Columbia, ABC Fixed A Problem

In my post Columbia, We Have A Problem on March 19, 2013, I did like we bloggers do when we can't get information or answers via regular channels: we take to our respective soapboxen and start making a lot of noise on the internet. Like Jerry Orbach said to Patrick Swayze in the Emile Ardolino magnum opus Dirty Dancing, if I'm wrong I say I'm wrong. My loud-mouthiness aside, let me tell you what I know to be actual evidence-based reality: ABC Columbia listened. ABC Columbia stepped up, fixed a problem, and in doing so they made important information available again. Not to mention they warmed my cold and blackened heart.

Fussbudgets, I am so happy to report to you that the previously identified problem has been resolved. ABC's interview with Emma Davidson of Tell Them and New Morning Foundation has been re-posted on YouTube (thus, the direct url has changed), and WOLO updated all of their various social media channels to reflect it:

ABC Columbia on Facebook
Good Morning Columbia on Facebook
@abc_columbia on Twitter

Watch the interview:

Thank you, ABC. You did a good thing today.

Screenshots:
YouTube: http://flic.kr/p/e53tHJ
ABC Columbia on Facebook: http://flic.kr/p/e53rx1
Good Morning Columbia on Facebook: http://flic.kr/p/e53rxh
@abc_columbia on Twitter: http://flic.kr/p/e53rDN

Ring Ring Ring Bananaphobe

My Dearest Starbucks,

I love you. Let's just get that out of the way first: I honestly love you. I love your coffee. I love my Starbucks Portland mug, a keepsake from my hometown. It's my go-to, my favorite, the one mug I'll wash to use even though there are a dozen others clean in the cupboard. If you're curious, it's from the Skyline Series, the "City of Roses" 18oz mug, which I've owned for over a decade. My favorite coffee drink, the Pumpkin Spice Latte, is so beloved in my heart of coffee hearts that the day it becomes available each year is like my very own special kind of Christmas.

So, now, at this point we're clear on how I feel, right? You know I love you. Thus, dear Bux - can I call you Bux? - I feel sure you will take this carefrontation letter in the spirit in which it is intended. Yes? Okay.

Here's the thing: Your baked goods should be awesome and delicious, but they are not. They're kind of gross, and it's because of the whole display case situation you've got going on.

the contaminated cookie bag

Don't get me wrong; the display case is always a perfectly lovely well-lit presentation offering a tantalizing view of pretty muffins, brownies, crisped rice treats, scones, cake pops, and assorted other goodies. All of these goodies hanging around together in the same open air space as the Banana Walnut Bread is the problem. Why? Well, Bux, I'm glad you asked!

You see, while banana walnut bread should indeed and does taste like banana walnut bread, double chocolate brownies should most definitely not. Iced Lemon Pound Cake also should not taste like bananas, but it does. In fact, I've noticed over and over again that anything and everything coming out of the bakery case tastes like bananas. Cinnamon Chip Scones taste like cinnamon, and chips, and scones... and bananas. Cheese Danishes taste like cheese! Aaaand bananas. Today, I bought an enormous, gorgeous, enormously gorgeous, Chocolate Chunk Cookie, and lo! Neither chocolatey NOR cookie-ey, but it sure did taste like bananas!

The solution, I think, is a simple one, and won't require any new equipment or menu alterations. You know those clear covered dishes you guys use for offering free samples? Stick your banana walnut bread in one o'those bad boys and then but the whole business in the display case.

Bam. Problem solved!

Bux, I believe speak for banana-hating-bakery-goodies-loving Starbucks customers everywhere when I say I want to give you more of my moneydollars, but you're not making it very easy. I'll happily give you more of my hard-earned disposable income for a pastry when I buy a coffee... but I just can't do it again until you get a handle on this banana contamination problem. Because Bux, it is really super gross.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Jen Bailey Bergen
Bananaphobe

Adluh Flour Explores Social Media

"Beth Ellis, controller for Allen Brothers Milling/Adluh Flour, says the family-owned company has always kept up with the changing world. Some of its early advertising centered around the Adluh Knocking Man. “We had a truck that went around town in local neighborhoods,” Ellis says. “Our customers were all home consumers. We would have people drive around and knock on the door.” If the homeowner could show the Knocking Man a bag of Adluh flour – Ellis says it was akin to a “like” on Facebook, in today’s terms – she was rewarded with a cash prize."

Gosh, that all sounds so familiar. Oh! Wait! That's because I'm quoted in this article, available on newsstands now, in the April 2012 edition of Columbia Business Monthly. :D

Adluh Flour is truly a beloved fixture and a landmark in my adopted hometown of Columbia, South Carolina, and I'm so pleased to for GraySail to be working with them. Talking with people, connecting, and exchanging information... well, it's just an awesome thing to do for a living, and I love doing it.

Huge thanks to writer Chris Worthy for taking the time to speak with me, and with Beth, and ultimately for turning out such a great article: Adluh Flour Explores Social Media.

Welcome To The Jungle

If you are a sixth grader 'round these parts, chances are you're going to have to produce a project for science class on the topic of one animal and one plant. Not one to be saddled with just any old animal or your run-of-the-mill Venus Flytrap, oh no indeed, Miss Merry chose the the albino dolphin (it's PINK! You guys! A pink dolphin!) and the Pitcher plant.






That's her albino dolphin... cake. FOR SCIENCE.

Pitcher plants are carnivorous; their prey-trapping mechanism features a deep cavity filled with liquid, known as a "pitfall trap". As you might imagine, Pitcher plants aren't exactly the easiest plant to find, here in the 'burbs of Columbia, South Carolina.

That's a Pitcher plant.

Well, you might imagine that a Pitcher plant would be difficult to fins if you don't know about Jarrett's Jungle !Jarrett's Jungle has been locally owned and operated in West Columbia since approximately the dawn of time. Okay, so really it's more like 30 years, but the point, and I do have one, is that they've been around awhile. They also happen to be within walking distance from our house, staffed by some of the friendliest folks you will ever have the pleasure to meet, and when you walk in you are walking into an actual greenhouse, and that is cool. In a warm and humid sort of way.

So, when Mer asked if I knew where we might buy a Pitcher plant, I remembered the pleasant shopping experience I had with Jarrett's Jungle when we bought the Venus Flytrap for CJ's sixth grade project in 2009, and I looked 'em up on facebook. I love it when I find a company not only ON facebook, but actively engaging with their customers and using facebook. So I left a comment on their wall inquiring about Pitcher plants.

Score! They had three in stock, going for about $35 each. Yep. Thirty. Five. Dollars. Each. As in actual people moneydollars. But wait! There's more! Right there in that same comment, before even giving me the tiniest chance to choke on my coffee at the price of a plant I would certainly kill in record time, they proceeded with an offer to cut pitcher for us - like buying a single rose, only a carnivorous and honestly, fairly creepy, single rose. No charge. Free. On the house. On the greenhouse! Just because!

Internets, this is how you do it. This is how you earn customer loyalty and word of mouth advertising. This is how you absolutely thrill an eleven year old kid, her mom, and her science teacher. Because it would have been the easiest thing in the world for those nice folks to just answer my question: Yep, we carry them. $35. But, instead, they took the opportunity to perform a little act of kindness, and that little act of kindness made a big impact.

Thank you, Jarrett's Jungle.  Here's Meredith with her project board, Pitcher included:






Science!
Contact Jarrett's Jungle:Via Email: jarrettsjungle@gmail.comOn the Web: http://jarrettsjungle.comOn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jarretts-Jungle/94055097418Business Hours: Monday - Saturday: 9am - 6pm

Location: 1621 Sunset Blvd. West Columbia, SC 29169 

Phone: 803.796.4670



Jarrett's Jungle offers a variety of services including: Horticulturist on Duty, Local Delivery, Custom Arrangements, Plant Maintenance, Funerals, Weddings, Altar arrangements for Churches, Repotting, Insect and Disease Diagnosis, Pruning, and more. Visit their site for more information.