How I Ended Up Drop Shipping Our Thanksgiving Meal and Why I'll Definitely Do It Again!

For Thanksgiving this year, I immersed myself in the world of dropshipping and gravy. 

How is drop shipping related to gravy you ask?

Well it turns out we live in a day and age where food can be drop shipped! As a foodie, this became something I could not wait to learn more about, and what better opportunity to put this to the test than Thanksgiving Dinner?!

In this post I’ll go over the entire experience from ordering to eating. I’ll even let you know how the food tasted!

Um . . . Why?

A few weeks before the holiday, my wife and I made the decision that this year we wanted to try something new for Thanksgiving. 

Rather than run around to different stores picking up things we forgot, spending all morning cooking, and then running back to the store for another thing we forgot, we wanted to spend time with our family, relaxing (now, I know this may sound like the opposite of Thanksgiving for some of you reading this, but with 2 small children, and another on the way, this would be a dream come true!). 

However, we still needed a meal. 

As I explained to my wife about the glorious ever-evolving world of drop shipping perishables, she grew intrigued. However, the intrigue turned quickly to sheer excitement when I informed her that Neiman Marcus, one of Dsco’s beloved partners, offers the ability to drop ship entire Thanksgiving dinners. 

So, it was decided. We would drop ship Thanksgiving Dinner, 2019! 

That night, with mouths watering, we placed our order on Neiman Marcus’ website, with a delivery date of Wednesday the 27th of November, 2019 (the day before Thanksgiving). It didn’t take long for my wife to start bragging to all her friends how she was getting dinner from the high-end retailer.

I was as excited as her, and just hoped everything would arrive on time, safe and sound.

The Turkey Is in the System!

The next day, at the office, I couldn’t wait to see if the order had hit our system. 

Sure enough, within minutes of placing my order the night before, it was processed and sent over to the supplier, Ham I Am!. 

I then watched that day as the order was successfully acknowledged by Ham I Am. 

After months of learning about dropshipping, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing everything happen before my eyes. However, with the order processed, and acknowledged by the supplier, that enjoyment was put in its place by the realization that not much would happen for the next few weeks until it was shipped and delivered to our door. 

The Plot Thickens Again and Again

Over the next few weeks, the success of this adventure became more important as I heard my in-laws were contemplating joining our fancy feast. When I learned this, I had a fleeting moment of panic, wishing I had not set the arrival date for the day before, regretting not adding in a little more padding for it to arrive on time and intact. 

Even so, the week before the holiday, I began to boast to my colleagues at Dsco that I was all in on drop shipping this year. Many of them shared in the excitement, and were eager to see the order process through our system. It was at this time that one of them reflected my fears back to me, saying I was super brave to have chosen the delivery date so close to Thanksgiving.

My heart skipped a beat. 

“Oh no,” I thought, “do I need a backup plan?” As my mind started to think about what Chinese restaurants would be open on Thanksgiving to take my in-laws to, my gut told me to hold fast, trust the systems in place. 

Monday, November 25th: I receive the first shipment notification by email. 

“Hooray!” I thought as I plugged the tracking number into FedEx. It returned with red font reading “No tracking information available.” I have to admit that made me a bit nervous. No worries though, the expected delivery date still read November 27th, 2019. 

Even so, I couldn’t help checking back multiple times that day. “No tracking information available” kept staring back at me like a Thanksgiving Prophecy of Doom. 

Tuesday, November 26th: the second email notification came through in the morning: ‘Your package has been picked up by carrier.’ 

But my sigh of relief flatlined when I opened the email to see the expected delivery date had been adjusted to Monday, December 2nd….. 

Oh no! Thanksgivinggeddon had happened! Dinner was going to be late this year . . .  four days late!

I stewed all morning trying to think of a way to pitch this to my family. Maybe say we’re doing Canadian Thanksgiving this year? But no, that wouldn’t work, Canada does Thanksgiving in October don’t they? Then again, my family doesn’t know that . . . hmmmm . . . 

Just before calling my wife, I decided to check one last time. I said a few quick prayers, checked my horoscope–Mars is ascendent in the first house–and pasted the tracking number into FedEx. To my foodie gut’s delight, the expected delivery date had been updated to Wednesday, November 27th! 

Dinner Is Served

Wednesday, November 27th: Our feast arrived just after noon!

I have never been so excited for a Thanksgiving meal in all my years. It had worked! The kids were almost as excited as my wife and I opening the packaging, pulling out each dish one by one. I read the instructions and put it in the fridge for the big day.

The morning of the feast, I was a little nervous pulling each frozen dish out of the refrigerator, wondering if the taste and flavor would resemble that of a frozen meal, and not what a Thanksgiving dinner should entail. However, as each dish was placed in the oven, and the smells of Thanksgiving began to fill the house, I knew we were in for a treat.

The heating of the meal took a few hours, a bit longer than I had hoped, but it was worth the wait. The smoked turkey breast was one of the most flavorful turkeys I had ever eaten. Even my 6 year old son, who is likely the most picky eater out of all of us, ate the turkey and was boasting about it the rest of the day. All of the side dishes tasted like each of the other home-cooked meals I had had in the years prior. 

It was safe to say, the dinner was a success.

Conclusion: Drop Ship is Now a Fully Loaded Gravy Train

The ability to order an entire Thanksgiving meal online is a huge deal. 

It shows how efficient, customer friendly, and advanced drop shipping has become.

After all, while delays in shipping clothing or autoparts can cause frustration and hassle, with food it can be a disaster (think ice cream or chocolate melting in a hot delivery truck, or in my case, a holiday meal possibly delivered after the date). Even just a decade earlier, such terrible customer experiences made retailers hesitant to fully invest in drop shipping. 

My wonderful experience shows, however, that drop shipping has truly come into its own as an efficient method for providing a greater range of products and services to customers.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am grateful that I was able to experience such a delicious meal from a company that I would likely not have thought to order from. But thanks to drop shipping and technologies like Dsco that support this amazing supply chain strategy, companies like Neiman Marcus are introducing more and more novel goods to consumers like me all over the globe. 

Kudos to Neiman Marcus for helping us have such a great Thanksgiving! Keep the gravy coming!

I know where I’ll be ordering our holiday meals from next year!