Babette's Kochbuchhandlung und Gewürzgeschäft

I have just visited the shop for the first time. The founder shared her passion and commitment to quality of the herbs and spices. She also told me about how they have supported the farmers in several countries, like fair trade, and that much of it is organic, though not accredited as is grown by many small farmers who can't afford certification. She even donated a speaking fee of 2,000 Swiss francs to the growers, and they are still using (circulating) the funds, having made ponds and nurseries.... And they have a Massive number of cook books. Please check them out, or buy from their web shop.

Great spices and books. Nice food and coffee

Amazing haven for foodies

Good for your quisine.

My rating primarily relates to the webshop that I have been using for years. I would rate the branches a little better (one star more), even if there are just as much problems there. In short, online shopping at Babette's is a disaster in terms of order processing and customer service. Even before the pandemic, it happened regularly that the webshop was often not updated for weeks, so products were listed as "not available" that you could get on request (if they were processed). It was also noticeable that the vouchers handed out in the branches mostly did not work in the web shop, although they should have been valid - and they were still valid in the store. Both happened several times. Much more relevant, however, are the delivery times, which I consider long to unreasonable. It starts with the fact that there are no shipping confirmations in the Babette's webshop and that you therefore have an unnecessarily little overview of your order status. In addition, there are exceptionally long delivery times. Even before the pandemic, I had the experience that the seven-day delivery time listed on the website was often exceeded. In the past year, I also had the experience that a delivery - for an order that I had not placed during the Christmas season - took two (!) Months. In addition, it has also happened that orders were so badly packed that everything ran out. The complaint worked, but about 14 days waiting time for an order within Austria is too much. On the last point of criticism, the customer service. As in the physical stores, Babette's makes the mistake of over-servicing in some places, but not covering the basics adequately. This is probably more due to the owner's specifications than to the employees themselves. Inquiries are sometimes not answered at all, errors are not justified. Orders that have already been complained about will be enclosed with small handwritten notes and gimmicks as an "excuse", but the delivery itself will again be processed incorrectly. In addition, an employee of the web shop who manages to sprinkle selected formulated unfriendliness in her correspondence. I suspect excessive demands; it could also be due to the pay of the employees; mostly academics, but employed at - if I have that right in my head - commercial KV plus 10% surcharge. Why do I mention that? Because it is not only important to me as a customer that my products are produced under the fairest possible conditions - Babette's has long been striving to become a pure organic brand - but it is also important to me that the working conditions for the people who work in the shops are good. I don't have that impression here at the moment.