vendor Pepper Joe's sold yet again?

Super Hots Canada

Super Hots Canada

So, according to a number of recent news articles a company called "Clickstop" has bought out the Pepper Joe's business and the owners have put their 19 year old son in charge of the operation:
 
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/08/prweb14613022.htm
http://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/business/clickstop-acquires-hot-pepper-seed-company-20170818
 
According to the article in The Gazette, this company has no previous experience in the food industry and their son, who they've put in charge of PJ's, was previously working as an intern... On top of no past experience in the food industry, the article indicates they laid off all the previous staff.
 
If they cut out all the previous staff and are moving the whole operation to their base of operations, does that mean the farming/production itself is moving? Who's managing the production or is that all being outsourced? The articles don't really make much effort to clarify very much about this whole transaction. :)
 
Thoughts on how this might turn out?
 
(I didn't see anything mentioned about this elsewhere on the forum)
 
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Super Hots Canada said:
Thoughts on how this might turn out?
Click to expand...
 
No idea, but I immediately had a vision of how it might have occurred...
 
:snooty: "Timothy Gunther!  Our little Quinton is depressed about not even getting accepted to any community colleges.  We're going to my mother's until you DO SOMETHING about this!"
 
:drunk: Fine!  Fine!  Goddammit, I'll buy him a company!  Billy, what kind of company do you want?  Nevermind, get out of my office...both of you! Send in my secretary.
 
:scared: "You bellowed, sir?"
 
:drunk: Jimmy is sick of being an intern and his mother is bitching at me about it.  I need to buy the brat a company so his mother will shut the hell up and get off my case.  What does my son like?
 
:scared: "You mean Quinton, sir?  Well, he plays a lot of Xbox..."
 
:drunk: I ain't buying MIcrosoft!  I know!  What's the name of that damn teddy bear he hauls around all the time?
 
:scared: "Are you talking about his little brother Joe, sir?"
 
:drunk: Perfect!  Go find something with Joe in the title.  Something I can buy cheap.  Something nobody will miss when the little retard tanks it.
 
:scared: "Right away, sir."
 
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I hate to say it, but this is the way of most business these days.  Famous Amos hasn't been in the cookie business for years, but Famous Amos cookies live on in the grocery store.  Compared to the ones you used to buy in the malls the grocery store ones suck.  It's the American way, you make a name for yourself and then you sell it.  With the internet, the business of building and selling names is even bigger because there is a url to consider.  I am sure PepperJoe.com is a prime chunk of cyber real estate.
 
Clickstop operates something like 7 online retail stores.  I imagine they realize how fast the interest in super hots is growing, so they bought the brand because they expect business to continue to grow.
 
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Voodoo 6 said:
Cant sell a painted turd for very long though.
Click to expand...
 

I read a lot of that.  Usually I got good seeds from the place.  Havent purchased there in a bit because the prices have gone up.  Still trying to figure out how the place sells reaper seed for more than Puckerbutt.  Seems really odd.  So curious, why such a bad opinion of the former owners
 
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When you order a seed you kinda expect it to grow true, some variations of course. But you don't expect a reaper to be a cayenne. They will send out replacement seeds, but it was never what you ordered. Why do you think they keep rotating owners?
 
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Sadly before the super hot craze, every order I had from them (the original Joe) was exactly what I expected it to be. I blame the growers more than the owners as it is their fault entirely for not isolating or mislabeling seeds or making money and not even growing what they claimed. If I contract you to grow 'x', I expect it to be 99.99% chance the seeds are only 'x'. 
 
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[SIZE=10.5pt]Greetings from Pepper Joe's!  Clickstop did indeed acquire Pepper Joe's and I could not be more excited for the future of Pepper Joe's!  Between our loyal customers, dedicated growers, the previous owners and even the "original" Pepper Joe himself, we have learned so much.  And rest assured we will continue to work with the established growers so you can expect the same great products from us.  I am excited to continue to learn more and can ensure you, we have a team that is dedicated to Pepper Joe's and can't wait to offer additional hot products to the already great line-up that has been established.  If you should have any questions about us, please feel free to ask.  You can reach us on here, social media, email at customerservice@pepperjoe.com or by phone at 888-660-2276.  Look for upcoming videos on social media, including YouTube, about who we are and what we are up to.  And please share with us what you have going on.  We love to hear from our fellow pepper friends and always appreciate your input.  Have a great day![/SIZE]
 
Fiery Regards,
Quinton
 
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Quinton:

Have been a Pepper Joe customer for many years.  I -think- the first catalog / seed list I got was after reading an advertisement in Mother Earth News.  It was one of my hippie dippy magazines.  It was either before the internet or before I discovered the Internet.  Never had a real problem.  Occasionally a goofed up order.  Back it the day, got the right seeds and a hand written apology.  Nothing but a thing.  Humans make mistake and the personal touch was fantastic.  Thing is, that was a different time.  Back then, heirloom pepper and tomato seeds were more of a personal thing.  Today, folk can purchase many at Walmart or Lowes.

I am curious, do you think Pepper Joe is going to move back to that way of doing business or forward into the impersonal internet sales?  I ask because at one point, I owned and operated a 2,000 square foot gift store.  Had many suppliers, but one in particular: Azure Green was AMAZING.  They are absolutely huge, but I could ask for the rep I liked and she would be on the phone in a matter of minutes.  Although large, the place had this amazing feeling of being a very mom and pop / personal operation.  No idea how they did it, but I know someone can because they did.

It would be really cool if Pepper Joe went back that way.
 
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Super Hots Canada said:
So, according to a number of recent news articles a company called "Clickstop" has bought out the Pepper Joe's business and the owners have put their 19 year old son in charge of the operation:
 
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/08/prweb14613022.htm
http://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/business/clickstop-acquires-hot-pepper-seed-company-20170818
 
According to the article in The Gazette, this company has no previous experience in the food industry and their son, who they've put in charge of PJ's, was previously working as an intern... On top of no past experience in the food industry, the article indicates they laid off all the previous staff.
 
If they cut out all the previous staff and are moving the whole operation to their base of operations, does that mean the farming/production itself is moving? Who's managing the production or is that all being outsourced? The articles don't really make much effort to clarify very much about this whole transaction. :)
 
Thoughts on how this might turn out?
 
(I didn't see anything mentioned about this elsewhere on the forum)
 
I am a grower for Pepper Joe's and have been for the last 5 years. I worked with Joe Arditi closely and Laura Joe in the short time she was there 2 yrs.  I was growing 1 kind the first year, then 2 ETC ETC.  
 
I have 3 different places where I grow so no cross pollination is possible. This year during the spring floods I lost 2 varieties.  I only have 2 at this posting.......
 
I already sent one shipment of beautiful seeds out already. I am working close with Quinton on my end. I cannot tell him how to run his business only suggest what to expect with packaging the seeds and proper care about not to handle those FIREY GEMS. LOL.  
 
I have 2 friends on here I think that are growing for them also............
 
Plut Tard Mes Ami from Cajun Country.........
 
My you tube channel is Boo Luquette for pepper vids............
Click to expand...
 
 
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Ok I don't know if I did my Quote / Reply correctly on this thread. It is a forum that i am not familiar with. 
 
Here is what I answered on the top post on this thread. Sorry for any confusion >>>>>>>>>>
 
I am a grower for Pepper Joe's and have been for the last 5 years. I worked with Joe Arditi closely and Laura Joe in the short time she was there 2 yrs.  I was growing 1 kind the first year, then 2 ETC ETC.  
 
I have 3 different places where I grow so no cross pollination is possible. This year during the spring floods I lost 2 varieties.  I only have 2 at this posting.......
 
I already sent one shipment of beautiful seeds out already. I am working close with Quinton on my end. I cannot tell him how to run his business only suggest what to expect with packaging the seeds and proper care about not to handle those FIREY GEMS. LOL.  
 
I have 2 friends on here I think that are growing for them also............
 
Plut Tard Mes Ami from Cajun Country.........
 
My you tube channel is Boo Luquette for pepper vids............
 
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Boudreaux in Eunice said:
 
I have 3 different places where I grow so no cross pollination is possible. This year during the spring floods I lost 2 varieties.  I only have 2 at this posting.......
.........
Click to expand...
 
Had a conversation not long ago here on THP that took this path.  It went down hill.  I am going to try to revive it.  You are sort of right but you used the wrong language.  A bee will travel five miles and cross pollinate.  Who knows what type of peppers are grown in back yard gardens for a five mile radius of your plants.  Thing is, unless we are talking thousands of trained bees trying to contaminate your dna with their secret ninja skills, not going to be a bother if your seed stock is well mixed.

In my opinion, where the problem occurs is when the seeds are not randomized / mixed in larger numbers.  That stray bee hits a flower, the flower turns into a pod, the pod is then used for a single pack of seeds.  You see where i am going.

The same is true of isolation because unless a person is growing in a space ship or submarine, there is no true isolation.  OK, other than gluing each pod shut which would not be economically viable.  Bugs will always figure out a way to get past a barrier.

I am a very small grower, so I use barrier protection.  Thing is, that is how I got my daughter too.
 
Now I could be completely wrong.  But I think not randomizing seeds is why folk like me have had good luck buying from Pepper Joe and folk like a few in this forum have had bad luck.  It is the only thing that makes sense.  If you dont randomize, of course a few folk are going to get bad batches.
 
Anyway, welcome to THP.  Looking forward to learning from you.  I am at the point where I flat can not grow any more with the techniques I am using.  Sounds like you are much larger scale.  So maybe I can pick up a few tricks.  From what I can tell, demand is endless so I can not imagine there being competition to worry about.

 
 
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A J .......  I am not on a large scale at all.  LOL.   I do 50 to 60 plants of one variety each. Then pick the best ones from each lot.     
 
So then I am down to 30 plants. Then I plant the beds and have a few left for in case.   My buddy lives 8 miles from me and the other 12 miles away. So I have good spacing. When I do pick my pods, which is 300 to 600 at a time I work my peppers all at one time.  
 
Saying that I work them at one time means that we deseed the peppers and then I force air dry with 4 fans on screens that I had made or got from my buddy's screen shop. Then we WORK the seeds by moving them around with gloves and getting rid of the trash at the same time....... 
 
A week later I am shipping seeds to to Pepper Joe's Seed Co. 
 
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Hi AJ, thank you so much for the post!  We would appreciate the introduction to Azure Green!  You can email or call us if you want or pass our info on to them.  We are looking forward to hearing from others what they want and appreciate the lead.  Thanks for sharing your knowledge and humor with us!   
 
We are 100% committed to our customer relationships and do not want to be seen as an impersonal internet sales company.  That is the complete opposite of who we are!  We are committed to answering the phones, emails, social media posts or any other way our customers want to communicate with us.  And who doesn't love a good old hand written note?!?  And you can count on us to admit when we make mistakes and will do what we can to make it right!  I would like to say mistakes will never happen, but you are spot on that we are after all human.  What we can do is back it up with exceptional customer service!  We know we have a lot to learn still, and look forward to learning from the best of the best in the industry.  We are enjoying the new relationships we are making and look forward to continuing to get to know everyone.  The team we have working on Pepper Joe's is fully committed to the pepper industry and our customers.  That's why we call them Business Unit Fanatics™!  We look forward to you all learning who we are and what we are all about.  
 
All the best,
Tammy @ Pepper Joe's 
 
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