Australian Products

I’ve ordered from Aussie Products Co. before. This time I placed an order for a friend in CA.
I was contacted by the company to let me know the order had been returned with a «RTS» on the package label.
I contacted my friend, who had been home all week who advised she never receive the order, nor had she returned it. The address was correct. The order should have gone smoothly.
When I told Aussie Products Co. this, I was informed that I could pay the shipping again to have it redelivered. To me, it was a courier issue. They declined to take responsibility or to pursue it further. I got the feeling of being scammed, like they were only looking for a redelivery charge.
Instead, my friend picked it up herself. $ 14 in delivery charges down the drain.
Yeah, how’s that for customer service?

I have shopped at the Australian Shop (Aussie Products) for about the last 8 years. Yes, the prices are outrageous (not just high), but I paid it since there was no better option. I have always found the staff to be not overly pleasant, but I would say this has gotten worse since they have moved to their new location on Stevens Creek.
Yesterday was the last time I will shop there. I purchased a pack of Tim Tams on clearance, among other things, knowing they would be pretty close to their best before date. At the register I was told to place money for that item separately in a jar, which I commented was weird. I was told it was because they were past their best before date. Stupidly, I did not check (since I had my 3 young kids with me, and I just wasn’t thinking) — my bad. I got home to discover the Tim Tams were nearly A WHOLE YEAR PAST BEST BEFORE (see my photo)! I am furious. I guess this is how they get away with it by technically ‘not charging’ and making customers donate a specified amount instead. So I have now paid an outrageous price for an item that is a year past its best before date?! How dare you. I am from Australia, I know the dates, I know what best before is vs. use by — you would never get away with that in Australia, and quite frankly, I am appalled that you would try this stunt here.
You’ve lost a customer.

So happy I found a place that sells Picadilly Bangers! My husband’s family is from England and grew up eating these but they are very hard to find! I drove over an hour to pick up those Bangers. I hope this place stays in business!

I read through the reviews before leaving mine, and I have to agree with D.C. Be sure to look at the dates of items prior to buying, we didnt until after we scoffed our desperate cravings down, wondered why they tasted like crap, then checked the best before dates to see they were months past expiring. Months past expiration and still EXTREMELY over priced. Check packing, if it seems well worn then it has not been packaged or shipped correctly. The majority of items they have we have found at World Market, Whole Foods, some Asian and Indian stores, for a lot less and in better condition. Customer service, meh. After our experience we are happy to wait for care packages from home or try our luck at the Asian and Indian stores.

Maaaaate, why are your prices so bloody high?
Truth be told, they have a lot of Aussie stuff (even black and gold stuff) but it is all ridiculously expensive. So go there when you crave cherry ripe or NEED something with an Aussie flag on it but for timtams and Vegemite just go to world market (a lot cheaper).

The first time I saw this place, I was walking down the street looking for something to do and places to see while waiting for my car to get repaired.
It’s a fun little place to stop in if you’re not familiar with Australian… well, anything. I’m sure this store isn’t a definitive representation of Australia, but it’s nice to take a look at some of their popular items. My sweet tooth led me to the candies, though most of it was Cadbury products, which are easily found here and in the UK. About half the store is food products while the other half is made up of touristy items like post cards, educational pamphlets/​books, novelty items, etc.
However, any appeal that most of these items had were instantly lost on me when I saw the price. Even marked down items seemed to pricey for me. To be fair, they ARE imported, so it makes sense a customer would pay more. But THAT much more? I stuck with just getting a soda (which wasn’t half bad).
Overall, I thought it was a cool place to check out, but not a place I’d go shopping on a regular basis. On a final note, the workers there were very nice and helpful, but I was disappointed not to hear them speak with an accent! That should be a requirement… I wonder if they have a suggestion box?

Nice clean little store. Has a lot of cute stuff in it, t shirts, stuffed animals, magnets etc. We decided to go check it out after I found it online. Food prices are way too high though, which is a shame. I went to cost plus afterwards to do a price comparison. I paid $ 7.95 for custard powder cost plus pricing $ 4.49. Golden syrup I paid $ 6.95 cost plus pricing $ 4.99. Pickled onions I paid $ 8.95 cost plus pricing $ 4.99. These were for all the exact same brands and weight. Cost plus also carries Cadbury chocolate, like crunchies and flakes and things like Colemans mixes for cottage pies etc. So I would definitely do my homework before making the drive to San Jose.
On the plus side, they have pineapple lumps, I did have to pay $ 7.95 for a small bag. And they also have traditional meat pies at around five dollars a pop. (Made in America but they look good!)
Would I go back again? Probably not because of the prices. I have found things like pineapple lumps and jaffas at mangals market in san leandro… way cheaper and its a shorter drive, for me.
So if you’re craving something from home this is a good way to go but be prepared to pay! Otherwise have your family bring stuff over for you or stock up when you go home. I gave them 3 stars because they do have a great selection and the store is organized and clean.

As an ex-​pat you can’t help but love the people who bring you the tastes and comforts of home! The staff at Aussie Prod. Co are always very friendly. The selection is fair, and my only real complaint is that you have to be careful not to buy products that are past their expiration date. The prices are high, but I can see why (shipping/​handling etc from home is bloody expensive!) You can buy some of the products at Cost Plus, Gene’s Fine Food’s etc but not the musk sticks! Mostly I just like having them there when I need them!

When I’m desperate for some Australian goods, I come here, but I try not to get so desperate that I need to come here.
Service has never been their strong suit, but I don’t really care about that. What I care about is the products, and you have to be really careful about the products. They often sell food that is past its sell-​by date, and even food that isn’t past its sell-​by date often hasn’t been treated well in transit.
There are a lot of things which you can get elsewhere for less money, and without worrying that they’re past their sell-​by date or that they’ve been exposed to too much heat or cold in transit. My first choice is Cost Plus, which has a lot of these items for a lot less money. They has a lot of the same chocolates (especially Cadbury), and you can sometimes find Tim Tams there. Aero bars are getting a lot easier to find, I’ve even seen them at Whole Foods recently. You can get Vegemite at nearly any upper-​end grocery store these days, and certainly Cost Plus too. Bottled drinks are usually at Cost Plus. I haven’t found another source for cordial or Weetbix (not to be confused with the British Weetabix, which are different).
They also have some frozen items, like meat pies and sausage rolls. These are also okay, but I’ve also had problems with freezer burn from them. There’s a meat pie place in Seattle that will ship, which is expensive, but their pies and sausage rolls are really good and never freezer burnt.

Be very careful when ordering from this store. They will sell you out of date food products for a lot of money and then refuse to acknowledge that’s not okay. Their customer service of late is appalling. I used to order from this store when I would get home sick for Aus, but never again.

Like this store! Has my fave Tim Tams, Veggie mite spread, Cadbury chocolates (not chemical and sugar cane sweetened)… Other Aussie products sell here, mind you its a bit highly priced, but that’s due to import/​export cost, which is ok.
One best seller and I recommend is Meat pies! Austrailia and the UK is known for their meat pies (beef, chicken & lamb) yum! They also carry UK label products, worth checking out!

Reports From The Petty Bourgeoisie :
Armed with a rare 20% off coupon (these guys never discount, ever) I went in to buy the same bulk 72-​piece retail box of Caramello Koalas that I tried to buy the week before because they’ve been out of the (often stale) 12-​pc. bags for weeks. Oddly, I had to pass on buying this last week when the owner refused to give me any kind of price break on an entire box, demanding instead that I pay the Full Individual Retail Price for each of the 72 chocolates contain therein. But today? That’s when the coupon came in.
Sanity Check: You can find this $ 72 retail box online for $ 51 from a similar store in Texas. In Australia? They’re $ 27 USD. (Shipping’s a bear, though.)
Anyway, last week’s unopened box had already been opened by this point (dang!) and the owner insisted on dumping the entire box out on the counter to count them out, dropping a few on the floor in the process. It was at this point she mentioned that she had tossed some old stock into the new box, so there went my hopes of finally getting a fresh batch.
Having purchased here before, I knew that the store had jumped on a «1% cash rebate» bandwagon after finally giving up on trying to to charge more for credit card purchases. So, fine — I had cash with me. But then it’s «No Soup For You — you’ve got a coupon, so no additional cash rebate.» Wait, what? The coupon says nothing about this, which she had to admit.
So you see where this is going. Without the measley cash rebate, I’d told her I’d just soon use my credit card and that’s when she tells me «You already said you were going to pay cash, you have to pay Cash.» No, I said that I Could pay cash, but I changed my mind. That’s when she got huffy and threw me out of the store.
Never again for this «penny wise, pound foolish» retailer, locally or online — there’s better places to buy Aussie food items than this.

The people here are really nice. So I rushed in a few minutes before it closed. The people were really friendly and let me shopped for as long as I need. The place has a lot of things from Australia. Alll the things that I saw while in Australia. They had Tim Tams there and I bought some.
As Unilocal indicates the price is not cheap. Well, if they are exporting from Australia then it is probably costly.

If you want Vegemite or Cadbury chocolate, go to Cost Plus World Market. Much cheaper and if you’re in the North or East bay, it’s much closer!
Beware! This place will sell you over the use-​by date chips and chocolate. You can really taste the difference in Twisties, Burger Rings and Cadbury chocolate when it goes so far over the use-​by. Very sad.

While I have been going to this place for over 10 years, since they were located on Winchester. they have always been expensive, they pass on the shipping costs to you, Today I went to stock up on my Vegemite and upon walking into the store I was assaulted with the pungent odor of stuffy stale smoke! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! I don’t care if you own that business and if you are reading this review. SHAME on you for being so selfish and making your employees and customers also share your nasty smoking habit!
Also this place seems to have gotten in the habit of NOT pricing items on the shelf = VERY ANNOYING!
I hope this doesn’t happen the next time I come.

The stuff they have here is very touristy and expensive, but worth it to get my fix of Mint Slices and Nescafe Blend 43 to stave off homesickness.
Dude in the store has excellent taste as he was talking to me about Triple J radio.
So, to sum up — the place doesn’t suck too much. Which translated from Australian to American means «pretty damn good, actually.»

All I can say is Tim Tam’s! WHooooooooooooo. They carry a small selection of flavors. I wish they had more flavors though! The store itself is pretty small but consists of all gifts, food and small nick knacks from the Aussie lands!!! The sales clerk was pretty nice and gave me a great list of recommendations on snacks since I mainly went there to check out the Tim Tam selection.
Damn, complaint though… a pack of Tim Tam’s were $ 4.55!!! That is pricey considering Austrailia sells these popular cookies for $ 1! I guess they gotta make a little suntin suntin off of it too. I definitely want to go back and see what else they have to offer.

So my girlfriend just got back from a study abroad in Australia and was talking about all the great candies and treats she got over there… Enter: Austalian Products Co on Steven’s Creek. We HAD to go there to get Tim Tams…
It was a cute store that was filled to the brim with Aussie logo and daily gear. The owner was nice and prices weren’t too bad. Only thing I’d suggest is to put prices on everything or at least on the shelves above them… it’s annoying to have to ask over and over how much something costs.
My friend was stoked that she could buy souvenirs there for people she forgot about and I was was entertained by all the cute stuff.
Might see ya there!

Came here because I just HAD to. After living in Sydney for six years (and having an Aussie husband), we thought we’d drop in.
There is quite a variety of Tim Tam’s averaging about $ 4.55 a pop. They even had Double Coat, my personal fave. But I have been craving the Arnott’s biscuits, can’t think of the name right now.
Being here reminds me of being in the tourist shops in Australia. They have the typical keychains, fridge magnets, didgeridoo music, books on kangaroos & dingos for the kiddies, calendars, postcards with beach bums (literally), etc.
Why three stars? The customer service aspect of it. For starters, as of April 2009, you can’t use a credit card unless you want to pay an extra $ 2.00. WTF? Also returns are not allowed. Actually the service here reminds me of being in Australia — a place where customer service is seriously lacking.
There is a half-​price shelf for expired products. One package of biscuits expired in 2007. Hmm… I don’t know if I would pay for anything that old, but there it was.
Quite a few things did not have price tags on them. That is a pet peeve of mine! The stuffed animals — wombats, echidnas, etc. — did not have a tag, neither did the kid books. Ugh. I hate having to constantly ask someone what things cost.

The World According to Noelle
~Allergic Girl’s Guide to Life~
I remember going to their original location as a child with my mom. My favorite memory would be the vast selection of Cadbury confections in their store. If you love Australia this is the place to go! They have a huge assortment of candies, meat pies, souvenirs, boomerangs, t-​shirts, too many times to name!
Upon arrival in the store I was greeted by the most lovable yellow lab on the face of this Earth! The owner, her yellow lab and staff are extremely friendly and helpful. I was on one mission. The mission was to obtain Peppermint Crisp Candy Bars. I told the owner I needed Peppermint Crisp Candy Bars for a recipe. She inquired as to which recipe. I told her it was for a South African Dessert called Peppermint Crisp Tart. She smile and laughed. I smiled and laughed. She said whoever is the recipient of this dessert is one lucky person! So I purchased 20 Peppermint Crisp Candy bars @ $ 1.95 which totaled $ 39 dollars plus tax.
This is one of my favorite stores in the bay area. Where else can a girl get her Vegemite, Meat Pies, Milo, Tim Tam Biscuits, Cadbury confections and last but not least Peppermint Crisp Candy Bars. As the old saying goes, «The way to a person’s heart is through their stomach»…
Noelle’s Notes:
One stop shop for the BEST Australian goods.