every delivery event

What I Liked

• Variety of products
• Product sub-packaged into smaller bags
• Saving Money!!!

When it all comes down to it, the point is to get great products and save money by cutting out the middleman. With that in mind, Zaycon Fresh delivers on its goals at least on some of their products. While you do have to purchase an enormous amount of product at a time, if you have the room for it, do the proper price comparisons, and you are willing to plan ahead a little to replenish your supply before you run out, Zaycon Fresh has the potential to save you some money.

How about you, Clever Friends, have you heard of or ordered from Zaycon Fresh? What are your thoughts?

Brock Kernin

Brock is a software engineer by day and personal finance blogger at night. He is a fitness junkie and enjoys grilling and smoking meat. Married with two children,  Brock strives to improve his skills as a husband and father, and is always on the lookout to stretch his family’s budget as far as he can.