Fall 2017
Pirate Joes: I was an outlaw, grocery smuggler...
Pirate Joes: I was an outlaw, grocery smuggler...
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INSIDER<br />
FALL <strong>2017</strong><br />
I WAS AN OUTLAW<br />
GROCERY SMUGGLER...<br />
WHAT’S INSIDE | THIS ISSUE<br />
MAKING LEMONADE<br />
HURRICANE IRMA<br />
PODOCARPUS
2<br />
Making Lemonade Out<br />
of Ruined Wedding Cake<br />
It was the worst day ever.<br />
Sarah Cummins had spent a<br />
lifetime dreaming of this day, only<br />
to have it slip from her fingers at<br />
the last moment. Her wedding<br />
had been abruptly called off days<br />
before the big event.<br />
Compounding the shame and disappointment<br />
was the knowledge<br />
that there would be no refunds for<br />
the elaborate reception that had<br />
been so meticulously planned.<br />
Yet somehow, the jilted bride had<br />
the presence of mind to formulate<br />
a plan to repurpose the reception,<br />
a plan that might at least give<br />
someone else something to celebrate<br />
and hopefully take the edge<br />
off of her own suffering.<br />
Her plan was to fill the reception<br />
room with people in need of a respite<br />
from their own troubles. With<br />
the consent of her now ex-fiancé,<br />
she contacted area shelters and<br />
the invitation went out to homeless<br />
people to enjoy a fine meal and entertainment<br />
at a beautiful reception<br />
hall in Carmel, Indiana.<br />
The invitation provoked a flurry of<br />
last-minute preparations among<br />
the invitees. With the scarce<br />
resources available to them,<br />
breathless moms dug through<br />
clothing donation boxes looking<br />
for anything festive they could put<br />
on their children and themselves.<br />
Sport coats were suddenly a hot<br />
commodity for men who had fallen<br />
on hard times. Hours were spent<br />
elaborately curling hair and getting<br />
made up for an elegant evening in<br />
the city.<br />
When the guests began to arrive,<br />
Sarah was there to greet them.<br />
“I will at least have some kind of<br />
happy memory to pull from,” she<br />
said.<br />
Photo Credit: Indy Star<br />
Exponentialism<br />
I’m starting to understand what old<br />
folks mean when they say the older<br />
you get, the faster time moves.<br />
A year ago, I thought we were<br />
pretty busy. We were hard at work<br />
planning our new nursery compound<br />
while continuing to meet the<br />
needs of our customers.<br />
We soldiered on with all the extra<br />
work, knowing that things would<br />
settle down after we’d gotten<br />
through the relocation and had a<br />
chance to establish a routine.<br />
Ha!<br />
The joke was on me. Since we’ve<br />
settled in to our fabulous new location<br />
we’ve experienced the following<br />
changes:<br />
• Our staff has grown to 35+<br />
employees<br />
• We’ve increased our availability<br />
list items by 50%<br />
• We’ve begun a “guaranteedin-stock”<br />
promise on our core<br />
items (more on that on page 6)<br />
• We’ve purchased several new<br />
trucks and trailers<br />
• We’ve opened a business office<br />
in Jacksonville<br />
You can read about some of the<br />
new people who have come on<br />
board elsewhere in this newsletter.<br />
We are only able to keep up the<br />
pace here because of the talent<br />
of the people we have working<br />
for us. I’m blessed to have such<br />
a strong team working here to<br />
be the Highlight of Your Day, and<br />
finding ways in the midst of all the<br />
activity to still have fun and keep<br />
our values in perspective.<br />
Cheers!<br />
Zack Kirsch<br />
General Manager<br />
386 754-0161<br />
sales@gsnursery.com<br />
3
Trader Joe’s<br />
Spurns a Lover<br />
4<br />
Not many grocery stores can<br />
boast the loyalty of fans of<br />
Trader Joe’s. If you are not<br />
fortunate enough to live near<br />
a TJ’s store, you may not<br />
understand what makes them<br />
so special. The stores are<br />
full of personality, and—even<br />
more significantly—they excel<br />
in offering their own brand of<br />
juice flavors, frozen vegetable<br />
mixes, snacks, and convenience<br />
foods. Unlike other<br />
grocery stores whose private<br />
store brand products tend<br />
to be of a lesser quality than<br />
the higher priced name brand<br />
products, TJ private labeled<br />
foods are reliably delicious,<br />
original and largely unique.<br />
Canadian customer Mike<br />
Hallatt loves Trader Joe’s<br />
with such a passion, that he<br />
would make special trips to<br />
the U.S. just to stock up on<br />
his favorite items and bring<br />
them back to his home in<br />
Vancouver. One fateful day<br />
at the Trader Joe’s in Bellingham<br />
WA, he realized that a<br />
large number of shoppers in<br />
the store were fellow Canadians,<br />
and the lightbulb went<br />
off: Why not open a store in<br />
Vancouver and stock it with<br />
Trader Joe’s products purchased<br />
in the U.S.?<br />
Thus was born the idea for<br />
Pirate Joe’s.<br />
For years, Pirate Joe’s was<br />
the only storefront in Canada<br />
that sold Trader Joe’s groceries.<br />
The store’s décor had hints of the<br />
jaunty vibe of a real Trader Joe’s,<br />
but it also had a subversive feel to<br />
it, which added to the attraction.<br />
Although Hallatt never misrepresented<br />
what he was doing and<br />
took great care to comply with all<br />
the intricate rules imposed by two<br />
sovereign nations regarding ex-<br />
port, import and<br />
sale of foods in<br />
Canada, the real<br />
Trader Joe’s took<br />
a highly adversarial<br />
posture and harassed<br />
him with every legal tool at their<br />
disposal until he finally waved<br />
the white flag in June of <strong>2017</strong>.<br />
It’s a tragic story filled with<br />
love, pathos, and determination<br />
where the little guy triumphs<br />
but then gets knocked down<br />
again. For Hallatt, it was never<br />
about the money. It’s hard<br />
to get rich hiring Americans<br />
to shop for you, paying retail<br />
prices for merchandise that you<br />
then have to transport across<br />
a border, add compliant food<br />
labeling and merchandise in<br />
a Canadian brick-and-mortar<br />
facility. The markup Hallatt<br />
charged could never be high<br />
enough to do more than keep<br />
the whole enterprise afloat.<br />
No, it was never about the<br />
money. It was more like the<br />
mountain that needed to be<br />
climbed “because it was<br />
there.” It was thrilling to<br />
do something so on the<br />
fringes of legality and<br />
propriety yet somehow<br />
noble. Hallatt had made<br />
it clear that he would<br />
shut down his store the<br />
minute Trader Joe’s entered<br />
the Canadian market—he even<br />
offered to gift the company his<br />
labeling equipment.<br />
But the suits at TJ’s doggedly<br />
fought Hallatt and his store<br />
from the moment they found<br />
out what he was up to. They<br />
threw him out of their stores,<br />
sent cease and desist letters,<br />
filed lawsuits, appealed the verdicts<br />
when they lost, and wore<br />
him down until he finally ran out<br />
of resources.<br />
“It was a great run while it<br />
lasted,” wrote Hallatt on the<br />
piratejoes.ca website. “I’m<br />
mostly relieved and genuinely<br />
stoked to jump into something<br />
way less uncertain. Normal,<br />
even! If you have any ideas or<br />
you are a CEO looking for a<br />
troublemaker…”<br />
5
Featured<br />
Plant<br />
PODOCARPUS<br />
Podocarpus Macrophyllus<br />
Introducing...<br />
A disease tolerant shrub/tree<br />
that doesn’t mind coastal salt,<br />
the podocarpus lends an oriental<br />
feeling and distinctive green<br />
color to any planting. Its branches<br />
are characterized by slender<br />
leaves thickly and neatly sticking<br />
out from every diirection on each<br />
branch.<br />
The bluish cast to the foliage<br />
adds a pleasing tone amongst<br />
the other greens in a garden and<br />
it responds well to trimming. It is<br />
often used for topiary or espalier.<br />
It can also be grown into a large<br />
tree if left alone.<br />
We have have a special buy on<br />
these low-branched 30-gallon<br />
trees. Take advantage of this offer<br />
while it lasts!<br />
6<br />
386 754-0161<br />
30 gal: $135 $115.00!<br />
Prices good through the end of November <strong>2017</strong><br />
ANNOUNCING: OUR $50 GUARANTEE<br />
G&S Nursery is rolling out a new in-stock guarantee on our core 4” material. If you<br />
order any plant on our Quick-Ship list and we don’t have it ready in inventory, we’ll<br />
pay you $50! Plants that are included in this $50 Quick-Ship guarantee are:<br />
4” Asiatic Jasmine 4” Big Blue Liriope 4” Mondo Grass 4” Dwarf Mondo Grass<br />
see www.gsnursery.com/ups-shipmnents for more information<br />
Frank Severino<br />
Frank came to work for us in<br />
our Lake City office after a<br />
distinguished 20+ year career<br />
working for Grandiflora nursery<br />
in Gainesville. Recent changes<br />
at Grandiflora caused many<br />
key personnel to take their<br />
talents elsewhere, and we’re<br />
delighted that we were able<br />
to snag a guy with the talent<br />
and experience that Frank<br />
has. He will be in charge of our<br />
purchasing.<br />
When the Weather Is<br />
the Story<br />
Mandy Reynolds<br />
Mandy will be working in<br />
our Jacksonville office as<br />
our marketing specialist.<br />
She was formerly a digital<br />
marketing specialist for a<br />
company in Nashville.<br />
Like everyone else in Florida, Hurricane<br />
Irma affected our September. Fortunately<br />
we didn’t suffer too badly other<br />
than a lot of rain, a 3-day power outage,<br />
and a little bit of flooding that gave<br />
our VP of sales Jorge a chance to play<br />
with some heavy equipment to try to<br />
control where the excess water should<br />
go. He learned pretty quickly that even<br />
big tires can get stuck in the mud if<br />
you’ve got enough mud!<br />
None of our plants suffered any damage<br />
because we had taken steps beforehand<br />
to move plants from any low<br />
areas to higher ground.<br />
Jessie Handy<br />
An ambitious young lady<br />
recently out of high school,<br />
Jessie is working out of our<br />
Lake City office assisting<br />
our GM, Zack, and earning<br />
money for her college<br />
education.<br />
7<br />
www.gsnursery.com
1550 SW Bedenbaugh Ln.<br />
Lake City FL 32025<br />
RIDDLE OF THE MONTH<br />
What instantly gains 50% in value<br />
when you turn it upside down?<br />
LAST MONTH’S RIDDLE:<br />
Two friends live along a river 9 miles<br />
apart. They make plans to meet on a<br />
Saturday, and they both leave in kayaks at<br />
the same time. Jim is paddling downriver<br />
at a rate of 3 miles an hour. Clarence has<br />
to fight the current, so his progress is only 1<br />
mile an hour.<br />
How many hours must they paddle before<br />
they meet up?<br />
ANSWER: They will meet up in 2 hours<br />
and 15 minutes.<br />
ANSWER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN:<br />
Amazon<br />
Echo Dot<br />
LAST ISSUE’S WINNERS<br />
Kiel Owens<br />
Lisa Gill<br />
Barbara Noguet<br />
Send answers to newsletter@gsnursery.com before Nov 30 <strong>2017</strong>. All correct<br />
answers will be entered into a drawing to win a prize!