Wine Country Gift Baskets

Full review
This holiday season, I am striving to make purchases from new places- not just new retail stores in my area but also new web sites. I started making purchases for the Christmas holiday a few weeks ago and I have already made a couple of on- line purchases through new stores. One of my new experiences is WineCountryGiftBaskets.com, an on- line store that sells gift baskets loaded with food, drink, and other gifts.

What Does This Service Offer?

Wine Country Gift Baskets offers merchandise such as:

Wine Baskets- Yes, you guessed correctly- this web site sells wine gift baskets. They vary greatly, with different wine quality levels, different numbers of bottles, and different snack items in each basket.

Gourmet Food Gift Baskets- These gift baskets feature food only, minus the wine.

Event Gift Baskets- Included here are themed gift baskets for birthdays, get well, congratulations, new baby, romance, and sympathy.

Other Gift Baskets- Some of the other gift basket themes include tea and coffee, Starbucks, chocolate, spa, etc.

Besides gift baskets, Wine Country Gift Baskets on- line also offers gift towers. These also offer various themes but instead of a basket, they feature a stacked tower of snack items, wrapped in small gift boxes.

Shipping Methods/Payments:

Wine Country Gift Baskets offers Fed Ex for shipping with five different shipping levels: Standard (5 day or longer), 3- day, 2- day, Overnight, and Saturday. Shipping charges are computed on a per- item basis and depending on the method selected, will add anywhere from $6 to $35 per item to your total cost. Customers also have the option to select delivery on a specific date.

For payment, Wine Country Gift Baskets accepts Visa, Master Card, American Express, Discover, and Diners Club. Plus, the site accepts money orders and personal checks. They will even establish an invoice account for you provided your order is $1,500 or greater. One word of caution: If you order wine, remember that there are still some states that do not allow shipment of wine through the mail. More states are joining the list of those that allow wine shipments and this site includes a map that indicates which ones do and which ones don’t. It is better to check first to make sure your selected state accepts shipment before making up your mind and discovering that you cannot ship the wine to your desired destination.

Final Thoughts:

Wine Country Gift Baskets is a new on- line shopping experience for me and it ranks as one of the few web sites that I discovered not through the internet, but through a catalog. I did not request a catalog, so I am not sure how I made my way onto Wine Country Gift Baskets’ mailing list. I was sorting through the tons of mail I receive each day, tossing out all the junk, when a catalog caught my eye. It was Wine Country Gift Baskets, and I quickly opened up the catalog to see what it had to offer.

The presentation in the magazine and the prices looked very good, so I decided that Wine Country Gift Baskets would become part of my holiday shopping season. I logged into the internet to learn more and my first impressions of the web site were very positive. The different basket types are organized down the left hand side of the home page and each category contains several baskets. Some contain more than seventy selections, so there is no problem finding a basket to suit your desires. The presentation is top- notch, and it encourages the consumer to take a closer look.

Wine Country Gift Baskets naturally offers gift baskets that include wine, but if wine isn’t on your gift list, never fear- there are plenty of other gift options available in this site. In fact, the majority of the baskets offered in this site do not have any wine at all. The merchant wisely realized that business would be limited if every basket included wine, so the product offering was expanded to include more options. Many of the gift baskets include an assortment of food and snack items sure to please the recipient. If you know someone who likes tea, coffee, chocolate, etc., there is a themed basket to match. There is even a special section that includes discounted baskets; one that includes baskets offered with free shipping; and one that includes expensive, premium wine, for gourmet tastes.

Besides the different baskets offered, there is one other surprise with Wine Country Gift Baskets: The baskets themselves. This on- line web site considers the basket just as important as the snacks and wine, and special care is taken to offer a basket that matches up with the theme. There are wicker baskets, tin baskets, leather baskets, etc. The baskets are better quality than the ones commonly purchased at discount stores. These baskets are built to last, and many people will want to keep their basket and find other uses for it.

Shipping with Wine Country Gift Baskets is good, and I received my order one day after the promised date. The ordering process, however, could stand to be improved. Once you have established an account, you are ready to logon and shop whenever you like. However, having an account doesn’t shorten the buying process because each time you select something to buy, you will be asked to enter the recipients name, address, and phone number- even if you are the recipient. This is annoying to the customer. At the least, there should be a box to click that says “ship to my home address” or something like that. This would save time and encourage more people to buy, since the process would be so simple. The site does redeem itself in this respect on one way: It remembers the shipping addresses of other recipients, making it faster to purchase a gift in the future. There is also the option to include a message for your recipient, with up to five lines of text. Wine Country Gift Baskets even offers a spell check feature, to make sure you don’t make any typos.

Overall, I am happy with Wine Country Gift Baskets on- line and I plan to revisit in the future. The presentation of the baskets in the site, the presentation of the baskets when shipped, and the quality of the snacks are substantially better than average. It makes a good choice for shopping when you’re struggling to find the right gift for someone and want a present that most anyone will enjoy.