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wrote:

> Seriously, what_ is_ the draw of Penzey's? I'm asking out of
> curiousity. I've been there, but I want to understand what pulls
> people in to pay the premium.

I think it is just people's first experience with reasonably fresh
spices, so they are infatuated with the place. It becomes a shared
experience and sort of a "fan club" develops.

I ordered a bunch of stuff from Penzey's a couple of years ago. The
quality was good but the prices too high for me. But it did turn me on
to fresh-ground pepper, dried mint, and a few other things. Now I buy
Malibar black pepper at Sam's, and I haven't used up all the dried mint
from that first Penzey's order yet.

I won't order from them again because of the price, but if there was a
Penzey's locally, I might buy a few things there, like *really* good
cinnamon, etc. Generally I buy spices at ethnic markets (except for the
previously mentioned black pepper that I use a lot of.) I'm gonna try
ordering some dried peppers from myspicer.com and see how that goes.

BTW, Sheldon used to rave about Penzey's (but less than some folks) but
recently he reported getting a shipment of poor quality stuff that he
described as floor sweepings. Boutique stores selling at premium prices
don't get to make mistakes like that.

Best regards,
Bob