5lbs : Grocery & Gourmet Food

I received Tropical Importer/Donate Fruit's Asian pears in a standard U.S. "priority mail" container. Well packaged. That was nice. But that's about all that was nice. Their Asian pears are extremely overpriced and are definitely not "premium" as advertised. I lived in Asia for 9 years, where lower priced Asian pears ($2 each) are not as sweet as higher priced "premium" Asian pears ($5 each). Tropical Importer/Donate Fruits charges about 33% more for their average tasting pear than a "premium" Asian pear (e.g. Japan or Korea).

I received a box of 8 small Asian pears from Tropical Importer/Donate Fruits at about 8.5 centimeters (roughly 3.33 inches) diameter each, total about 5 pounds. That is not what was advertised: between 5-7 Asian pears at about 5 pounds. Many of the Asian pears had partial green color (not yellow with slight tint of brown as they are supposed to be). They had an unusual smooth texture on the outside, which is not typical of Asian pears, which usually have a slightly rough outside texture.

The taste of Tropical Importer/Donate Fruits' Asian pears was no better than the Asian pears I buy at the local grocery store chain, e.g. Trader Joe's as only one example. I would say on a 1 to 10 scale (where 1 is not sweet/not delicious, and 10 is sweet/delicious), I would rank Tropical Importer/Donate Fruits Asian pears and Trader Joe's Asian pears both between about 3-4. In other words, just shy of average quality, and definitely not "premium" quality. The problem is that Tropical Importer/Donate Fruits Asian pears are priced about 33% higher than "premium" Asian pears but do not even come close in terms of quality, whereas Trader Joe's Asian pears seem reasonably priced commensurate with their average quality. Trader Joe's or any local grocery store Asian pears (I have bought Asian pears at 3 different grocers in my neighborhood) are about 1/4 the price of Tropical Importer/Donate Fruits Asian pears. That is not a typo. You can buy 4 local grocery store Asian pears, same quality and sweetness, for the price of 1 Asian pear from Tropical Importer/Donate Fruits.

I got to thinking that what these folks do at Tropical Importer/Donate Fruits is they simply go to their local grocery store, select 5 pounds of cheap small un-ripe Asian pears, pack them in a fixed rate U.S. priority mail container, and send them to the buyer. Why do I think this? Get this: the Tropical Importer/Donate Fruits Asian pears that I bought here on Amazon have the same sticker number 4408 that the Trader Joe's Asian pears have on them: 4408. When I order American pears from Harry and David, they never have stickers on them. Stickers to me mean "bought at the local grocery store."

So, I think I got duped by Tropical Importer/Donate Fruits. Bottom line is, you can get the same quality Asian pear at a local grocery store for about 1/4 the price that Tropical Importer/Donate Fruits charges. Tropical Importer/Donate Fruits ships to your door, but shipping to your door is not worth a price mark-up of 75%.