Fresh Bet Bits, Claire Burke Original Memories, Home Fragrance Product Updates and Commentary

Well it’s been a long haul this summer with all the Claire Burke availability issues. The past 3-4 months have been incredibly challenging for us at Fresh Bet because we really love this product line and we enjoy being able to ship your orders promptly.

On Monday 10/15/07, we received a truckload shipment of Claire Burke - YAY!! As one of their top retailers in the USA in their “Gift Store Division”, we were indeed lucky to receive our shipment way ahead of other smaller retailers who still have not received inventory. As of this writing, we have managed to ship all of our backorders to our customers with the exception of these items which are not yet available:

* Original, Wisteria Warmer Refills
* Original, Sea, Apple Jack Reed Diffusers
* Original, Apple Jack small Potpourri. Yes - we have the large deluxe potpourri in stock now!
* Original, Apple Jack Linen sprays - these have been promised to us within the next 4 weeks.

If you didn’t know, Vitabath is owned by the same corporation who owns Claire Burke. Vitabath is manufactured in Canada and we expect to receive:

* Vitabath Green, Pink/Plus Gallons in mid-December.
* Vitabath Green, Pink/Plus 21 oz Gelee in mid-December.

Other than these items show above; we are pretty much back to normal with the rest of the Claire Burke and Vitabath lines. As always, if you have any concerns about your orders, please call us at 1-800-322-0525 or email us: Sales@Freshbet.com.

We will be including a free gift with the backorders for your patience. Thanks so much to everyone who has been hanging in there with us!

Bet

The Vitabath Gelee is also produced through the company that sells Claire Burke. Formerly Esscentual Brands, they have now been bought out by a company called Rich Brands out of Atlanta.

We have been out of Original Spring Green and Plus for Dry Skin (Pink) gelee in gallons now for several months. Last month we were told they would be available at the beginning of October. Now we have been advised these will not be available to us until early December.

We have plenty of these on order and I am told that Fresh Bet is a top priority as we are one of their leading retailers in the USA. Currently we expect more gallons to arrive the first week of December. Please know we will be shipping backorders just as soon as our shipment arrives.

Presently we do have stock available of the Vitabath Gelee gallons in Spa Therapy (Blue) and Citrus Twist (Orange).

We are all so anxious to get the Original Warmer Refills back into stock. We don’t like having so many backorders and we know that our customers don’t like being out of them!

Again this week I contacted Mark to find out what’s going on. He asked Karen, their National Sales Manager to call me back. Yesterday she told me they are confident they will have tons of these in stock by November 15th.

This means we should have them a week after that. Please know we will be shipping your backorders (oldest first) just as soon as these arrive from the Factory warehouse. We will be including a free gift for your patience.

Thanks to everyone for hanging in there!

We love Enchanted Meadow Reed Diffuser Refills. They are one of the only companies who provide refills at such a reasonable price. Last year we offered Spirit of Christmas and Whispering Pines in both the reed diffuser refills and Reed Diffuser Set. They are great holiday fragrances and they sell really well.

Leia says Spirit of Christmas reminds her of “Big Red” chewing gum…it’s super cinnamony! (I know - that’s not a real word.) Whispering Pines is a wonderful evergreen scent that’s sure to remind you of being around freshly cut tree boughs.

Typically I do not offer similar scents in various brands. However, due to the shortage of Christmas Memories and Oh Christmas Tree by Claire Burke this year; I am going to do just that. So, I have ordered quite a bit of Enchanted Meadow’s Spirit of Christmas and Whispering Pines in Potpourri, Refresher Oil, Reed Diffuser Sets & Refills.

Because everything is hand-made at the Canadian Enchanted Meadow Factory, it will be early November before these arrive.

Remember, if you use a lamp ring, you should be ordering Refresher Oil in non-spray format like the kind we sell by Enchanted Meadow or Greenleaf.

Click here for Enchanted Meadow Home Fragrance Collections.

Today I called WoodWicks to find out when our fabulous new car scents will be arriving. Previously they had promised them to us in late August. This is why we put them on the site and started taking orders. Then something fell through and they told us they had been delayed. Now they assure me these will be shipping to us in mid-October.

Here’s the thing about these car gels. I don’t sell Yankee Candles because I don’t think they make a great candle. I do buy their car gels because they last a long time in our car and frankly these are the best car gels I have found. When I attended the July Show in Atlanta, I was privileged to meet the Marketing Manager of Old Virginia Candles. I had seen the new gels at Market in Minneapolis in June. When Jamey showed them to me, I told him about the Yankee car gels that I personally use. He proved to me right then how much better theirs are over the Yankee.

I suggested to him that they add a pretty label to their car gel as it looks a bit plain to me. He had a wooden box enclosure with both a Yankee car gel and a WoodWick car gel. I was invited to sniff them both and determine which was stronger. You guessed it! The WoodWick was quite superior and we get to enjoy most of our favorite WoodWick scents now in the car.

At any rate…I digress, the new WoodWick Car Gel Scents will be available in our stock by mid to late October. Please know we will ship your backorders just as soon as these arrive. Thanks to everyone for their patience!

Click here for WoodWick Car Scents.

It’s been such a whirlwind around here for the past month that I have gotten a bit behind in blogging. We love our Greenleaf Aroma Decor Diffuser Oils. I personally use them all the time in my kitchen at night after cooking supper.

I think we are now stocking every scent available by Greenleaf in the diffuser oils. Remember, these can be used in any Lampeberger, Aroma Decor Diffuser or similar type burner. They are alcohol-based for burning, so we are not allowed to ship them via US Postal Service or by Air. These are NOT intended for stick or reed diffusers.

Our newest scents:

* Timberleaf
* Christmas Traditions
* American Harvest
* Apple Spice & Cinnamon
* Frosty
* Holiday Fruit
* Hospitality
* Pumpkin Patch
* Tuscan Vineyard


Sadly, they did not bring back Flurries which was a top-seller for us last year. The only truly new scent is Timberleaf. All of the other scents were available last Winter. They are considered seasonal though and as such are not available year-round. So, if you like them, stock up because they will not be available again after December.

Next month we will have several new Aroma Decor Diffuser styles:

* Present
* Frosty Snowman
* Ellipse
* Garnet
* Triangle
* Pumpkin - due this week!

Click here for Greenleaf Aroma Decor Diffuser Oils.

About a month ago, we decided to try the new Finders KeyPurse key hooks. These are clever little hooks that hang over the top of a womans purse to keep keys from getting lost in the bottom. There are lots of cute styles available and the girls just love them.

We just received 3 new styles for the upcoming Winter Holiday season:

* Glitter Snowman
* Joy Heart
* Silver Snowflake

These are in limited supply as the Factory only produces a small amount.

So…if you know a lady who constantly loses her keys in her purse and has to fish around for them all the time; be kind and get her a Finders KeyPurse Key Hook today. At only $6.75 each these doo-dads are a lifesaver!

Click here for Finders KeyPurse.

Greenleaf is a fine old company established in 1975 here in the Upstate of South Carolina. They produce great fragrances at value prices and are very agreeable. We have seen our sales of Greenleaf products continue to increase over the past few years. Thus, it only made sense for me to widen the breadth of product we carry by Greenleaf.

Our storefront customers have enthusiastically requested more Eucalyptus Mint products. Leia & Pamela love this fragrance, so I am happy to oblige. Thus, we are pleased to annouce we have expanded this fragrance offering to now include: Candle, Room Spray, Sachets, Potpourri, Refresher Oil, Hand Lotion, Hand Wash and Linen Spray. Click here for Eucalyptus Mint.

It is worth noting that if you have tried Greenleaf candles in the past, you should try them again. Previously I was not impressed with their candles and we dropped them. However, the Factory has reformulated them with a new blend of natural soy and vegetable wax. Now these puppies burn great! The fragrance is strong and true and they burn super-clean for a very long time!

We are now stocking more Greenleaf candles in the hourglass shape container; especially since they are now more environmental friendly and totally biodegrable. You will also see more Greenleaf Potpourri being offered since they bought out a lovely little company called “Natures Own” Potpourri. Their new potpourri’s are very fragrant and much improved.

There will be a complete offering of Greenleaf Apple Spice & Cinnamon, Pumpkin Patch, Christmas Traditions and Timberleaf - their newest yummy scent. If you want to have a free sniff, just call us with your next order and request a FREE Sachet. Be sure to tell Leia, Pamela or Deb that you read about here on our blog site!

This week I was pleased to have a good discussion with Mark the former President of Claire Burke. Mark will continue on with Claire Burke under the new ownership. Presently he is coordinating the complex procurement of many year-round and seasonal products.

Mark tells me they are optimistic that more Original Warmer Refills will arrive at their warehouse by late October/early November. Claire Burke is a global company who imports many products from all around the world. Importing is cost-effective in keeping prices low; but it does add quite a bit of lead time for production and transportation.

Their warehouse expects to start shipping our orders next week. We have plenty of orders in place to fill customer backorders and bring our stock back to the proper level.

Currently we expect plug-in warmer refills to be available in all year-round scents in November and seasonal Holiday fragrances by mid-December.

Most of our customers are aware of the availability issues with Claire Burke. For the past 2 months we have been unable to obtain product while their warehouse was shut down due to management changes. Recently we announced that The Haunted Home and Pomegranate Plum would not be available for Fall 2007, as previously promised.

This week we were advised of additional changes to the Holiday scent offerings. Christmas Memories and Oh Christmas Tree will still be available by November 2007. However, there will not be any Simmering Oils, Ceramics or Bag Potpourri.

They will be able to provide the much-awaited Electric Fragrance Warmer Refills in these 2 scents; however it will be mid-December before they arrive. We have been able to procure many candles, Vapourri and limited amounts of the Potpourri in Crystal Bowls in the Christmas Memories scent.

Oh Christmas Tree is a bit more limited. There will not be any Potpourri, Simmering Oil or Ceramic items. We will have Votive, Shimmer and Tealight Candles. There will be plug-in warmer refills available by mid-December.

It is incredibly disappointing to me that we will not be able to obtain the new ceramic items that were so darn cute! There was a Fireplace Simmer Set and beautiful ceramic filled candles. Maybe they’ll have them next year!

In an attempt to service our very loyal customers, we will be offering you several alternative fragrances:

Instead of Oh Christmas Tree, we offer you:

Timberleaf by Greenleaf and Whispering Pines by Enchanted Meadow. There will be Potpourri, Room Spray, Reed Diffusers & Refills, Sachets, Candles and Refresher Oils suitable for Lamp Rings.

Instead of Christmas Memories, we offer you:

Spirit of Christmas by Enchanted Meadow and Christmas Traditions by Greenleaf. We will have Potpourri, Room Spray, Reed Diffusers & Refills, Sachets, Candles and Refresher Oils suitable for Lamp Rings.

Also, until more Claire Burke Apple Jack & Peel arrives, please consider the Greenleaf Apple Spice & Cinnamon which will be on our website by this weekend.

For those of you who may have shopped the Claire Burke Factory website and returned to Fresh Bet, give us a call and we will gladly extend to you a 5% discount for future purchases. We want your continued business and this is our way of saying Thank You for your loyalty!

As always, whenever you have questions, pls feel free to post them right here.

Best,

Bet Law aka “Freshbet”