First off, have a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend. Be safe and enjoy.
Here is this week’s newsletter about some changes we have implemented. Check them out and jump on the web site. I think you will really like them….
When you are playing the game of business in the retail world like we do, you really have only 2 directions to travel; a) Be really clever and know what customers want before they even know they want it OR b) Listen to your customers very well and react to their needs/wants. I have to honestly tell you that I am not all that clever so it is a whole lot easier for me to zip my trap and listen to all of your feedback. Every cool thing that we have launched has come from you, not us.
So let’s use that as a foundation for today’s newsletter and fun changes that we are bringing to your kitchen.
Feedback #1: “Farmer M., why the heck does the price of the Harvest Box fluctuate so much? Can’t we have some consistency from week to week por favor?”
Feedback #2: “Dude, some weeks my kiddos are really hungry and we need all of the items in the Harvest Box; some weeks they get scurvy and we can’t eat a whole Box. But it is a real pain in the rump roast to delete my recurring order and add a smaller Harvest Box for just one week.”
The root of the problem that we keep running into right now is that our Harvest Box system is based on arbitrarily constructed “Credits.” 14 credits for the Large, 12 for the Medium and so on. But the glaring problem with that is obviously not all produce items come in $3 units of value. We cannot sell strawberries for $3 because we pay our hard-working grower more than that to harvest the darn things. So we end up with a very confusing Harvest Box ordering platform. I get it. It is totally weird and falls well outside the lines of common sense.
Secondly, why in the world do we have to limit how many items you put into your Harvest Box? I was shopping on our web site for Thanksgiving and I ran out of “credits” on my Large Harvest Box. So I had to save my Box then go into the veggie section and buy more sweet potatoes. It didn’t make sense. If I wanted to get 17 items instead of my allotted 14, why the heck wouldn’t the system let me??
Conversely, what if I only need 11 items this week in the Harvest Box and not 14? Can I not order just 11? Is the web site biased against odd numbers in the Harvest Boxes?
All of these very real issues that we have heard about has lead me to realize that our Harvest Box confusion has kept our members from having the best food experience that they (you) can have with us. And again, many of these issues stem from just some arbitrary line that we drew in the sand. So after 15 years of random limitations and boundaries, let’s start over.
I am happy to introduce you to our New Harvest Boxes. Same adorable name that you have learned to love and trust, but just new Bells and Whistles. Kind of like when you ditched your Walkman and got an iPod. Yup, now we’re cooking with gas!
Starting this week we will be designing the Harvest Boxes based on Value, not Credits. So the base price of your selected Harvest Box will be the Same week to week.
But you will have 100% control of your customizations. So if you do not need all of the items in your Harvest Box, take some out and you will pay less than the standard box cost. If you are feeling like cooking more than usual, add more items to your box and the system will not cut you off when you hit some magic number. You decide what the magic number is.
So when you log in to customize your Harvest Box now, it will not tell you how many Credits you have to select, it simply says “Unlimited.” Add the items you want, discard the items that you don’t want. You can design a Harvest Box with 2 items in it or with 25 items in it. Totally up to you.
“But Mont, I don’t customize my box and I get the (awesome) selection that you choose for me. How will things change for me?” Good question, they won’t. Every week we will continue to “seed” the Harvest Boxes with default items like we do now. And you can rest assured that the price won’t jump around. Consistent from week to week for your budget.
Lots of fun things coming your way. Stay Tuned!
Happy Feast, Farmer Monte
And I need to share one of my favorite stories about John. I was delivering boxes to Placitas one day and it was a route that John usually ran for us. I knocked on the door to drop the boxes and when the manager of the store came out she looked at me and was visibly disappointed. She grumbled “Where is Brad Pitt this week?” I made some joke about John being on the set of A River Runs Through It Part 2 but she definitely didn’t think my joke was funny. At least she and I could agree that John is a rock-star. So Cheers to 10 more John!