Menu C MREs for sale on eBay

[MREdepot]

No problem at all on this one, better to check first for sure. I'm just glad to not have another one of my messes to clean up!! Lord knows I make enough on my own.

I would have been surprised if you would have had a problem with MREfoods - there isn't anyone in our industry more honest or up fron than them.

[Big Galloot]

Do you have any idea why they include BBQ sauce with the Chicken & Dumplings?

If there are people there who add BBQ sauce to Chicken & Dumplings, you seriously need to consider alerting the proper authorities. You don't want to wait until after something terrible has happened and then try to explain to a jury why you witnessed such seriously disturbed behavior and yet did nothing.

[MREdepot]

Good question Big Galloot! Do you know I never saw that before? I guess BBQ Chicken Dumplings are in high demand (not;-).

Seriously, I didn't notice - that is a weird one. I'll ask the question, but I suspect it was either that they had a ton of the BBQ sauce on hand and some clown thought of BBQ chicken, or they needed to hit a calorie minimum, and BBQ sauce is high in carbs

[MREdepot]

Hi C-rats; Thank you kindly for the warm welcome AND for the kind words. I’m not sure ‘industry leader’ would be appropriate, but thanks for the compliment (and promotion, even if it is just in my mind;-).

I was writing my last novel to post (sorry to all for being so long winded, I timed out 3 times;-) on the Menu C’s, and almost missed your post, my apologies!! I think I covered most everything already, but you bring up some good points. On the logo itself, there’s actually a pretty funny story on that. Without boring everyone on a new novel, bottom line is that they required the change to differentiate these from the military. We had to get government lawyers involved, which is never easy. They wanted the stripes to go a different way... They wanted a different weapon... They wanted a different size, color, shape - even a different position on the bag. I didn’t really care one way or another, but because we had our lawyers involved already in the negotiations, what should have been a 3 minute issue took many days and many thousands of dollars to resolve. On top of everything else, we had a manufacturer who didn’t want to do the deal if they didn’t look close to military - I guess they didn’t want their product in a substandard bag...

That solder picture is what we ended up with after about 30 revs, but I can’t tell you how many variations I saw come across my desk - most of them you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference on, but hey, I guess that’s why the lawyers get the big bucks. I understand the concern with from the military on it, but I didn’t really care what the bag looked like as long as the menus were as they stated.

I completely understand the frustration you and many experience trying to find authentic MREs. A few years ago, and I would have been scratching my head on it myself. But learning as much about the industry as I have I can usually tell in the first 15 seconds if something is real or not, but I am still amazed at some of the things even I see people doing on eBay.

I think part of the problem is that 5 years ago the MRE industry was small and specialized. After Hurricane Katrina, people saw MRE’s all over the news, and like any other industry - people jumped on the band wagon as quickly as they could to try and make a fast buck. I mean look at all the MRE’s on the market today and the number of companies selling them. Then think back to 2004 or 2005 (never mind 1998 or 1999), and 85% of them didn’t even existing.

There is no problem with all the competition in my mind, in fact I think it is a good thing - it’s one of the reasons the industry is starting to mature now. The problem lies with all of those who jump in just to make a quick buck. The general public is easily fooled on issues of genuine USGI, and when you throw in the ease and anonymity of eBay or online sales in general, you almost do have to be a rocket scientist with extremely good luck to get what you think you are paying for.

Now granted I fall into that category myself - when we started with MRE’s it was a part time thing for me. I just wanted to get a better price for myself and making a little extra cash on the side (had a day-job back then) was a bonus. But in 10 years playing around now full time with MREs in this industry, I have seen a lot of change. Specifically, I have seen the margins drop, and the quality of the commercial/civilian MRE’s improve.

That’s one of the reasons why we have sought to diversify over the years. For a long time, MREs were the only thing we did. Now we have our hands in a bunch of different things, from bringing containers of canned butter in from New Zealand and containers of canned cheese from Australia to canning our own bacon, meats, dry goods and probably 30 other items from canned bread to raw honey. I guess when someone’s income depends solely on MREs, I can see why they try to hype them or make them out to be more then they are. Supply and demand can be a double-edged sword; When supply is high and demand is low, you wind up with civilian MREs being hyped as special forces food or doing whatever they can think of to sell them. When demand is high and supply is low, all bets are off because the general public will pay three times the normal amount just to get some, which is crazy - then anything goes.

Bottom line is that from the collector’s standpoint, I don’t think you are nitpicking or making a mountain out of a molehill. Having valid concerns not addressed by me was an oversight on my part, I assure you. I geared the sales pitch to the general public (and had a little fun pissing off some sellers of ‘non-legal’ NREs) - but I wish I knew earlier that there were questions being raised here, as I would have addressed them right away if I had know.

There I go with a novel again, sorry. Kman is going to kick me off 24 hours after registering for taking up so much bandwidth - but I’m glad to be able to through stuff around on these, thanks. If I overlooked any other questions or concerns on these or MRE’s in general, let me know.

Thanks,

-Steven

[kidsluvmres]

Thanks for joining the forum Steven and your outstanding response to our questions. I appreciate how open you've been in explaining your side of the business. And feel free to keep us posted on any changes to your menus in 2008. I know I'd be interested in some industry news from time to time. Also, if possible, perhaps you could post some pictures of your business. Speaking for myself and probably others, I'd love to see some shots of your business and your products.

[BigMark]

Wow, well, I clearly missed a lot in the last few days. I'd first like to say that I appreciate the gesture Steven, it goes a very long way, and Oddball, you can expect an order from me soon. I would have to say that buying those cases was a good thing, it brought me here, and I love it here.

My major issue was being lied to, the same fig bars and nutrigrain bars were next; I really wanted to the side dishes. I actually ate up a lot of the entrees, not HDR ones though, but I have a ton of accessory packs laying around. I'll be the first to say they were the right price, but to repeat what I said before, it taught me a lesson. Now I'm happy to say we can go with a clear slate from here, I truly believe people change, but it's also good for people to see what the buzz is about them and have a chance to respond to it; this was a long time ago, but it's something I've always dwelled upon.

[C-rats]

Man, I feel all warm & fuzzy now!

Thanks Steven for all you wrote. And as kidsluvmres says above, the "inside scoop" on the industry in general and your business in specific is/was really informative and interesting. You get an A+ in my book sir.

I would like to second the motion on seeing pictures of your business ---- they would be great additions here. I for one can't quite fathom 3 railcars full of MREs ......that in itself would make for an awesome picture (or two or three). ......You wouldn't need a forklift driver by any chance, now would you? Heeheehee.....


Thanks again for your time & effort!!!

`rats

[bishopmarine]

i would just like to say thank you dverkamp. he offered to send me an item as a gesture of his business. it is not an attempt to make up for what happened to me on ebay. as i said before that had nothing to do with mrefoods. but only out of sympathy i guess they are sending me something at no charge. he just requested my adress. although it was not requested it is humbly excepted. i will buy from mre foods in the future. i sort of feel like this thread made some real progress. it answered a lot of questions we had about the major non ebay suppliers of rations.

[MREdepot]

No trouble at all BigMark - I’m just sorry it took us almost 6 years to right a wrong. Thanks for letting me make it up to you. You’re cases will be on their way to you Monday, I’ll PM you the tracking numbers so you’ll have them for your records.

I completely understand why you were so angry, and again apologize for screwing up royally on this one. Would you believe that I actually still have probably 20 of those cases in my garage to this day? Half the entrees and all the fig bars and nutrigrain bars are for my starving neighbors if we ever have a big quake. The other half of the entrée’s, the heaters and the matches are the only reason that I keep them. I miss some of the old entrée’s. Do you remember the Jamaican Pork Chops? My all time favorite...

Seriously though, lesson learned for me on these MRE’s. I think I took as many back as I shipped towards the end when the variety went downhill.

I appreciate the clean slate very much!!

-Steven

[MREdepot]

Good idea to take and post some pictures. I know we have a few somewhere. But I’ll take some more and get them posted - especially of MRE’s.

I found a couple from a while ago. We actually have three warehouses, one for retail fulfillment, one for wholesale and one for overflow and storage. All three are climate controlled (except for the loading docks) and kept at a constant 66 degrees with a relative humidity of between 15% and 20%. Here are a couple of shots of our wholesale warehouse.





I’ll take some of our overflow, as it is impressive to see to be honest with you. You’d be amazed at how high we stack MRE’s - it’s like walking down 5th Ave in NYC looking up at tall buildings on both sides.

Here are a couple more pictures that you’ll get a kick out of. This was part of a 5 rail car purchase we did of overruns from Ameriqual. These pictures were for insurance only, as two of the loads had some damage. I think you can make out pallets of entrée’s in the first one, and when we got halfway through the second one we found crushed pallets of strawberry jam and jalapeño cheese spread - now there’s a smell you want to get hit with at 7:00 in the morning...






And in case anyone hasn’t seen MCW’s up close, here’s some shots of the last batch we sold on eBay a while ago. They went pretty fast, but I should have 2 or 3 more pallets of them in a few weeks;







I’ll dig around for some more warehouse shots and get them up.

-Steve