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  • Post #91 - December 26th, 2022, 8:25 pm
    Post #91 - December 26th, 2022, 8:25 pm Post #91 - December 26th, 2022, 8:25 pm
    Darren72 wrote:By law, bonuses are taxable. It isn’t up to your employer.

    Yep. You beat me to it.

    =R=
    Same planet, different world
  • Post #92 - December 26th, 2022, 8:37 pm
    Post #92 - December 26th, 2022, 8:37 pm Post #92 - December 26th, 2022, 8:37 pm
    If by new owner, you mean the current owners, no love for them here either. The cleanliness issue seems sort of typical for the small food processing industry, though. And the current owners make a show of hygiene with having all products prepacked vs how it was when Erds owned the store. Anyway, thanks for coming clean on the story.
  • Post #93 - December 26th, 2022, 8:55 pm
    Post #93 - December 26th, 2022, 8:55 pm Post #93 - December 26th, 2022, 8:55 pm
    tjr wrote:If by new owner, you mean the current owners, no love for them here either. The cleanliness issue seems sort of typical for the small food processing industry, though. And the current owners make a show of hygiene with having all products prepacked vs how it was when Erds owned the store. Anyway, thanks for coming clean on the story.


    Yes. After Tom Erd & his wife, some wealthy bonehead took over. Others blending spices you have consumed probably with bare hands with no gloves or required scoops. To go along with seeing employees tasting from what was made hand to mouth. Not sanitizing equipment properly to drinking/getting high on break. The place sucked to work at. I was a customer well before working at the warehouse but would never step foot in or consume another product from The Spice House. Disgusting ass place. Luckily for them the warehouse wasn’t open to the public. So glad that location is done with.
  • Post #94 - December 26th, 2022, 9:25 pm
    Post #94 - December 26th, 2022, 9:25 pm Post #94 - December 26th, 2022, 9:25 pm
    Darren72 wrote:By law, bonuses are taxable. It isn’t up to your employer.

    Why wouldn't a bonus be taxable? It's clearly income.
  • Post #95 - December 26th, 2022, 10:47 pm
    Post #95 - December 26th, 2022, 10:47 pm Post #95 - December 26th, 2022, 10:47 pm
    Binko wrote:
    Darren72 wrote:By law, bonuses are taxable. It isn’t up to your employer.

    Why wouldn't a bonus be taxable? It's clearly income.


    Many of the workers didn’t understand army the time due to the new owner. Wasn’t the case with the Erd’s.
  • Post #96 - December 28th, 2022, 12:09 am
    Post #96 - December 28th, 2022, 12:09 am Post #96 - December 28th, 2022, 12:09 am
    Getting things back on track, Penzey's has a free-up-to-$12.95 1/2 cup jar, no strings attached offer. Many here will have received the email. For those who didn't, it's a little confusing. Supposedly you can use a coupon from a forwarded email even though it has another customer's code on it that the other customer already used.

    I used mine today. Needed some more ground cardamom and was shocked to find it was way over the $12.95 limit. I got some Ceylon cinnamon instead. Good stuff and cooperates better with other spices than regular cassia cinnamon.
  • Post #97 - December 13th, 2024, 12:29 am
    Post #97 - December 13th, 2024, 12:29 am Post #97 - December 13th, 2024, 12:29 am
    Hi- I get Penzy's emails, and right now at their stores they have 50% off all of their spices. The sale ends today. I think they are open until 6:00pm. They are offering 25% off on online orders. They also had a half price sale on the day before the presidential election, and I heard the stores were crazy busy. I purchased a $50 GC from them for $35 when they opened up their Evanston store, and I still have some money left in the card, and so I will try to go there. I can use a few spices anyways. A few times I have gone to their Evanston stores, and gotten spices for free. They have really good sales. I highly recommend signing up for their emails, although be forewarned that Bill Penzy does get into politics in his emails.
  • Post #98 - December 13th, 2024, 2:07 pm
    Post #98 - December 13th, 2024, 2:07 pm Post #98 - December 13th, 2024, 2:07 pm
    Thanks for the ‘Heads Up’!
    I stopped purchasing from Penzeys afew years ago when Bill inundated me with political ramblings. I then shopped the Spice House by mail order.
    I found the Spice house had some esoteric blends that Penzeys did not carry and some of the herbs and spices from Penzey’s were better than my previous experience with the Spice House.
    I remarked to my son today when I got home as to the superior size of Bay leaves from Penzeys.
    Anyway for 50% discount, I compromised and filled up with bags of what we were short on.
    Penzeys did have a new Blend called ‘Ethiopian Style’. What exactly that means I don’t know but I am giving it a try.
    -Richard
  • Post #99 - December 13th, 2024, 2:37 pm
    Post #99 - December 13th, 2024, 2:37 pm Post #99 - December 13th, 2024, 2:37 pm
    Yeah, whether you agree or disagree with Penzey's politics, his continual harping on them is really a drag and frankly, a deterrent to buying. Their service is pretty slow too, with orders routinely taking more than a week from time of order to arrive. That said, I do think their overall quality is better than the The Spice House, so I will occasionally look the other way and make a purchase but it's never without hesitation.

    I don't want to mix politics with retail. Does everyone who owns a business feel that grants them a legitimate platform for soapboxing? Best to keep your opinions to yourself in that particular venue and do all you can to not alienate any potential business.

    =R=
    Same planet, different world
  • Post #100 - December 13th, 2024, 2:44 pm
    Post #100 - December 13th, 2024, 2:44 pm Post #100 - December 13th, 2024, 2:44 pm
    If you are near them, I will again mention that Epic spices are really good spices, good people and excellent prices. It is just that they are hard to get to and only open Fri, Sat and Sun.

    Epic Spices
    1725 W Chicago Ave
    Chicago
  • Post #101 - December 13th, 2024, 11:54 pm
    Post #101 - December 13th, 2024, 11:54 pm Post #101 - December 13th, 2024, 11:54 pm
    Seconding the Epic recommendation. I was there a few Fridays ago. Very good selection of single-ingredient items in bag packaging at attractive prices. Among them: Their version of Penzey's Extra Bold Peppercorns at a reasonable price. Extremely nice folks who used to be part of the Penzey-Erd ecosystem in its better old days.

    Bill Penzey's messages used to be a lot more interesting when he wrote about the societal value of cooking and food, and allowed some other voices in the conversation, rather than being just an alarmist gadfly. Anybody remember Penzey's One?
  • Post #102 - December 16th, 2024, 12:36 am
    Post #102 - December 16th, 2024, 12:36 am Post #102 - December 16th, 2024, 12:36 am
    I have not bought anything from the Spice House since Tom and patty sold it. They are way more expensive than Penzey's, and I can walk to the Evanston Penzey's store. They have really good sales all the time. I know people that deliberately shop there because Bill does express his political views, and I know other people that refuse to shop there.
  • Post #103 - December 16th, 2024, 11:23 am
    Post #103 - December 16th, 2024, 11:23 am Post #103 - December 16th, 2024, 11:23 am
    Yeah, I walked thru the Spice House shop at the Milwaukee Public Market on Saturday. The funkiness of the old Spice House has definitely left the building. The majority of the products are blends and there was no spice smell at all. I wonder how the original 3rd St store seems these days. Fond memories of that store from the 80's , later recreated at Ruth Penzey's Kavanaugh Hill shop in the early 2000s.
  • Post #104 - January 18th, 2025, 11:29 am
    Post #104 - January 18th, 2025, 11:29 am Post #104 - January 18th, 2025, 11:29 am
    One thing I'm finding increasingly annoying about Penzey's is the lag between when an order is placed and when it ships. Seems like 6 days minimum at this point. I don't want or expect Amazon-like speed -- I do try to support Independents, who cannot always operate at that level -- but even with that expectation, Penzey's is notably slow.

    =R=
    Same planet, different world
  • Post #105 - January 19th, 2025, 6:16 pm
    Post #105 - January 19th, 2025, 6:16 pm Post #105 - January 19th, 2025, 6:16 pm
    Since there is a Penzy's in Kenosha, when I was purchasing from Penzy's. it was very simple but after I changed to the Spice House, mail order was the rule and I don’t remember any appreciable delays.
    But there are differences between Penzy's and the Spice House.
    Some are simple like the bay leaves from the Spice house are very small where they are larger from Penzy's. The Spice House also has some Arab/African blends not offered by Penzy's. I use these to get baselines on my own blends from on-line recipes.
    You cannot trust anything on-line, from sites trying to get clicks.
    I find that most of the recipes/blends are poor imitations/substitutes for the real item.
    I did take advantage of the recent 50% discount offered by Penzy's and loaded up!
    Hopefully others will Post if and when that discount occurs again because I have cut off all communication from Penzy’s.
    Bill has cut off his nose and I don’t want to do the same thing!
    A 50% discount is a 50% discount no matter who offers it!
    -Richard

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