This marks our final blog for 2011. It really is hard to believe just how quickly the time has flown. This time next month, Eloise will celebrate her first birthday! We’re gearing up to begin celebrating our 40th anniversary in 2012 with a brand new look and several new styles and colors. Our new anniversary catalog will begin shipping in mid-January, and you’ll be able to see all the new colors in person at the innkeeping conference in Little Rock. One thing has remained the same though even with all the aesthetic changes we’ve been up to lately and that’s our commitment to producing the very best handmade stoneware in the country.
Speaking of celebrations, last month I had the pleasure of attending the 2nd anniversary celebration for one of our clients – Grassroots Coffee in Thomasville, GA. It’s a small, charming town with a rich history, and this independent coffee shop is now a part of the town’s most vital shopping district.
It’s only a half-hour drive from my hometown, and I wanted to be there to represent the company. I had stopped in when they first opened and noticed that they had mugs with their logo on them, but they didn’t have hand-thrown stoneware mugs from Deneen Pottery. I had Niles send them a few samples, and it was done! They came on board immediately, and I’m happy to say that our handmade mugs have done well for them. They’ve done so well that Grassroots is now on their third order of custom stoneware mugs.
Grassroots’ story began in the summer of 2009. Spencer and Megan Young along with their friend Ed Millere had the idea that they could bring a coffee shop to Thomasville’s thriving, historic downtown. Architects, contractors, plumbers and electricians ensued. On November 6th, they opened their doors believing all the while that they had something special to offer. So far, it seems they were spot on. In fact, the historic downtown of Thomasville has thrived so much during the recession that they were the subject of a story on NBC Nightly News in February. Even Spencer can be seen in the video!
It was great to see such a show of support for a locally-owned coffee shop. Grassroots even roasts its own coffee in-house. They’ve done so well in the past two years that their coffee is now on the shelves of select local grocery stores. And it’s available online as well for those of you (like Niles) who want a taste of southern-roasted coffee. They have even expanded to serving a limited selection of lunch sandwiches as well. All things seem to be looking up for these nice folks down in Georgia!
And what would our blog be without showing you their fabulous handmade mugs? They first ordered the Camper mug and the Abby mug, and those seem to be their mainstays.
And they’ve moved on to selling the Footed mugs as well. Just this year, they asked us to redesign their emblem to accommodate a one-shot espresso cup. Now they have two different versions of their logo available for purchase.
And talk about southern hospitality. These guys are even nice enough to include a card with your purchase explaining how to make the perfect cup of coffee. I have to say that, while I do love coffee, I am not a connoisseur. But this is some of the best coffee I’ve ever tasted. My personal favorite is the Grassroots Blend. Just last week, I had my folks pick up another pound for me along with the limited-edition Christmas Blend. It’s an amazing coffee all its own. So, while I might be stocked up on coffee for awhile, it’s great to know that I can always order it online.
While I was there, I did make one suggestion to Spencer. It’s the same suggestion we make to all our customers. Even if your mugs are selling well enough, they will always sell more quickly if you use them. Most of our bed & breakfasts customers serve morning coffee to their guests in their Deneen Pottery mugs, but coffee shops could do the same thing for those customers who prefer to have their coffee inside. Just set aside a small number of mugs for customers to use, and once they get their hands around our hand-thrown coffee mugs, they’re almost certain to purchase one. And just think of the money you’d be saving in paper cups!
And while we’re on the subjects of stocking up and saving money, it’s the perfect time to remind you about our Pack & Hold option that you should have received information about in our final newsletter of the year that was emailed on Tuesday. It’s the perfect option for those of you who want to order a large amount of mugs, but only want a few shipped at a time. It certainly does cut down on the wait time for reorders. You can order as few as 48 mugs or as many as 192 mugs and schedule your own delivery dates throughout the year or just call us when you run low. It’s that easy, and you only pay for what we ship at one time! And for all reorders in 2012, we’ll thrown in one of our new 40th Anniversary logo mugs for free as our way of saying thank you for being such a loyal customer.
Price guarantees are good through January 31, 2012 so that even gives you a chance to wait and see what’s new at the conference. But if you’d like to avoid the post-conference order rush, feel free to email me at heath@deneenpottery.com and I’ll be more than happy to send you a few photos of what we’re debuting in Little Rock. We can always get your order started right away!
Be sure to check out Grassroots Coffee online, and give their coffee a try. Remember to buy local when you can. As always, thanks for reading our blog. And be sure to check us out on Facebook for the latest information on new products. We enjoy communicating with all of you, and we appreciate your comments in return. Every single comment gets read, we promise.
Heath Croft, Director of Communications
