Last week I posted about Bountiful Baskets OLD food and GMOs.
The Bountiful Baskets coordinator was completely indifferent to my complaint about receiving in my organic basket lettuce “best used” 3 weeks earlier and she blamed ME for failing to inspect my box and accused me of lying about ordering the organic basket.
Since it’s impossible to reach anyone else at Bountiful Baskets, I contacted Earthbound Farm, the supplier of the old lettuce. They immediately apologized (it was NOT their fault!) and they sent me several coupons, one of which I already used on Earthbound Farm organic cauliflower and it was delicious. But I couldn’t find out how the old lettuce ended up in my Bountiful Basket.
So as I was working in my hoophouse this morning, I noticed that the Bountiful Baskets box I had used to transport tomato plants to our farmstand yesterday was “packed by Kodiak Fresh Produce, Phoenix, AZ.”
Well, well, I think now I know what happened. Kodiak Fresh Produce packs for Bountiful Baskets and that’s how they get rid of old produce for CASH instead of giving it to the food bank.
I never heard of Kodiak Fresh Produce before, but according to their website, they sell wholesale produce and apparently even deliver to various locations. I’d want to talk to them about getting some produce for our co-op if it wasn’t for this lettuce incident.
I’m learning that purchasing high-quality FRESH produce is VERY difficult and likely impossible unless we purchase directly from farms.
We’re looking primarily for FRESH produce and nobody provides a “date harvested.” Now that I had this at least one month old lettuce, I can see why.
You probably heard Budweiser commercials about their date born. From http://www.budweiser.com/en/us/content/king-of-beers/article/fresh-133-years-later
Born On Date
With a standard pull date, you never know when a beer was made – only that it’s no longer drinkable. Our “Born On” date tells you exactly when your Budweiser was brewed. It’s our way of ensuring that each time you pick up a cold one, it’s as fresh as it can possibly be.
Track Your Bud with a Born on Date to see the path a Budweiser takes, from farm to fridge.
Growing up in Germany, I definitely appreciate good beer. But I also appreciate good produce and if Budweiser can put the date on beer, why can’t we have dates on produce? The Earthbound Farm “best used” date is a step in the right direction, but I’d really like to know when my lettuce was picked. After all, the vitamins and nutrients don’t last forever.
So I requested comments about my lettuce investigation from Kodiak Fresh Produce in Phoenix at http://www.kodiakproduce.com/contact/:
REQUEST FOR COMMENTS RE PUBLICATION at https://highdesertpermaculture.org/blog/2013/05/19/kodiak-fresh-produce-packs-garbage-food-for-bountiful-basket/
Thank you,
Christine Baker
I’ll update with their response.
SHAME ON BOUNTIFUL BASKETS for not caring at all!
I’ve heard that the Bountiful Baskets coordinators get paid per basket, so that may have to do with their unwillingness to acknowledge quality issues, although it obviously backfired when they defrauded me. And I don’t believe for a second that the Bountiful Baskets organizers don’t profit as they would have organized as a nonprofit or co-op if they did not profit from the sales. They would be a TRANSPARENT organization and CARE about the food they sell.
Christine,
I don’t have personal experience with Bountiful Baskets, but I have been a regular buyer at Kodiak for at least the past year and a half. And just for the record, I’m a long term raw vegan, believe strongly in naturally grown (and then organically grown) foods and a strong supporter of local farms in my area.
In my experience, I have never found or bought stale dated produce at Kodiak. There have been times when I found and bought ripe fruit, but these were plainly advertised as ripe and priced accordingly (very reasonable).
Sorry to hear about your experience with your basket, but shame on you for posting here on your website that Kodiak packs ‘garbage’ food for profit without first getting a response from the company (it’s Sunday and they are closed) or an explanation from Bountiful Baskets. You are accusing them without speaking to the them first to see if there perhaps was a mistake, what their policies are regarding sell or use by dates or just getting their feedback.
I’ve found Kodiak to always be helpful and my questions answered satisfactorily when I visit to pickup my produce. And I’ve also only bought great quality organic produce in the last year and half from them.
Regarding the ‘inspection’ issue, well yes, I have to agree with them, I NEVER buy my produce sight unseen and ALWAYS inspect everything to make sure it’s what I want and I’m happy with. I may recommend you do the same, it only makes sense to check what you’re buying to avoid disappointment, no? You do that at the supermarket or farmers market, right? It may have been wrong on their part to miss the use by date and include it in your box, agreed, but that could of just been a mistake on someone’s part and could have been avoided with a simple check before leaving the pickup location.
I may recommend you retract your harsh accusation against Kodiak until you are able to get feedback from them and get all the facts. It’s just the fair and right fair thing to do.
Yes I’m a CDL driver who work for Kodiak for about 4 years delivering Bountiful Baskets they always got their produce from the lowest price sometimes or many times had to go through the boxes of produce just to get one or two good ones out of the box and throw the rest out
Mark, I appreciate your comment, but strongly disagree with your contention that it is MY fault that I received this old lettuce because I did not inspect the box when I received it.
When I go to the farmers market I PICK my food and I do NOT pay a week earlier for a box that I receive. When I prepay and can NOT pick my food, I expect top quality, or, as I posted in my initial posting about the Bountiful Baskets food fraud, I expect courteous employees to give me a prompt credit as at Azure Standard.
You’d have to have an IQ below 50 to open and inspect several refrigerated boxes of perishable food in 95 degree temperature that’s already been sitting around OUTSIDE in the sun and then transport it in that heat for at least half an hour, so that you can throw away all the strawberries and even FRESH lettuce when you get home. Notably, the drop coordinator wouldn’t let me touch any of my boxes until she put them in my truck.
I also don’t see anything to retract. I KNOW that Kodiak packed the old lettuce because that’s what it says on the Bountiful Basket box. So, what exactly is your problem?
Whatever explanation Kodiak provides for packing the lettuce with the 3 week earlier expired date, it will be posted here. My guess is that they use Bountiful Baskets as the “food bank” for all sorts of old UNDATED produce and it’s an easy way to make a profit on otherwise unsaleable produce — the kind of stuff that that you’d never see in the store.
Since most produce is NOT dated, we can’t prove that. Last time I checked, I’m still entitled to publicize my opinion under the first amendment and my conclusion is certainly reasonable.
Christine, just so you know, this person “MARK” your chatting with is an employee of Bountiful Baskets
Thanks for the info, that doesn’t surprise me!
For the record, I have not been contacted by Kodiak and that in itself is quite telling.
Thanks for your reply Christine, but as you’d guess, I disagree with YOUR contention.
It’s not your fault, never said that, I merely suggested that this situation could of been avoided if YOU checked your box. Personal responsibility. Takes 20 seconds to peek into the box and look around. C’mon, you don’t have to check 100 boxes, only the one you get or pick. I see the boxes at Kodiak most every week and only takes me seconds to notice if something is not right and rarely have I found anything amiss, it’s always a nice selection of organic fruits and veggies. In fact, it should be plainly simple since probably only 1 item in your box was dated, the lettuce box!
And based on your description of your experience, sounds like you’re not a fan of picking up produce boxes anyway. Your quite negative description of the process may have already biased your opinion. Perhaps co-op produce is not for you to begin with.
Bottom line, you’re smearing Kodiak by claiming they pack ‘garbage’ food suitable for the food bank based ON YOUR ONE TIME PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. Not sure, perhaps it was a mistake or an oversight, maybe? Agree, if it happened several times over and again or to many people over a period of time, you have every right to say that. But ONE box of past dated lettuce and you claim that across the board, in all boxes, this is what they do all the time, this is their business practice?
Wildly unfair assessment and in my opinion, gross misrepresentation. You don’t know that’s what they do, you don’t wait to hear back from them and make your assertion first, but are claiming that’s what they do as a business practice. Why not give them a call and get it from the source?
Again, shame on you. Do your research and find out the facts before making broad claims about a business and announcing it to the world. Of course you have a right to your opinion, but let’s be fair here, this is what they do as a business practice every week based on one box of past dated lettuce? That’s like saying Whole Foods sells moldy oranges because I found one moldy orange at the bottom of my bag of oranges, once, and post to my website that their practice is to sell moldy oranges. Really?
To reiterate, I don’t have any personal experience with Bountiful Baskets, only speaking of my 1.5 year experience buying from Kodiak.
Since you have NO experience whatsoever with Bountiful Baskets, how do you know how long it takes to inspect the produce in the box?
As I mentioned Christine, I don’t have personal experience with buying from Bountiful Baskets and interacting with them DIRECTLY, however, I see their baskets almost every week when they are available at the Kodiak warehouse when I visit to purchase my produce. Extra baskets (or boxes) are available to purchase at their location so I have seen hundreds of them over the last year and half.
Is it true that your were / are a Kodiak employee as Tim posted?
For someone who never actually saw a Bountiful Basket box packed with veggies and knows NOTHING about Bountiful Baskets and quality issues with their food you sure are awfully loud mouthed.
And I’ll appreciate a link to YOUR blog. Trying to figure out why you care so little about the people and so much about the corporations.
Well if we’re going to get into name calling, I don’t play that game. I respect your differing opinion opinion, but will not be dragged into slurs.
As I said, I’ve seen hundreds of baskets/boxes, not sure where you are drawing your conclusion that I’ve never seen one? I see them most every week, please know that for a fact. There is a Bountiful Basket pickup location at Kodiak so I see them most every time they are there. Will be glad to take a picture next time, but I certainly don’t need to prove that to you. The point is not whether I’ve seen a basket or not, it’s that fact that you are slurring an organization, making flat out blanket claims, based on one basket and one experience. That’s just not right or fair and most any fair minded person would agree.
If you provided a service and you made one mistake or messed something up, would you think it fair if I wrote a blog post claiming how you ripped me off and more to the point, how you rip off all your customers? Based on only my one experience, with no other evidence of what kind of work you do? It’s just not right.
I don’t favor a business or a person or an organization over any other, I believe in fairness. If you’re right, I’ll support you. If a business is right, I’ll support them. If either are wrong or doing something I believe is wrong, I’ll stand up for what I believe is right.
I’m a strong supporter of local farms, farmers markets and businesses, as well as my right to freedom, to buy or grow my own foods naturally, as well as supporting those that do the right thing.
So again, I recommend withholding your blanket accusations until you get all the facts. That’s fair isn’t it? It doesn’t appear that fairness makes a difference to you based on your replies, but I may be wrong.
I’d like to continue this discussion at YOUR site.
Again, I have the facts:
1) Kodiak was responsible for packing the lettuce 3 weeks after the expiration date.
2) Kodiak has yet to acknowledge my request for comments aside from the automatic message advising that they received it yesterday.
3) You seem a little lame brained and you are basing your insulting ridiculous demands on assumptions instead of basing them on the facts that I posted.
For example, I didn’t just have ONE basket to inspect, but I also had ordered oranges, strawberries, rhubarb and bread. I would have had to spend AT LEAST half an hour inspecting everything.
Additionally, I was HOPING to pick up 5 or 10 more baskets in the future as we have been promoting Bountiful Baskets.
Now here comes the SCIENCE that totally eludes you despite my previous explanation:
When you open a refrigerated box, the cold air goes out and the warm air goes in. You take all items out. Inspect everything, check for bruises, mold, decay, take packaged items like the salad out of the plastic packaging, inspect it carefully and then put it all back in the box to drive it around for at least half an hour.
If I had actually emptied the 8 containers of STRAWBERRIES at the pickup to inspect each strawberry for mold, they would have seriously degraded by the time they got in the fridge.
One should probably TASTE the goods too. Who wants bitter lettuce and you don’t get a refund if you wait until you’re eating it.
You’re right, I really do NOT like getting boxed food and I would much rather pick it myself. However, being 60 miles from the nearest supermarket and 100 miles from the nearest farmers market, TJ’s, Whole Foods or Sprouts, we don’t have much of a choice.
And as I previously posted (are you really that lame brained?), I’m VERY happy with the Azure Standard Co-op as they give prompt and courteous credits.
So, that’s it for you Mark – it’s MY blog, you’re not willing to provide yours and you’ve spewed enough BS at MY site.
Hey Christine, BS? Nice. Please continue this conversation with yourself, I certainly won’t lower myself to name calling and dealing with someone that only sees one side of the story and won’t answer the questions I’ve proposed to prove the points or put them to rest. And apparently is not interested in a fair, intelligent and respectful exchange.
This has nothing to do with how long it takes to inspect a box/basket, which you’ve turned this into, and everything with making a blanket accusation based on one experience. You’ve never even addressed that, so you took yourself out of the conversation.
If you don’t see that, no worries, apparently we’re the only ones having this conversation so all the best with your blatant accusation practices. You’re not interested in what’s fair, you just seem to want to complain and make a big deal out of one single poor experience and make baseless accusations.
And I don’t have an active blog, again not sure what that has to do with anything. You posted a complaint and solicited comments on your blog, so here I am.
All the best to you and your cause.
Now that you repeated yourself for the umpteenth time, I really hope this is your last post.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING AND NOW MOVE ON 🙂
Bountiful Baskets calls themselves a non-profit and not a business on their website. They were incorporated in AZ as a business. http://starpas.azcc.gov/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=wsbroker1/names-detail.p?name-id=15466984&type=CORPORATION
but it was apparently administratively dissolved and there hasn’t been paperwork filed for the last three years. They also apparently don’t completely follow the International Cooperative Alliance statement of identity and cooperative principles. None of the participants vote for any leadership nor policies of the group, nor are there bylaws on their website. It’s a large buying club and not a Cooperative Enterprise where the people who participate get a chance to own the company as should be with any Cooperative. I don’t have a problem with what they do, barring some old produce that gets into a basket, but they should be less sneaky about it and calling themselves a Co-op when it really isn’t.
David
Philadelphia, PA
http://ica.coop/en/what-co-op/co-operative-identity-values-principles
David, thanks so much for the links! It never occurred to me to look them up.
It’s about more than the occasional old food.
Clearly, they INTENDED to be a FOR PROFIT business.
They probably realized how expensive it is to get started as you have to comply with so many food regulations (I’m learning that just running a farmstand).
So their corporation got dissolved and now they reap the profits PRETENDING to be a not for profit organization or co-op. I’d think that if you were in a buying club, you’d KNOW what you’ll get. At Bountiful Basket, you have no idea — the only thing you do know is how much money you’ll hand them BEFORE you see the food.
As big as they now are, it must be a ton of work!
I DO believe that people SHOULD be paid for their work, but I’m guessing that they get more than they deserve for shipping low quality and even GMO food. What’s really lacking is a passion for HIGH QUALITY and NUTRIENT DENSE food. Obviously, OLD food is never very nutritious.
They don’t even have a VM on the # listed on my credit card statement and of course they don’t answer it.
There is NO way to contact them through their website!
I suppose they don’t file tax returns either.
I’m no longer surprised that Kodiak ignored me too.
Criminy! No one is forcing you to buy from Bountiful Baskets! Don’t, if you don’t like it. There are millions of us that do…and love it.
I hope that no one is forcing anyone to read this and considering that “millions” are loving it, it is really troubling that “somebody” is making mega bucks off this food fraud.
I am not loving it. I am still waiting for a credit for an order they cancelled because they couldn’t deliver it. My friend told me it would take about 6 weeks before I see the credit. I asked Bountiful Bakets, but they have never responded.
I found you website on while searching for Kodiak produce that were the provided of the tortillas; they were wonderful by the way. I wondered how they did the produce and now I understand that they really have this company do it.
I am concerned if they are getting paid for basket since the tout being a co-op and they do not get paid. “This is a grassroots, all volunteer, no contracts, no catch co-operative.”
I have been getting bountiful baskets for a while and really do not have a big issue with quality. Just about all produce has to shipped where I live in the winter. I was wondering how do you know that the zucchini was GMO. Was it marked? I assume that you are getting items that are in season and likely an excess. That does not bother me. If I have too much I can or dehydrate. I have never seen a picked date but it was an idea I was thinking of when I hopefully have enough to sell or barter with.
I was not supper happy on bountiful baskets for expecting me to open my wheat bag for inspection. I will next time bring a bucket I store the wheat in so I can check it. An open bag being transported seem like an accident about to happen. I moved it around to make sure the grains were loose and had not gotten wet and lumped up. I think I will find another source for them..When I pick up my vegetables they are in two laundry type of baskets. It is easy to pick them out and check them at the same time.
I just wish the real true co-op were not as far as they are.
GMOs are NOT labeled at all, which is why we do NOT eat any foods that COULD be genetically modified unless they are ORGANIC or NON GMO Certified. It is so sad that Bountiful Baskets distributes these foods.
I’m also concerned with so much of the BB food coming from Mexico, where RAW SEWAGE is often sprayed on veggies. That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t eat food from an INSPECTED Mexican farm, but BB inspects NOTHING and distributes the CHEAPEST food they can find without any regard for quality.
OBVIOUSLY they’ve been providing lots of damaged or old food or they would be offering refunds as the Azure Standard and Frontier Co-ops instead of requiring these ridiculous inspections. At our Bountiful Baskets location you were NOT allowed to pick your own produce.’
I just hope that many people will actually grow their own organic and nutrient dense food. Unfortunately, we won’t get a real national produce co-op like Bountiful Basket until BB is out of business because so few consumers understand how important it is to get high quality FRESH produce.
Ever wonder why Bountiful Basket and Kodiak have NOT responded to my requests for comments?
I can tell you after reading your opinions spewed as “fact”, I would not reply to you either. You don’t seem like a pleasant person.
If you want non-GMO, get the organic basket. If you don’t care if it’s GMO or not, get the conventional. Simple. If you get add-ons or an orgainic basket, you have the right to refuse it. Simple. But if you don’t want to take the 90 seconds to inspect it before leaving, don’t yell SCAM at other people. Did you read anything on their website or your contribution confirmation at all before making your contribution? Did you not familiarize yourself with what you were contributing for before doing it?
I’ve got baskets for almost a year and have never had bad produce. In fact, most things need to ripen yet before I can eat them. You declaring that everything in the baskets is old based off of one head of lettuce seems a bit extreme. You also make comments that coordinators get paid – that is also completely false. These sites are completely volunteer run. So when you call them “employees” like you did in one comment, that shows your ignorance.
Hey “Bdubbs”,
You wrote:
“I can tell you after reading your opinions spewed as “fact”, I would not reply to you either.”
Uhm, so why are you replying?
If you’re so happy with Bountiful Baskets, why are you reading my review?
Looks to me like you’re one of the people profiting from this FULLY DOCUMENTED Bountiful Basket SCAM.
FYI, future moronic comments like “Bdubbs” will NOT be approved. If you’ve got something to say at MY site, post with your REAL full name, location and the reason why this is of interest to you.
THANK YOU!
http://www.foodcoopinitiative.coop is a place to start building the knowledge to organize your community to build and own your own community grocery storefront. It is not easy because there are people who will buy from Bountiful Baskets for price and think they are supporting a no-profit Co-op. Education and outreach to get the right information out will be your challenge.
Good Luck at building your own grocery Co-op in your town.
Think of Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op this way, they trade on the Food Co-op brand without meeting the principles and standards. The distribution company, Kodiak buys low grade product to supplement their inline goods that are good quality. They have trucks and a distribution center but no other employees lowering the distribution company’s overhead. They encourage “volunteers” to unload, unpack and distribute the goods, no paid employees. Who reaps the top line profit? The principles who own the distribution company and not the people who buy from them.
Think of the “millions” of participants and the few dollars of profit per capita that doesn’t go to pay the “volunteers” or the rent for the “drop off” locations that are probably free for the local groups. There’s a lot of money being concentrated for Kodiak and since it’s only few bucks per order, not worth more than a complaint to the people who don’t like the product.
Again nothing wrong with this model, what is sneaky would be the way they present to the public as a non-profit non-business that trades on the goodwill and reputation of your local Food Co-op storefront.
The National Cooperative Business Association would be a place to start on remedying the less that honest way these people at Kodiak are pushing Bountiful Baskets out to the nation. http://www.ncba.coop
Oh, and notice how Mark just dropped off this conversation.
I am a Volunteer Site Coordinator for Bountiful Baskets. Christine, you made your contribution for your produce, you had to click a box stating you understand you are to inspect the produce at the time of pick-up. You had to click that box for your contribution to go through. If you failed to inspect that produce, that is of your own doing. You checked the box agreeing to that stipulation. Period.
I can also vouch that the only thing a VSC receives as “payment” for their time and often money is one basket of conventional produce. That’s it. No money earned or paid.
You got paid $15 (the value of the basket).
My “contributions” were PAYMENTS made to PURCHASE high quality produce, which it wasn’t. So I’m no longer buying.
Bountiful Baskets does NOT purchase from local family owned farms.
As others have found through their own research, Bountiful Baskets is NOT a non profit or co-op, but was incorporated as FOR PROFIT corporation.
There are much better alternatives for nutrient dense quality foods from people who respect their customers and don’t have idiotic rules such as having to unpack and inspect the food (make sure you turn every strawberry) at noon in summer outside.
Period.
I agree with Christine. The produce is sub-par. Most of the volunteers (men) don’t carefully inspect the fruit or veggies that go into the baskets. I volunteered every week and I got black spots on my spuds, yellowed broccolini, black on my lettuce, black inside my pears, and God knows what else. I then tried the organic box and the salads were limp and gross. I often stewed the fruits, as most of the time, they were mush. I now buy a couple fruits and veg. each week, and am paying about the same, with higher quality. Kodiak gives BB bad or on the verge of spoiled produce. Tanya and Sally are probably making lots of money and why not. They are savvy business women. They just won’t get my money. I tried this for 8 months, and volunteered weekly.
Regarding inspecting your produce when you pick it up….. This was my first time to buy from BB. I inspected my organic box of veggies and fruit and found an old lettuce and two very bruised nectarines. When I brought it to the attention of the volunteers, I was told I could either take the basket “as is” or leave it because they didn’t have anything to replace it with. Which, of course, tells me that whether or not you inspect it, you will still not get a replacement. The volunteers were very nice, but nice doesn’t replace old and bruised produce. I think I will give it one more try and order the regular basket.
I don’t understand why you’re willing to accept substandard produce. And if you had refused it, you’d be out the time and money to go to the pickup.
And the worst part is after 6-8 weeks you get a credit to use at some other time. It doesn’t go into your bank account. So you still have to buy another box of sub-par produce.
That’s true. I still have a credit too — and won’t be using it.
Couldn’t use it if I wanted to because the Dolan Springs deliveries got shut down.
I am really sorry to hear you guys have had problems with the bountiful baskets I do admit I don’t use it in the summer time the heat in Arizona effects the greens even picking up the product at 630am the lettuce and other greens can be wilted just because well the temperatures can’t be controled outside. But since you don’t like it there are plenty of farmers markets through out major cities anymore where you can but fresh from the growers. But to slam a Produce company as sell crap and garbage not worthy of a food bank on a one time purchase is wrong period. Sorry but the truth of the matter is that though yes the internet is a wonderful way to post your opinion you still it doesn’t make it ethical to do.
You expected an answer on a Sunday which is plain stupid most companies are closed on Sunday’s if they are in the wholesale business and even if you had reached someone you would have had to wait for customer service or sales to come in on Monday. Once you got into the name calling and publically degrading them would not make me want to jump through hoops for you. Plus the boxes say packaged by Kodiak for them not purchased, graded, and guarnteed through them duh! Your beef is with one company Bountiful Baskets if your not happy don’t use them. See how simple that is and buy your produce at the grocery store or local growers.
Are you a representative of Kodiak?
Is this the response to my email and notice of publication from Kodiak?
No I have no connection to Kodiak I do purchase baskets from bountiful baskets co-op. Part of my job is mediation for disputes between private parties and companies. I know it is easy to be mad and pissed off we all expect instant results and resolution. I believe in the five minute rule and trust me you really do catch more flies with honey then vinegar. It might have taken longer to get a reponse an extra day or so but I am sure the results would have been resolved with out as much inflamming words. Hope you have a great day.
Re: “which is plain stupid”
“my job is mediation for disputes between private parties and companies.”
“more flies with honey then vinegar.”
Do you consider calling someone’s action “stupid” to be honey or vinegar?
“I know it is easy to be mad and pissed off we all expect instant results and resolution.”
Do you really think that waiting for 2 years is “instant results and resolution?”
Which part of the Kodiak and Bountiful Baskets responses do you consider timely?
I wonder if this Stormy is a site host for BB in Prescott? How many people are named Stormy?
Would just like to comment I have been buying from Kodiak for YEARS! I work close to their business and I buy everything I can from them. I have had exceptional, service and have had great success with high quality products from them, when there was an issue all I did was call and they had me bring back any item I was unsatisfied with. I think you should give them a chance as they are a great company who have really been there for the public so that we could afford to purchase great quality food for canning and for eating fresh
?????????????
Over 2 years ago I requested comments from Kodiak. At no time did I state that they can only respond by a certain date.
I’m still waiting ….
How do you suppose I “give them a chance?”
FYI, I’d shop there too if I wasn’t 250 miles away as I’m sure you can pick your own produce, right? I’m guessing the CRAP they packed was just for Bountiful Baskets.
Also, as a satisfied customer, what prompted you to search for complaints about Kodiak on the web?
I’m glad I came across your blog when I was searching more about Bountiful Baskets. I think no one should volunteer their time for them and they are the rudest people I have ever come across. I cannot find anything about them with a well known co-op organization, cannot find anything about their non for profit registering (despite the fact that they have a corporate headquarters, according to their contribution list availability), and have the worst exchange with them regarding constructive criticism and what is going on in our area as far as contributions. I am now beginning to think they are a scam. Their scam won’t work for me. If it makes others happy, then fine. But it certainly did not make me happy at all.
I’m surprised that most people don’t figure out that Bountiful Baskets is not what they claim it is and that the produce isn’t even GMO free, not to mention not very nutritious since it’s not exactly fresh.
I think BB is shady. They’re absolutely making a profit and I’d like to see the IRS pay a visit to Sally and Tanya. I also think you sound certifiably bat sh1t crazy. Maybe you should start growing your own food – that way you don’t have to worry about scary GMOs, mold, or interacting with humans.
Of course we try to grow as much food as we can. In fact, in 2011 I started the local gardening club to get as many people as possible to start growing food.
However, that does not make me worry about GMOs any less! I just got our water test results and found out that our PRISTINE aquifer, about 700+ feet deep, actually has detectable levels of glyphosate and 2,4-D, the herbicide in the “new and improved” Roundup (or whatever they’ll call it.) There’s NEVER been any chemical farming whatsoever in this desert. So I suppose we can blame the homeowners who spray Roundup on the weeds we get when we actually have significant rains. More info on toxins we regularly eat and drink:
http://highdesertfood.org/forum/gmos-roundup-and-other-toxins/
Regarding molds, it appears that there’s no place where gardeners and farmers don’t battle downy mildew and powdery mildew and I just posted some remedies:
http://highdesertfood.org/forum/gardening-resources/downy-mildew/
It’s NOT the kind of mold that terrifies me, but it’s annoying when the plants die.
You got a lot to learn, girl, but you’re not the only one and that’s why I post the information.
if they are making a profit, it isnt much…they have filed bankruptcy
I have noticed that BB has sub par produce. Every single time I get something that has gone bad. The lettuce I get has always been wilted as well as other greens, if I get them. This has been my experience from several baskets and from 2 different states. I keep getting them though because they are cheap and not all of it is bad and I like buying the bulk items for canning although there have been times I wish I would have inspected the produce better. A lot of times the produce needs to be eaten immediately or it goes bad but I can’t preserve lettuce by canning or freezing it. I just have to plan on canning the bulk boxed produce immediately after receiving it. If I weren’t wanting to buy the bulk produce though, I wouldnt get a BB. My 15 bucks goes farther even at my old WY rural overpriced supermarket. In AZ, I can get much better quality and quantity produce at Sprouts for my 15 bucks. Afterall, what the heck do you do with fennel?! I tried to feed it to my family who are pretty open-minded eaters but they couldn’t get past the licorice flavor and I just had to toss the leftovers. It just seems like a waste to put that kind of odd produce in the BB. There was not one tomato, carrot, onion, or garlic in the basket. I got a bunch of lemons, nasty looking grapefruit and old grapes for the fruit. Not one apple, banana, or orange. It seems like they are just trying to get rid of produce they can’t sell anywhere else. Since you have no idea what you are going to get in your BB, you have to take what you get. Weird and wilted veggies and old fruit. But I’m still buying from them because the bulk boxes are worth it for the price. When I’m done canning though, I’m not buying a regular BB. I’ll go to Sprouts.
Trisha, apparently BB food quality has declined rather than improved. I also liked the bulk items much more than the baskets which you are REQUIRED to order to get bulk produce. And while I didn’t appreciate Kodiak packing the OLD stuff for BB, I would definitely shop there if I wasn’t 250 miles away. They do have a wide variety of organics at excellent prices (you can subscribe to their email list for more info) and of course you can inspect everything before buying.
I’m glad the Kingman Safeway is getting more organics and prices are getting lower too. Just wish we had a farmers market, the best place to get a lot cheap (to preserve) at the end of the day.
Speaking of Kingman, my boyfriend was a delivery driver for BB/Kodiak and did the Kingman deliveries.
Kodiak/BB fired him without his knowledge. He went in on Nov 3, 2015 to do the Kingman run and was kicked out of the office by Greg, apparently Greg is in charge and has no concern for the drivers or the sub par produce they deliver. The misunderstanding was in regards to the truck he was supposed to take out on the deliveries and since Greg was not happy about the truck, he told my boyfriend to go home and would not give him work. They have refused to allow him to cash out his vacation time to compensate for the lost wages. My boyfriend was given a letter today by HR, dated yesterday that he was terminated 11/2/15. This was after he met with HR and Greg yesterday to go over his employment status and vacation pay. Greg stormed out as my boyfriend asked for proof that he was contacted to go out on a run last week and refused to talk to him, yet he was fired on 11/2/15.KODIAK LIES!!
When my boyfriend and I started dating over 3 years ago i was always excited about any extras they may have or driver packages. Now, I don’t even care the produce is wilted and the bread mold by the time he gets home. We used to buy our produce from the warehouse in Phoenix on Saturdays and they are just not worth anyone’s time or money.
Kodiak overall has declined tremendously over the last 3 years. They treat their drivers poorly, they do not care about customer service, they do not care about the product they put out and do not care about the safety of the drivers as well as the public.
Please if you get a Kodiak driver that is late, exhausted, or frustrated. It’s probably has to do with what he/she is dealing with at the company. The drivers are unappropriated and overworked.
Fry’s food store is getting more and more organic and I enjoy the produce as well as the price.
Just because Kodiak puts a “Organic” label on it doesn’t always mean it’s better.
Remember Kodiak is always looking for a deal too. The produce you get may be cheaper because it is aged/overripe as Kodiak purchased it that way.
Thanks so much for your detailed post!
I did not realize how involved Kodiak is with Bountiful Baskets. It almost sounds like it IS BB, employing the BB drivers.
I’m beginning to understand why Kodiak never responded to my request for comments, looks like the truth about BB is worse than what I thought.
And it really makes me wonder about the legal issues here:
What exactly IS Bountiful Baskets?
A total fraud? Nothing but Kodiak’s and possibly other companies’ for profit activity disguised as a co-op?
HOW does the money flow?
Regarding your boyfriend’s firing, it’s really tough to be in a “right to work” state like Arizona. Don’t know whether it’s worth your/his time to talk to lawyers. It’s going to be hard to PROVE who said what.
DOCUMENT all communications, either by WRITING (email is great) to Kodiak and demand written responses or RECORDING conversations. If they lie and you can prove it, you have a much better case.
In Arizona you are legally allowed to record conversations without disclosing it (as long as ONE party, such as your boyfriend, knows about the recording) and I would definitely be recording every phone call and conversation.
I am glad I came upon this site. I was doing some research on BB mainly because there are no sites in Tampa, Florida and I was seriously considering opening up a site. So, I was googling around and first I google the good, then the bad and finally the ugly! First off I have to say ROFL to the one who thinks you are bats&%t crazy. I laughed so loud I almost woke up my little girl, hehehe. That person must be young is all I can say. I remember being young and not having a care (or fear) in this world of ours!
I am not really concerned on their status mainly because even if they are non-profit, they are allowed to make however much money they feel is necessary to run their non-profit and pay salaries for themselves (google up some salaries of the CEOs of some high profile non-profits if you want the shock of your life regarding non-profits and then google exactly how much of your $1 donation ACTUALLY goes to that said non-profit for an even bigger shock). I think what I am most concerned about is their declining in decent veggies/fruits and their crappy refund practice.
Guess I am going to have to check into what I can get wholesale locally and start up my own “co-op” and seeing what interest I can garner up here to get something like this going. Simply taking all that is bad with BB and making it into something good that I can do locally.
Angi 🙂
Angi, you’re definitely right about many large non profits paying excessive salaries, etc. But most SMALL non profits have NO salary expenses at all and directors generally don’t get paid. I speak from personal experience 🙂 Whatever it is, it has to be disclosed and of course I realize that people HAVE to get paid to run a giant outfit like BB. I think if BB customers found out that Sallie gets paid $50k/month when someone like me posts their financials, they’d be upset. And since BB doesn’t have to supply financials as they’re not a non profit we’ll never know. Just like we don’t know where their food comes from, which chemicals were sprayed on them, what’s genetically modified, etc.
I also really DO care that the Frontier Natural Foods Co-op gives many grants to small farmers worldwide and helps them grow food organically and sustainably.
If just half of all “consumers” cared about OTHERS and supported fair trade, sustainable and GMO free agriculture, we’d have not only a much higher quality food supply, but also so much less pollution. I’m constantly deciding whether to save a buck or get higher quality food and not being rich, that’s often a tough choice.
I hope that you’ll not just look at pricing (wholesale), but at QUALITY. And that may just not be possible going through wholesale sources. Buying from LOCAL FARMERS is the way to go. MEET the people and WALK the farm. Don’t you have farmers markets?
I find that at the end of their last day in Vegas farmers give INCREDIBLE deals because they don’t want to take any produce back to California. Some give it all to churches or to the food bank.
The more I learn about the food industry, the less I want to buy at stores.
I must agree with all the negative comments concerning Kodiak and BB. It’s a disgusting place to buy produce, vegetables and a disgusting place to work. I have witnessed firsthand on how Kodiak / BB conducts business personally. I am a former employee that I am blessed that I no longer work for this company. The unethical tactic of how they treat employees, Kodiak customers, BB customers is shameful. The owner should be barred from doing business publicly.
As mentioned earlier I completely agree with ALL the negative comments shared on this page. Kudos for Christine to speak her mind just as the others has shared whether it’s been positive or negative. After reading the few positive comments I assume that they are profited somehow to defend these 2 companies or they are just dumbfounded and don’t know any better.
Sincerely,
The inside scoop 🙂
Hi Christine, I’ve come back to see that no one who is supportive of BB have even acknowledged my comments, let alone engaged me. I think that they’d hope I would go away. If you do the math with a hundred baskets at over hundreds of sites at 50 cents surplus revenue per basket that could be hundreds of thousands of dollars a quarter or millions a year, but that is a guess because since they are not an IRS registered non-profit 501(c)3 charity there are no financials available to anyone for review. Can’t prove or disprove anything about them.
They trade on the reputation of Co-op to get buy-in from “volunteers” and have a great business model. Their Federal tax obligations are on the level but imagine if the local governments realized that this was really a registered Arizona corporation? No taxes on probably donated space, no rent, no property taxes, no wages, low overhead and more top line profit for the real owners, Tanya, Sally and Kodiak Produce which has top line quality goods but now and then get low quality stuff and send it to the hundreds of basket sites across dozens of states and they get cash for it, prepaid with credit card, “contributions.”
The get local lifestyle reporters to basically print their news release with the help of “volunteers” who get to pick over the baskets for themselves as compensation instead of being paid. It’s not a scam in that they are some outfit on a house of cards, they are not. They are dividing and conquering across the country because Co-ops haven’t done a good enough job at education the community what a cooperative enterprise is. “A co-operative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.”
These kinds of reports pop up every week as free marketing for BB http://www.gctelegram.com/news/local/food-co-op-makes-its-way-to-southwest-kansas/article_834b785b-07cd-5196-a563-20aae55841a1.html
When a locality stops a site, there’s not a big loss for BB of Kodiak because there’s no rent, or unemployment they contributed to, they just move on to the next site. Arizona’s Co-op identity laws are weak or non-existent so they can call themselves a Co-op without legal ramifications. However more and more Co-ops are finding out about the ICANN top domain of dot co-op and the lead agency would never grant them a dot coop domain. As more people are educated and ask the right kinds of questions, fewer people will decide to sign up thinking it’s a cooperative enterprise and that they are in it only for the cheap produce, and bread and other second line goods. Then it will be honest and the contribution will be called a payment and any taxes due to the local governments would be paid.
The most we can do is to educate and reach people to teach them how an ICA principled Cooperative Enterprise would operate. Visit this site for your own education on what the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers did in 1844 – http://ica.coop/en/whats-co-op/co-operative-identity-values-principles
Keep this up and available Christine and than you!
You’re very welcome and thanks for the info on the law. Arizona is not exactly a consumer rights state and it is very unfortunate that any “for profit” can call itself co-op.
And it is even more unfortunate that the MSM (main stream media) is little more than a mouth piece for corporations and governments.
It’s been almost 3 years now since I requested comments from Kodiak. We have over 50 comments in response to this post, but NOTHING from Kodiak.
They just don’t care.
I don’t want to say it’s your fault per say, I mean they should open the box for you. You make a good point at a farmers market you pick it, which means you see and touch the product before purchase. Customers should do the same here. You also pay more at a farmers market than through Bountiful Baskets, though. Reality is produce goes bad no matter where you purchase it or how much you pay. I’ve been doing BB for 5 years, no complaints. If they don’t care, it’s probably because they are volunteers. Make the change you want to see by getting involved.
Please don’t make it look like BB is “volunteers”. If you read all the comments, you know they’re a for profit corporation.
“Reality is produce goes bad no matter where you purchase it or how much you pay.”
That may be YOUR reality and goes to show how little you know. People tell me all the time how my lettuce is SO good and it lasted two weeks in their fridge (and I’m thinking, why didn’t you eat it for two weeks?!)
And apparently you totally missed that the lettuce was EXPIRED several weeks before Bountiful Basket delivered it to me. You didn’t follow the LINK in my post here, which was an update to https://highdesertpermaculture.org/blog/2013/05/13/bountiful-baskets-old-food-and-gmos/
Please click on the link and look at the picture.
I don’t know about YOUR farmers markets, but I can definitely taste the difference.
Maybe you’ve never eaten any fresh produce?
Now that Kodiak has dropped BB, which they did last week, we can really know whether BB can exist without Kodiak. I’m going to guess no.
Interesting. Is THAT why they just “took a week off”?
I still get their mailings and remember seeing that. I suppose they found someone else, or it would be more than a week.
I really hope the Kingman farmers market opening in September will do well and encourage many more locals to grow food!
They haven’t found anyone else on a regional scale but if they don’t string the customer base along people will leave.
Can’t wait for next week’s email!
From today’s BB email:
Updates by state-
Alabama: waiting for approval from vendor on test
Arizona: testing this week – 2 sites running!
Arkansas: testing this week – the 1 and only site running!
Colorado: waiting for approval from vendor on test locations
Georgia: waiting for approval from vendor on test locations
Idaho: waiting for approval from vendor on test locations
Iowa: waiting for approval from vendor on test locations
Kansas: waiting for approval from vendor on test locations
Kentucky: waiting for approval from vendor on test locations
Louisiana: reached out, awaiting responses
Minnesota: waiting for approval from vendor on test locations
Missouri: Southern MO is testing this week – 2 sites are running; Northern MO – waiting for approval from vendor on test locations
Montana: East and West both waiting for approval on test locations from different vendors
Nebraska: waiting for approval from vendor on test locations
New Mexico: reached out, awaiting responses
North Dakota: waiting for approval from vendor on test locations
Nevada: waiting for approval from vendor on test locations
Oklahoma: second week and expanded testing this week – 19 sites running! (Test Basket Pictured Above!)
Oregon: waiting for approval from vendor on test locations
South Dakota: waiting for approval from vendor on test locations
Tennessee: reached out, awaiting responses
Texas: waiting for approval from vendor on test locations
Utah: reached out, awaiting responses
Washington: waiting for approval from vendor on test locations
Wyoming: waiting for approval from vendor on test locations
I have no idea what they’re doing.
Also from their email:
Somebody should sue them — unless they recently became a co-op, they’re NOT a co-op!
Azure Standard also puts out those same lies and they are as greedy as they come and exploit volunteers just like BB. Have to write about Azure Standard on a slow day. FOR PROFIT businesses need to stop exploiting volunteers!
If somebody wants to volunteer for Walmart, fine — they know they’re volunteering for a for profit corporation. This “co-op” deception really bothers me.
Anyway, the BB email identifies only:
Is “Sally & Tanya” the name of the business?
And it sure is WEIRD that the last email was only about taking a week off.
You won…they are no longer in business. Go bug someone else
Jayson, if they’re out of business it’s because they never were a “co-op” and they TRIED to deceive their customers.
You also posted above “if they are making a profit, it isnt much…they have filed bankruptcy” and maybe someone has some more info on exactly WHO filed for bankruptcy. As I recall, the corporation was dissolved?
Kodiak stopped packing the boxes for them because they didn’t get paid?
FYI, Kodiak NEVER responded to me.
Kodiak stopped packing boxes because they had no money to buy products. They are so far in debt it’s ridiculous. They one vendor alone over $100,000 which they have no intentions of paying.
Speaking of owing money Blair had approximately 12 employees that never received thier final paychecks. In one week alone Blair the owner of Kodiak had a payroll expense of over $365,000. Think about that payroll, he had at least a dozen employees left during his last few weeks in business and just say for example each employee was making $1,000 a week which they weren’t that would come out to $12,000 for the week and he would have his own paycheck for the week. Let’s just say for kicks and Giggles he was making $5,000 per week, that’s $17,000 for payroll for the week. Where did $348,000 go? The CFO confronted Blair about this missing money and he said don’t worry about it. The following week the CFO was released from employment at Kodiak Produce.
Blair the owner of Kodiak Produce is such a sleazeball, vindictive corrupt business person that portrays himself as a highly religious Mormon person. I don’t know how this man wakes up each morning thinking about how he is going to screw his next person or business over.
Blair I hope you are reading this. I hope you get what you deserve coming to you and that you get indicted on fraud, embezzling and what other charges Arizona, employees, vendors and any other states can bring upon on you. I hope to God I am standing there as you are escorted and whisked away with handcuffs on your wrist.
It sounds like you have a bone in this mess! And, I just looked up a lawsuit by vendors against Kodiak, Blair, Gretchen and a number of LLCs they own. Numerous vendors are listed as “intervenor plaintiffs” and on 9/9/16 the court granted a preliminary injunction to prevent “dissipation of PACA trust assets.”
The total amount claimed by the numerous plaintiffs is $2,020,279.63 — apparently they haven’t paid anyone in a long time.
HOWEVER, as of today there is NO mention of bankruptcy and if any of the parties had filed for bankruptcy, it would show up on the docket.
So this explains why Bountiful Baskets looked for new vendors in August when Kodiak vendors likely stopped deliveries because they didn’t get paid. The lawsuit against Kodiak was filed on 8/29/16. Apparently EVERYTHING BB sold came from Kodiak.
I assume that BB quit because they couldn’t find other vendors. Bountiful Baskets is not mentioned in any of the docs I’ve seen.
Thank you all for providing this information. I suspected something was not right with bountiful baskets. I have seen Kodiak Foods on the side of the truck when I volunteered as well as on some foods such as the coconut oil. Here is some more info:
On September 2, 2016 a Temporary Restraining Order was granted against Kodiak Fresh Produce, LLC., Phoenix, Arizona in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona under Case #CV-16-00580-TUC-RM. https://www.producebluebook.com/blog/2016/09/08/temporary-restraining-order-granted-against-kodiak-fresh-produce-llc/
Also Kodiak food website says account suspended. http://www.kodiakproduce.com/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi
Keep spreading the word about BB. I don’t Facebook or blog or other online networking but I plan to inform people locally. From your info it seems we have 19 sites back up and running here in Oklahoma. Guess we are just too trusting.
P.S. One of the red flags: BB says that recent changes were to provide local produce. However one of the “offerings” this week at my location was blueberries from Argentina.
Hey so I bumped into this thread from google. I was a volunteer coordinator for BB in my area.
Kodiak very suddenly dropped bountiful baskets. It was not a choice on BB’s end. Kodiak cited “business decision” as the cause. I saw the letter from Kodiak myself.
If Kodiak is in financial trouble, then this would make sense.
I actually liked Bountiful Baskets in general, and I can see the way S & T are trying to keep things positive from a PR standpoint by suggesting they are just trying to go local. Really they have been forced to find an entirely new supplier for every location, and that means multiple suppliers since they’d be hard pressed to find one willing to truck produce to half the country every weekend.
Sally and Tanya have always insisted that they are unpaid. I have spoken to them personally. They do it because they like everyone to have cheap produce and running the group is/was like a hobby to them.
“Volunteer coordinators” are also unpaid. They do send an extra basket each trip that the coordinator keeps, if nothing goes wrong (like stealing a basket or things going missing). If needed, the coordinator gives up the free basket. I’d hardly call that getting paid. If is was, we’d all have to claim it on our taxes.
Did you actually read my posting?
Harry, since they are back in business and back to reaping profits, I have some questions for you. You wrote:
You know Sally and Tanya PERSONALLY. How about you let us know why they are NOT a co-op?
I mean a REAL co-op, not a fake co-op selling cheap old produce. You don’t seem to get it. Nobody needs CHEAP food. We HAVE cheap food in every market. I can buy what’s in their baskets CHEAPER at the supermarket! People need HIGH QUALITY, FRESH and NUTRIENT DENSE food.
I would FULLY support them if my gut didn’t tell me that they are making a ton of money off gullible people like you who don’t know what fresh and high quality food is and off VOLUNTEERS who work for Sally and Tanya free of charge.
I’m all for getting FRESH and LOCAL food to people. However, since Sally and Tanya have deplorable business practices and I KNOW and fully DOCUMENTED that they sold cheap old food and then had the audacity to NOT give me a refund, they’re liars and scammers until otherwise PROVEN.
Just a little comment that my google search found “bountiful baskets food co-op” is a registered trademark of Kodiak Fresh Produce, LLC
here:
https://trademarks.justia.com/862/40/bountiful-baskets-food-co-86240478.html
I quit buying when I bought a massive box of bad and expired fruit and veggies. Also a huge add on box of old rotten apples. It was totally impossible to check anything before you leave, it was in a pitch dark parking lot with just a bug light or something to see by. It was very obvious that the produce would never have been able to be sold in a grocery store as the quality was horrible. I paid for a box of garbage and entered a weird prebuy contract. There was nothing okay with the situation.
I checked recently to see if stuff got better and was considering buying again (morbid curiosity), but I was shocked to see that they’ve strung along people in Washington state for going on a year now with no reasonable updates or progress on reopening, and my town is no longer listed anyhow.
I’m sure some outraged internet know it alls will come on here and tell me how wrong I am but my bad experiences are as valid as their good ones were, and your experience and observations are your experiences and observations. Honestly, when we lived in Arizona, it was a decent buy for okay food. A few years and a big moved later, and the hideous box of crap I got in Washington was a real eye opener. I dunno if they just went seriously and sharply downhill over time or if the location was the issue.
I’m not even sure I would care if they’re selling “seconds” produce at reduced rates if they were up front about it. I did like having to stretch my cooking ideas and boundaries when I got new stuff (back when it was actual produce people could eat, I mean). I left disappointed and feeling cheated in the end.
Thanks so much for your post and research!
So, that’s the most important part. Kodiak owns Bountiful Basket. I really wish there was some government agency to look into this Kodiak dog and pony show.
Bountiful Baskets is NOT a buying club. It’s part of the Kodiak LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY.
That explains their cut throat “customer service.”
Who is James Griffin?
And I totally agree, it would be ok to sell old produce if it was priced accordingly and disclosed.
Um…so much of the information above is just, well, false. Kodiac was local AZ produce distribution company. One of several distributors that help offer supply chain solutions for B.B. Kodiak had no ties to BB outside of a supplier/distributor relationship. I was a competitor of Kodiak so while you all speculate, I actually know the facts.
Next, a group does not have to register as a not for profit or 501(3)c to actually be not for profit. That is only for a taxation purpose. So again, good job speculating.
Lastly, for 20+ years I’ve sold fresh produce to the tune of 65-190mil a year…and you know what, out dated product gets through no matter how hard you try. Human error exists, and we have not figured out how to automate produce distribution. In fact, if less than 1.15% of your total produce sales don’t end up as shrink or poor quality, you are an abnormally amazing distributor.
As a side note; how many of you have started co-ops to provide fresh foods at better than retail pricing? Or even better yet, how many of you started a successful anything?
Sounds like classic SnowFlake syndrome to me 🙂
Jersey, we all agree that Kodiak provided (old) food for Bountiful Baskets.
Exactly, TAXES!
I’d sure like to see Tanya’s and Sally’s tax returns. We’ll talk more once I’ve reviewed them. Until then, they’re lying thugs in my opinion.
You must be one of the dumber people I’ve encountered or you didn’t read my post:
You also wrote:
Until you post your full name and the name of your company, YOU are the snowflake 🙂
Let US be the judge of your success!
What a reviteting response, clearly there’s been a snowflake outbreak in your area 🙂
Best of luck bashing others, very inclusive of you!
And FYI, as for my success, President of a Sysco Opco for 10 years, which means I’ve accomplished more in reality then you have in mindcraft. But, keep going off half cocked without facts….you sound like a nice cross breed of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders….full of tweet worth opinions, void of any actual facts 🙂
You are the first person DUMB enough to bring up Trump.
A real winner!
Christine, thanks for your posts and research. BB shut down in our area (Colorado) over a year ago with not much explanation. I have read their posts on Facebook which, for the most part, are unhelpful and rude responses to inquiries. Funny how defensive people get when you’re just trying to get answers about a company that is not very upfront with how their business runs – and they depend on volunteers to make it all happen! I won’t be holding my breath waiting for BB to start up again around here.
Jayne, the lack of transparency definitely is a huge problem, and not only with BB. It would be great to have LOCAL organizations to distribute food from LOCAL farms, but I haven’t seen that happening. I suppose it’s a lot less profitable.