Weaver's Orchard Inc — Attraction in Robeson Township

Today, I had a very good time at Weaver's Orchard Inc. And I will be going back. Google Map's directions were spot on, and parking was a little wonky, but completely manageable. Because today was a special event, there was an admission charge of $10 per child 3 & over, and $4.50 per adult, to be allowed to ride their tractor & barrel ride, pet llamas, fire the apple cannon, purchase a pumpkin to paint, listen to live music, & play in their hay-bale play area. With 3 kids & 2 parents, the charge was significantly higher than I had expected, but a reasonable value for the money if my kids were older, and we had arrived earlier in the day.

As it was, we arrived in time to pay $6.00 extra for the hay ride, which included a lengthy stop to pick a $.69/lb. pumpkin, which we had no need of, but no stop for apple-picking, which we were there to do. However, rising hay & picking apples left precious little time to enjoy the things our $10.00 per child & $4.50 per adult admission had bought us. Which is to say, while I would be dissatisfied with being nickled & dimed for activities if they had not been included in the cost of admission, I ended up being slightly unhappy with having paid the price for a package that I had very little time to use.

A sliding-scale admission price based on time of purchase would have made me happier.

Picking a $27 half-bushel of child-hand-selected apples was fun, but again, the price for what Jim Gaffigan calls the privilege of doing the orchard's work for them, was a little on the higher end. We ended up with a large bag stuffed with apples to enjoy, but ended up having spent $75 for the privilege.

On top of that, I bought a dozen donuts, made on premise, which I expected to be hot, but were cold, still very tasty though, and the price wasn't really worse than DD for a far superior product.

The highlight of the services provided, was the sampling of the various apples available for picking that day, plus a good idea of where to find each apple type, so we ended up not having to waste time searching for the apples we had selected to pick, based on the samples we'd tasted.

To sum it up, it was a very good time at Weaver's Orchard Inc. And we will be going back next year, but we sure as heck are going to get there earlier, so we can get more value for the money we're going to spend.

We may even be back in the earlier part of the year for raspberries, if their prices are worth the trip from the...

They have started the downhill slide. We found this place a few years ago and were happy to replace the over price and crowds of Highland's and Linvilla. But now they are taking a page from their playbook. We visited yesterday Sept 22, around the same time as the last few years, only to find the following disappointments. A fee of $2.00 for each adult picking apples, while not such a big amount but on top of $26.00 for a 1/2 bushel bag its feels like a money grab. Next you pay $5.00 to enter the play area. So now its $10.00 for grandparents to watch kids play on a few activities they set up. The activities are nice but why should parents or grand parents pay. This fee is not new this year but still aggravating. Okay so now inside the play area they have food. Nothing great but its nice to have a hot dog or a burger. But no, they ran out of hot dogs early in the afternoon. And nobody can run out to get some???? An hour later when we were leaving they still did not have hot dogs. Well we got some nice things at the market only to have our credit card declined. When you know your credit card balance is paid off and it gets rejected 2 times it causes concern. Turns out it's a problem with their system. The apple cider taste watered down and the doughnuts are not as good as in the past. So now its time to look for a new place to pick apples in the fall. Fresh picked apples are the best but putting up with this is not worth it. Who knows how much worse it will be next year. Its a shame we though this was such a great place when we found it a few years ago. One last thing, they did not have fried apple rings but did have a new item. Basically a fried spring roll filled with apple pieces. DO NOT GET IT!! But at least the...

Weaver’s has been our go to orchard for years. The quality is fantastic and the people always friendly. However the extra fees are too much to take on top of premium prices that usually are 10% more than grocery stores on average. An extra $2.00 per person to pick on the weekends and a $10 annual fee “rewards” card made a $68 trip into an $84 event. With a rewards card there should be an loyalty incentive and you shouldn’t have to pay to receive the rewards. A suggestion would be to wave the pay to pick fee for rewards card holders if you insist on charging for the card. However with those prices, I might as well sacrifice quality and just buy at Costco. Very disappointed, not sure we will come back. They have possibly priced themselves out a family of customers.

Edited response after Weaver’s response:

Thank you for responding directly. I took the time to read your president’s letter and I can can absolutely relate. I work for a large global retailer and balancing the customer experience with the P&L demands is a challenge for every business. It is the customer experience that is my greatest concern and as a frequent customer the extra fees do not sit well with me. There are other ways to reduce costs and not add more to the customer so I challenge if this has been done or has the easy decision been made? Perhaps the solution is to increase prices slightly leaving the perception of no fees compared to the other orchards? Or to drive traffic on other days (Mon-Thur) offer a 15% discount on the loyalty card? These are just few suggestions and I also realise they may not be viable, however they are made with the interest of helping customers AND Weavers...