01.31.08
Posted in Claire Burke at 12:47 pm by freshbet
I think the sun is starting to shine just a wee bit on our Claire Burke availability issues. This morning I spoke with Tania to check on a few items. Here is what she tells me is now enroute to Freshbet:
* Apple Jack & Peel Simmering Oil
* Original Reed Diffusers
* Original Vapourri singles
Most of our stock issues will be resolved when these items arrive. This leaves us with Original Warmer Refills that should be shipping to us early next week.
Original Vapourri 2-packs are still not expected until late March. To place a pre-order, please call us at 1-800-322-0525.
Apple Jack Vapourri 2packs and Reed Diffusers should arrive anyday now.
We truly appreciate everyone’s patience as we strive to manage your backorders and get them shipped out just as quickly as possible.
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01.28.08
Posted in Claire Burke at 4:42 pm by freshbet
I hope I won’t jinx things by letting you know that Tania, our Claire Burke Rep, now tells me they have finally received our Original Warmer Refills at the new Canadian Warehouse today. If we had not had so many broken promises about these, I would be jumping up and down!
Tania tells me they have received 1800 refills and these are to be divided amongst their top accounts. Fresh Bet has been promised 200 of these to be shipped this week - their first shipment of these going out the door.
She also tells me that Mark assures them they have 8000 more Original Warmer Refills due in next week via air from Portugal. At that point, they will then be able to fulfill all of our back orders. It is still too soon to tell exactly how long transit time will be between their Canadian warehouse and South Carolina.
Tomorrow we expect to receive our first shipment from Claire Burke since before Christmas. We were told this left on Jan 18th, so this took 6 business days to arrive. Tania says there were Customs harmonization codes to be resolved, so hopefully these shipments won’t take so long in the future.
Please know we will be shipping our oldest back orders first just as soon as the Original Warmer Refills arrive the first week of February. Again, thanks to everyone for their incredible patience and we will be including a free gift.
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01.23.08
Posted in Aromatique Home Fragrances, New Arrivals, Other Home Fragrance Products, Retail Store at 7:00 pm by freshbet
I have long known of Aromatique and remember admiring it nearly 10 years ago when I started this business. Aromatique has always stood firm that they only allow brick & mortar gift shops to retail their beautiful products. For this reason, we were never eligible before to offer this fine product line.
This month, while attending the January Gift Show in Atlanta, I stopped into their showroom to try again. Voila! Success! So, I am indeed proud and excited to report that we have now been accepted as an Aromatique retailer in our area.
We are starting out with 2 new scents that have just arrived at the store:
* Fresh Fig
* The Smell of Spring
Over the next 1-2 months we expect to receive:
* Peach Pizazz (NEW)
* Citrus Plum Berry
* Summer Sorbet
We will be offering: Room Sprays, Refresher Oil w/brass ring set, Reed Diffusers and Glass Candles. They gave me a Peach Pizazz votive candle to bring home and I have to tell you I was VERY IMPRESSED with the fragrance and scent throw. For such a small candle, it did an excellent job of fragrancing my entire kitchen and even wafted into the living room. Excellent performance!
Their glass candles are 5 oz and sell for $10.00 - a great value! Their room sprays are comparable to Claire Burke and sell for $10.00. I am so happy to be able to offer you a brass light ring with refresher oil set. These are perfect for winter evenings.
We will be working hard to get all these new items uploaded to the site asap. In the meantime, feel free to call the ladies at our toll-free number (1-800-322-0525) and they will gladly take your phone order.
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Posted in Claire Burke at 6:43 pm by freshbet
The Claire Burke inventory situation seems to be slowly improving. Currently we are awaiting our first shipment from their new Canadian warehouse which seems to be taking forever to arrive!
These items are already enroute to us:
Apple Jack Warmer Refills, Reed Diffusers, Hand Soap, Tin Candles & Potpourri
Vitabath Gelee Gallons - all scents
Festive Simmer Oil Samplers
Original Tin Candles, Vapourri, Parfum, Luxury Candles, Votives
Sea Simmer Oil, Warmer Refills
We expect the above items to arrive by the end of this week. I asked about the status of a few other items which are out of stock:
Original Warmer Refills - expected to arrive at the Factory on Feb 1, 2008.
Apple Jack & Peel Simmering Oil - not expected to arrive until May 20, 2008.
Original Lampourri Oil - due at the warehouse on Feb 20, 2008.
Original Reed Diffusers - due to us within 2 weeks.
Christmas Memories & Oh Christmas Tree Warmer Refills - sometime in May or June 2008.
Please know that we are doing our best to keep you informed. We appreciate your patience!
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Posted in Bath & Body, Caswell-Massey, New Arrivals, Retail Store at 6:28 pm by freshbet
We only recently added the Caswell-Massey line and it has been quite well received. Their men’s lines are wonderful so we thought we should expand the ladies bath & body offering.
Our 2 new scents are: Almond & Aloe and English Lavender. Caswell-Massey tells me these are their top selling ladies scents. Deb has already been using the Almond & Aloe lotion and seems to simply love it! I recall Jenn always like the scent of Almond too. My personal favorite would be the Lavender.
In Almond & Aloe, we are starting out with Cold Cream Bath Soaps, Foaming Bath gel and Hand & Body Emulsion.
For the English Lavender, we are starting with: their Foaming Bath Gel and Body Lotion.
There is a local gent who has been shopping in our store lately who seems to adore the Caswell Massey. He specifically requested their Verbena line so we now offer: Bath Soap, After-Shave and Spray Cologne in this delightfully fresh lemony scent.
Last, but not least, is my husband’s new favorite: Tricorn. The Factory mistakenly shipped us the Tricorn soaps and I gave a box of them to Wade for Christmas. He really likes this fragrance, so I thought we should also offer: After-Shave, Cologne and Bath Soaps.
So, if you are looking for a personal gift for a loved one for Valentines Day, consider our MADE IN THE USA Caswell-Massey bath and body for both men and women alike. Click here for more information.
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01.19.08
Posted in Claire Burke, New Arrivals at 11:53 am by freshbet
Those of you who are long time Claire Burke afficionados will remember that we usually have the Original and Apple Jack Vapourri 2-packs in early January every year. Last Fall I started asking Claire Burke if these would return. I was delighted to hear they would offer these again, but a bit disappointed that it would not be until February.
I asked Mark about these last month and he explained the reason for the delay. These are produced in Massachusetts and the Factory has been slammed with orders. However, they are on order and expected to arrive by mid February.
We are now showing these on our website at zero cost. This is because we do not want your card to be charged prematurely until these are ready to ship. So, if you would like to place a pre-order, please CALL us (1-800-322-0525) and provide order information. This way we can better control when your card is charged just before we ship.
If you add them to a shopping cart order, we will email you requesting you contact us with payment information. We will not be taking shopping cart orders for these 2-packs until they are actually in-stock.
These are produced in limited supply and this offer only comes around once a year. You can get 2 Vapourri for $15.00 - a savings of $5.00. So, hurry and place your pre-order today!
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Posted in Bath & Body, New Arrivals, Retail Store at 11:43 am by freshbet
Chocolate candles and home fragrances have been growing in popularity over the past few years. Typically I am reserved about adding new trends that I am not sure will be long-term. However, I continue to see more and more chocolate items, so I thought we better get on board.Sonoma Lavender is a lovely company out of the Napa Valley of California who produces natural, hand-made products in the USA. It has become rare to find domestically produced products, so I usually jump on them when I find them!
Sonoma has introduced a new line of Sonoma Chocolate just in time for Valentines Day. I sniffed these at the show and they are truly chocolate-ey! We are pleased to announce we have added 3 new items:
* Cocoa the Bear
* Sonoma Chocolate Soy Candle in Glass
* Sonoma Chocolate Soaps in round Gift Box
You can find these items by clicking this link.
If you are looking for other wonderful Valentine’s Day Gift Suggestions, we have them! Our Kama Sutra line is perfect for this holiday.
Click here for Valentines Day Gift Suggestions.
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Posted in Retail Store at 11:34 am by freshbet
This is just a quick post to bring you up to date on some of the recent personnel changes at Freshbet. Leia was with us for nearly 2 years and we absolutely adored her. Sadly, she has had to move on to greener pastures to insure her future financial success.
Deb who started with us around Labor Day 2007, is now full-time and doing an excellent job!
Our newest employee is Dawn who will be with us part-time in the middle of the day. Please be patient with Dawn as she learns about our business. We think Dawn will be a wonderful addition to our team and she is so enthusiastic!
Pamela continues to work for us part-time in between pursuing her degree from Clemson.
Jenn who worked for us in 2006 and early 2007, has returned to working part-time doing website maintenance and uploads. Jenn is now expecting her 2nd child and we hope she will continue along with Freshbet as her family grows.
Our storefront is now starting to be frequented by local customers who are discovering our unique product offerings. We have just renewed our lease for an additional 2 years, so if you are ever in Upstate South Carolina, do stop by!
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Posted in Bath & Body, Enchanted Meadow, Greenleaf Home Fragrances, Hillhouse Farm Naturals, New Arrivals, Other Home Fragrance Products, Retail Store, WoodWicks at 11:24 am by freshbet
WOW, Wade & I had a hectic trip to Atlanta for 2 days to attend the huge January Gift Show to order new merchandise for Spring. Needless to say we were exhausted by the time we left. Here is a brief recap of what we have planned for Spring/Summer 2008:
* New WoodWick candles and Reed Diffusers.
* New Old Virginia Tarts.
* More new WoodWick car scents and Home Fragrance Oil scent choices.
* New WoodWick Fusion art-glass Candles & Reed Diffuser - simply stunning!
* New WoodWick Reed Diffuser oil refills w/new Reeds.
* NEW Olive Oil Organics in travel tin candles and large 22 oz clear glass. AWESOME scent!
* More new Hillhouse Farm Naturals tin candles and new Pomegranate Reed Diffuser.
* Hillhouse Good Dog Linen Spray and tin candle.
* NEW Greenleaf Reed Diffusers and refills. These are ceramic and so charming.
* Greenleaf has introduced a new scent called Evening Twilight which is a powdery soft scent that will be available in Aroma Decor Diffuser Oil.
* 2 New Greenleaf Aroma Decor Diffusers: Yellow Vase, Shanghai
* Greenleaf has also reformulated their lotions to include Jojoba making them even better!
* Greenleaf has a new Spa line which we will be adding soon: Bath Salts, Scrub, etc.
We are optimistically guarded that we will soon be selected to become an Aromatique retailer. They gave me their new Peach Pizazz candle to burn and it is phenomenal! We are excited to report we have ordered:
* The Smell of Spring
* Summer Sorbet
* Fresh Fig
* Citrus Plum Berry
* Peach Pizazz
Thanks to the feedback from Sandy Wood who was kind enough to share her thoughts with me regarding Aromatique!
We have also ordered several other new lines which will be arriving over the next few months:
* Baekgaard leather purse accessories in bright colors.
* Scentier Parfum Fragrance Lampes and Oils
* Lastly, we are expanding our Caswell-Massey lines due to your comments and strong interest to include: Men’s Verbena & Tricorn, Ladies: Almond & Aloe, English Lavender.
I also visited the Enchanted Meadow showroom and will be ordering a few of their new lines as well. So, it was a busy market and we expect Spring to be very busy at Freshbet. As always, if you have comments or suggestions, please email Bet.
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Posted in Claire Burke, Vitabath at 11:08 am by freshbet
Well, it’s been a long haul with Claire Burke since last July when their parent company went belly up. This is such a wonderful old brand that many of us hate to hear about these kind of problems. Last week I attended the Gift Show in Atlanta and was pleased to meet the new management: Richard is the new owner and Chuck is his 2nd man in charge. Naturally it was a pleasure to see Mark again who is now over their procurement.
Richard is a delightful man who has a long background in the fragrance industry. Essentially he has come out of retirement and bought Claire Burke/Vitabath with cash assets. He made a point of telling me this so I would know the future financial health of the company is secure. Richard told me there are 2 top priorities at this point:
1) Insure that inventory is ALWAYS available
2) Immediately start improving upon all of their candles
Naturally I was delighted to hear this and give them more suggestions for products for 2008. Here are a few recaps from our conversation:
* They tell me they will be making Original Refresher Oils available again in a non-spray format with a plastic dropper insert style top to meter the droplets out of the bottle.
* Original & Apple Jack Vapourri 2-packs ($15.00 for 2 sprays) will be available in February.
* Original Warmer Refills are promised to ship to us by January 31st, 2008.
* Apple Jack Warmer Refills are already enroute to Fresh Bet from their new Canadian warehouse. We expect these to arrive by January 25th, 2008.
There wasn’t much new to see in the Claire Burke line for Spring. Naturally they have been so busy trying to get their “sea legs” under them, they haven’t had much time for new product development. This is totally understandable and we will all try to be patient in this regard. The only new item I saw was a White Lavender Reed Diffuser, which we will be adding soon.
They are starting to focus on their Fall/Christmas lines for 2008 and have assured me that next Winter we WILL have simmer oils and many more products available in Christmas Memories and Oh Christmas Tree. They will be launching Pomegranate Plum for September 2008.
The much-awaited warmer refills in Oh Christmas Tree and Christmas Memories will be available in June 2008. We are pleased to take your pre-orders by PHONE for these items to avoid premature charges to your credit card by ordering on-line.
* We also expect Vitabath Gelee gallons to arrive this week in all 4 scents!
* I forgot to ask about the Apple Jack Simmer Oil. This is expected sometime in February. It had to be reformulated for a new Factory because the previous Canadian manufacturer decided to retire.
Richard has a lovely woman named Nikki who has apparently worked for him many years. Nikki will now be in charge of reformulating all Claire Burke candles to make them more fragrant and improve the wick quality.
All in all, it was a very productive meeting and I was able to share many of my concerns with all 3 of these gentlemen who assured me that Fresh Bet is FIRST in line for backordered product shipments. I sensed that many gift retailers have opted to drop the Claire Burke product line as a result of availability issues; please know that Fresh Bet will always offer Claire Burke because this line is so near and dear to my heart!
Fragrant Regards,
Bet aka “Freshbet”
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