It’s the first of December and my email inbox is filled with Christmas offers.
There are discounts for clothes, skincare, books and travel.
The one that got me super happy was from Ginger Pig, butchers par excellence, who turned 21 today. The email simply said:
As a thank you for everyone’s birthday wishes and support, we’re giving you 20% off at all seven Ginger Pig shops to spend on any fresh meat and deli products. All you have to do is show our staff this email upon paying, and they will apply the discount. Easy!
So how easy is it if you are not able to personally visit the shop?
Thus I turn to the utterly reliable home delivery service Hubbub.
Hubbub gets it spot on with their customer relations. All emails are answered personally by a named member of staff and I have absolute confidence that my requests and queries will be put through to the right department/ retailer.
A recent example: Junior 1’s friend placed an order using our address, as she would not be at (her) home to receive it. On the same day I decided to place an order but could not get a suitably-timed slot. I wrote to Hubbub and asked if they could attach my order to the other one and have them both delivered at the same time. This was done with pleasure and minimum fuss.
Today’s request was unusual. I had a day of meetings to attend so the logistics of heading to the Ginger Pig was not easy to work out.
It was either go to the Ginger Pig tomorrow and hope they will honour the 20% off email, or place an order through Hubbub today and ask them to speak to the staff at the Ginger Pig.
The reply from Daniela at Hubbub was:
I just spoke to Erika at the shop and she says it’s absolutely no problem. They will deduct 20% off your final total of your Hubbub order…Have a lovely time cooking all your delicious-sounding dishes…!
This is the kind of service that all shoppers dream of…the one that we fantasise over when we read words like {…} is a new service launched by {…} for discerning customers who wish to {…}.
And so to the ‘delicious-sounding dishes’. I placed a biggish order, some of which can be prepared ahead, frozen, then defrosted for different meals over the Christmas holidays. So there’s going to be Italian meatballs made to a favourite Carluccio recipe, oriental dumplings, steak thinly-sliced and marinaded for japchae, beef short ribs Korean-style, some lamb chops (for dinner à deux) and a whole chicken for a family meal tomorrow night.
Well, Happy Birthday again to the Ginger Pig. In fact they now have a second generation customer in Junior 1; he recently took one of their butchery courses and is very enthusiastic about describing parts of a pig at dinner table. He used to be such a quiet boy…
Ginger Pig has seven shops in London. Please see their website for further details and opening hours.
Barnes: Church Road
Clapham: Abbeville Road
Hackney: Lauriston Road
London Bridge: Borough Market
Marylebone: Moxon Street
Shepherd’s Bush: Askew Road
Waterloo: Greensmiths