Omaha Steaks – Mail order your meat and save?

By glblguy

omaha-steaks

Now that we live up in the mountains and things aren’t just a short 5 minute drive down the road, we’ve been using mail-order services far more than we ever have in the past.  One of the services we’re tried recently is Omaha Steaks.  We’ve been talking about trying them for years and just never did.  Given that our the local grocery store that sells good quality meat is a about a 40 minute drive round-trip, we decided to finally give Omaha Steaks a shot.

Pricing

Of course the very first thing I looked at was pricing.  Their normal pricing is way more expensive than standard grocery store prices for select grade meat, which is primarily what Omaha Steaks sells.  Their portions are also very small, half to 1/3 of what we would normally purchase in the grocery stores.

We did decide to take advantage of one of their first time customer deals that my wife found while clicking through on MyPoints.   For that particular deal, it looks like we just about broke even, but most of their deals they are incredibly expensive and I wouldn’t personally recommend using them, unless you’re willing to pay a significant amount for the price of convenience.

Let’s look at a current (at the time of this writing) offer they are promoting.  They are offering free shipping on their Private Reserve Grand Trio which includes:

  • 2 (8 oz.) Private Reserve Top Sirloins
  • 2 (6 oz.) Private Reserve Filet Mignons
  • 2 (11 oz.) Private Reserve Boneless Strip Sirloins

The price for these 6 steaks is $119.99.  If you do the math, this works to be right 3.125 lbs of meat.  At 119.99, that’s $38.40 per pound.  I did a quick search of the sales for our local grocery stores and found that Food Lion has boneless strip sirloins on-sale this week for $4.99 per pound.  That’s a difference of $33.41 folks.  Granted, I’m sure the cuts are better, but $33.41 per pound better?

To be completely fair, I did try to do a more apples to apples comparison.  Omaha Steaks also sells 8 6oz top sirloins for $44.99.  The cut in these particular top sirloins are closer in quality to those sold at Food Lion.  Again, doing the math that works out to be $14.99 per pound and that doesn’t include shipping.  Shipping prices start at $15.

Buying from Omaha Steaks is NOT in any way shape or form a good deal.  To be very honest, at their prices, I am not sure how they stay in business.  The only exception to this is if you take advantage of one of their new customer introductory specials like we did.  These offers are not typically found on their website, but through other special partnerships through companies like MyPoints.

Quality and packaging

With that said, the steaks were good.  The portions were incredibly small, but the steak cut and flavor were pretty good.  I particularly enjoyed the hamburgers that came with our “sampler pack”.  Still not good enough to justify the price, but good.

The strangest thing about Omaha Steaks meat is that it’s plastic wrapped, which if you are used to purchasing your meats from the local store on butcher, just makes the meat feel cheap.  Each type of meat comes in a cardboard box which contains your meats vacuum sealed in a thick plastic.  It works, and keeps the meat fresh, but just awkward.

One of the best things, at least in my opinion of ordering from Omaha Steaks is that the meat is shipped packed in dry ice.  We had a blast playing with it.  We made a foggy mist all across our dining room floor by placing the dry ice in a bowl of water.  Guessing there are more inexpensive options for buying dry ice though ;-)

In summary

We won’t be using Omaha Steaks for our meats anytime in the future.  It was fun to try, and we’re enjoying some of items that came in our introductory sampler package(like the double stuffed potatoes), but the prices are just way too high even factoring in the time loss and gas cost for us to to drive to the grocery store.

I’d really love to hear your personal perspectives on Omaha Steaks.  As I did the math calculations above, I double and triple checked myself as I just couldn’t believe the prices.  Did I miss something?  Did I forget to factor something in?  With the prices they have, I really don’t understand how they sell anything.  Please add a comment.

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12 Responses (including trackbacks) to “Omaha Steaks – Mail order your meat and save?”

  1. Christina Says:
    March 23rd, 2009 at 8:10 am

    The only experience we have had with Omaha steaks was when a salesmen came to a friend’s house. We were in the backyard having a birthday party, and because we didn’t answer the door, he walked around the house and into the backyard DURING THE PARTY and tried to sell us his steaks. I was so turned off by his rudeness that I wouldn’t even think of purchasing anything from him.

  2. dramon Says:
    March 23rd, 2009 at 11:14 am

    We got them as a gift once and while they were good, they were small. We live close enough to grocery stores to get nice steaks much cheaper.

    Costco can deliver prime steaks 12 X 14 ounces each for $189.99 – about $18 per pound including shipping. Not as cheap as grocery but it is prime grade which is better than grocery store. However, much cheaper than Omaha. I personally haven’t tried them delivered, but have been very happy with the ones purchased at Costco

  3. Michael @ The Life Insurance Insider Says:
    March 23rd, 2009 at 12:19 pm

    I can get dry aged, fresh cut strips and ribeye from our local HEB grocery store for $20 per pound. I’ve never figured out how Omaha makes it work. Either you have an appreciation for good steaks and know you can do better and get it for cheaper or you don’t and expect to pay $5-10 per pound for whatever is on sale at the grocery store.

    Maybe gifts. My brother-in-law sent out Omaha steaks as gifts for a few hard to buy for males in the family. That’s the only time I could ever justify even their special deal prices.

  4. Jen Says:
    March 23rd, 2009 at 1:19 pm

    I agree they are extremely expensive and I didn’t think their cuts were that great. I do like their hotdogs and hamburgers, though, and will buy those when they have a sale. I’m lucky, though, and have one of their stores just a few miles from my house. The shipping charges are outrageous.

  5. AJ Says:
    March 23rd, 2009 at 1:19 pm

    I have always wanted to order from US Wellness Meats @ grasslandbeef.com — Their prices are high compared to local grocery store but not nearly as high as Omaha.

    What I really like is that all of their products are free from harmful chemicals…free range chickens, grass fed beef, even bacon and sausage made without any msg, nitrates/nitrites, etc. Everything is top quality and sounds really healthy.

    They have free shipping, with just a $7.50 per order charge. I am sure that they have factored in the shipping costs to be included in the base costs and that is why it is high, but if I had the extra money I would willingly pay 3x as much for these products as I feel the quality is like nothing I can find in my area. I feel the health benefits for my family would be worth the extra cost.

    Alas, I am not to that point yet but I do have a friend that frequents a farmers market that gets me organic beef. She will buy a bunch and bring it to me when she visits. But this supplier still uses HFCS in her barbecue chicken/beef products, and nitrates in her sausage and bacon :( So I just stick to the straight meat. Atleast I know that it is fresh and comes from a Happy Farm.

    So you may want to check out US Wellness Meats, they seem to be a lot more reasonable in price.

  6. Tessie Says:
    March 23rd, 2009 at 6:58 pm

    We’ve occasionally ordered from Omaha Steaks for gifts. To me that seems the only reason to buy from them. I don’t know how they stay in business, either. I wonder about luggage stores and mattress stores, too. They never have customers, and they are very expensive.

  7. DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad.com Says:
    March 24th, 2009 at 8:02 am

    Thanks for confirming my assumptions about Omaha . . .

  8. Jim Says:
    March 26th, 2009 at 11:01 am

    Omaha Steaks are good and you can occasionally get decent deals. They also tend to haggle on the phone, so you can get deals that aren’t posted. That said, my father-in-law is a butcher and I’d rather get my meat from him. Although he has ordered from them himself.

  9. Kim Says:
    March 26th, 2009 at 7:43 pm

    I was just talking about them with a friend! It seems every retired person I know, with solid retirement money, uses them. I don’t get it. But if you wonder how they stay in business….they have the comfortably retired group in their corner.

  10. Jeff Says:
    March 27th, 2009 at 12:04 pm

    Not sure why the trackback didn’t take, but I just did a comparison using an Omaha competitor, US Beef, on my blog. US Beef comes out significantly cheaper than Omaha, even at full price, though still more expensive than grocery. If I hadn’t gotten the deal I did, I wouldn’t have gotten it from US Beef either.

  11. LC Says:
    April 1st, 2009 at 2:14 pm

    I got the starter pack as a gift. I think they paid $59.99 and we got 4 each of steaks, pork chops, burgers, chicken breasts, and baked potatoes, 2 fish and 8 hot dogs. The steaks were small, but with a side of rice and veggies, the meal was a good size and very good. This averages around $2.75 per serving which is pretty good. The quality was good enough that I would pay that again myself if I could get the same deal, but the regular prices seem much higher. I actually love the packaging since it seals out freezer burn and the boxes stack great in my freezer. Only one store I can find packs the meat in vacuum packs like that.