Author: Tariq Farid

Last year, as part of our Edible Cares™ community outreach program, we launched a specific program called Random Acts of Happiness which recognized someone who had a positive impact on and made a difference in the lives of others. We asked the public to tell us the stories of people they feel deserve to be recognized for their unselfish good deed(s) which brought happiness to someone else. In an age with so much negativity and fighting, the reception to the program and stories we received were refreshing and uplifting. We listed the stories on our web site –ediblearrangements.com – for voting by the public.

Our franchisees embraced Random Acts of Happiness wholeheartedly and were so proud to be a part of a program that spread a little happiness around. One group of franchisees that I would like to recognize for their continued community outreach efforts and support for Random Acts of Happiness is our 15 Detroit area Edible Arrangements® stores. Vikki Brown, owner of the Farmington and Lake Orion, MI stores, and the President of the 15 store Detroit area co-op, spearheads many of these outreach efforts. With Vikki’s guidance, ALL the Detroit Edible Arrangements owners enthusiastically dedicate part of their lives to helping those in need in their communities. Whether it’s their daily support of Forgotten Harvest to help alleviate hunger in the greater Detroit area, their participation in Random Acts of Community Involvement events or their latest Random Acts of Happiness campaign, the Detroit area Edible Arrangement owners let their communities know that Edible cares about their neighbors.

Detroit Area Edible Arrangements Owners

If you are living in the Detroit area, our Detroit franchisees want to hear from you. They are inviting the community to participate in the Random Acts of Happiness by nominating somebody who is an unsung hero who made a difference in someone’s life. I know there are many great stories you are looking to share. You have until September 16 to nominate that special person. On September 19, the Detroit Edible Arrangements owners will honor 15 amazing hometown heroes for their kindness and caring. The fifteen winners will each receive one of our NEW cupcake arrangements.

Past Random Acts of Happiness Winner -keeping neighborhood clean

Owning a local business such as one of our over 1,100 Edible Arrangements stores around the world involves much more than just making money. At Edible Arrangements, our local franchise owners, your neighbors, cherish their responsibility to be a part of and give back to their communities. Just think about the difference you can make in your community, whether you are a business owner or not, if you just take the time to help someone else and bring a little happiness their way. It could be as simple as holding a door for someone, saying hello and smiling to a stranger you pass on the street, volunteering for your local soup kitchen or homeless shelter –use your imagination because what you think is small may in fact have a huge affect on someone else. There is no better feeling than knowing you helped brighten somebody’s day, and take it from me, one day you’ll appreciate it when someone helps lift your spirits and makes your day a little more memorable as well.

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When I first started Edible Arrangements® in 1999 in a corner of my flower shop in East Haven, I never dreamed that we would have over 1,100 locations in the U.S. and around the world. Like many entrepreneurs just starting out, my first and main concerns were having enough money to stay open and getting customers. Opening a store overseas never even crossed my mind. I was more concerned about keeping my first Edible Arrangements store open and making it a success.

Well, what a difference a few short years make. Like many businesses, growth overseas is a tremendous opportunity to increase awareness of your brand and build your customer base. As a franchisor, opening your concept in a new country is daunting and nerve-racking. For me, finding the right partner to establish and build the Edible Arrangements brand in an international market is the most important decision I can make. Why? Well, I am entrusting the brand image, trade secrets and systems to someone to run with it –basically build the Edible Arrangements brand from scratch and introduce our products to a new market.

One of the first international countries we entered was Saudi Arabia. The person who we sold the rights to open Edible Arrangements in Saudi Arabia is an amazing woman, Nourah Al-Roassais. The first time I met Nourah I knew we found the perfect partner to introduce Edible Arrangements in Saudi Arabia. She had so much energy, enthusiasm and passion –she had the “wow” factor we look for in our international partners. She had everything we needed to make Edible Arrangements very successful, and that is what she has done. She has far surpassed our expectations. I cannot say enough about Nourah. She is probably the most inspiring, courageous person I know, and she not only inspires me and all of us at Edible Arrangements, she also inspires her staff and everyone she comes in contact with. The word ‘no” or ‘cannot’ has no place in her vocabulary. Her positive attitude and can do energy grabs us all. What she has accomplished as a businesswoman and role-model in Saudi Arabia is awe-inspiring.

Nourah is also a perfectionist. I’ve seen a lot of Edible Arrangements stores in the past 11 years. But I tell you, I have never been more blown away by the beauty and design of Edible Arrangements stores than when I visit Saudi Arabia and see Nourah’s stores. Only one word can describe her stores –phenomenal. I included just a few pictures of her stores in this blog for you to see. Nourah has pushed me –pushed all of us at Edible Arrangements -to make us better. Her only concern is making Edible Arrangements amazing. In three short years, Nourah has opened 11 stores and has built a tremendous loyal following. I know she will open many, many more successful stores soon, and keep giving us ideas that we can use to improve the system everywhere.

I just have to let you know the effect she has on people. At the annual Edible Arrangements convention this August, Nourah received the international franchisee of the year award. When Nourah came up to accept the award she received the biggest, loudest standing ovation that I have ever seen at our convention, or anywhere else for that matter. Franchisees wanted their picture taken with her, as did I. She is a true rock-star in our world. Her story and what she has accomplished makes the obstacles that I and others had to overcome seem very small. Thank you, Nourah –for inspiring all of us and making all of us at Edible Arrangements want to work a little harder, fight a little longer and give us a little more –well, a lot more – motivation to just go out and make it happen.

 

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Community Connection

One of the things I love the most about our franchisees is their dedication and commitment to their communities. Over the years as Edible Arrangements® has grown some people still don’t realize that we have over 1,100 stores –actual storefronts- around the world. Edible Arrangements is much more than just a web-based company. We are a company made up of your neighbors and friends who work hard every day making and delivering arrangements and fresh fruit products by hand. And more importantly your local Edible Arrangements owners take pride in getting involved in and contributing to their communities, not because they have to, but because they want to.

One example is Becky and Bob Killelea, owners of the Ridgeland and Flowood, Mississippi Edible Arrangements stores. After opening their Ridgeland store in 2006, the Killeleas couldn’t stand that the unused fruit went to waste, so they vowed to do something about it. Realizing that fresh fruit is scarce in many homeless shelters and soup kitchens, Becky reached out to the Gleaners, a non-profit organization that helps feed the homeless throughout Mississippi.

Bob and Becky Killelea, and staff

The Gleaners told Becky that she should contact the Salvation Army, and that is exactly what she did. Working with the Salvation Army Captain, Becky and Bob now donate all their stores unused fruit to homeless shelters. The Killeleas are so passionate about giving back to their communities and volunteering that they are encouraging and inspiring their staff to the same. I can tell you one thing –Becky and Bob have inspired me and countless others. Their generosity of spirit is representative of many of our franchisees who seek out causes and programs to support. They care about their communities and through their actions make everyone around them know that Edible Cares.

I am so moved by our franchisees passion for what they do in their communities that I feel honored to highlight them in some of my upcoming blog entries. Although they are not seeking recognition, I feel compelled to tell their stories so that maybe, just maybe, their generosity of spirit can touch and affect others, just like they have touched and affected me.

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A Mission We All Believe In

A few years ago I decided that Edible Arrangements® needed a new mission statement. The mission statement had to be simple, easy to remember and more importantly, had to reflect the culture of Edible Arrangements and what I thought our products and our brand meant to our guests, franchisees and staff.

Why the change? Well, one day I asked a simple question during our weekly companywide staff meeting. I asked if anyone can recite our mission statement. All I got back were blank faces and silence. Never mind that we had large copies of our mission statement printed and displayed all over the corporate building. Nobody could remember it, and embarrassingly enough, I hate to admit it but neither could I. That is when I knew we had a problem.

So many companies just write a mission statement, or assign the task to the marketing department, because they feel they have to, without really thinking it through. Also, I believe it is also very difficult for young companies to really define their mission statement because young companies are still finding their way, still growing, still forming their culture and defining who they are and what they want to be. We created our first mission statement only a few years into our formation as a franchise company. It was too soon –we didn’t have the maturity yet to truly write a mission statement we could all believe in, a statement that really represented the DNA of the company and what it stood for.

Believe it or not, our new mission statement was simple and easy to come up with. It should be if you really understand your business and culture. If you have a lot of difficulty deriving your mission statement then I believe you just aren’t ready yet. What is our mission statement at Edible Arrangements now? ‘To Wow You’ –that’s it! Those few words say it all about Edible Arrangements. Our mission as a company, as a brand, is to ‘Wow’ our guests with our amazing products and exceptional experience every single day, ‘Wow’ our franchisees with impeccable, first-rate guidance and service, and ‘Wow’ our staff and create a culture that makes them proud. The ‘Wow’ effect was there from the very beginning when I first started the business in a corner of one of my flower shops. Many naysayers told me this idea I had would never work, but I had confidence because every time someone saw or received one of our arrangements the response was always the same –Wow!

At Edible Arrangements, ‘To Wow You’ is not just a mission statement. It’s not just a few words written on a piece of paper to be forgotten. Instead, we really believe in it, really feel it, live it and breathe it every day. With over 1,000 stores across the world, the people that really matter, the people that must believe in Edible Arrangements mission is our franchisees. Our franchisees are who you interact with, talk to and see every day. If they don’t believe in their mission, well, then we simply could not ‘Wow’ you. They are Edible Arrangements. But ‘Wow’ you they do. I’m blown away by our amazing franchisees and their dedication and commitment to ‘Wowing’ their guests all the time. Their belief in our mission –in their mission –is what makes us so successful.

Jim Echols, grandson Jameson and Tariq Farid

Last year was the first time we presented the ‘Wow Award’ to a franchisee at our annual Edible Arrangements convention. It was awarded to an amazing franchisee, Leslie Robinson of Troy, Michigan. This year, our ‘Wow’ award was given to another amazing franchisee who exemplifies everything Edible Arrangements is and stands for. Jim Echols, owner of the Charlotte, NC store ‘wows’ not only his guests, but really ‘Wows’ us at the corporate office and all our franchisees. He carries out the Edible Arrangements mission to perfection every single day. Nothing gets past him –and I mean nothing. His desire to please, to go above and beyond, to really ‘wow’ his guests, staff and community reverberates across the system. We all follow his lead and feed off of his passion. Thank you, Jim! Thank you for helping to bring the Edible Arrangements mission to life, and on top of it, for being a really nice, caring person. Congratulations and keep on ‘wowing’ us all.

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Giving Back Puts You Ahead

Have you ever been so moved by a special person that you become so grateful that there are people like them in this world. People whose generosity of spirit and caring for others shines brightly on everyone they touch and come in contact with.

This year at the Edible Arrangements Annual Convention I was so proud to give the award for the North American Franchisee of the Year, and along with it our own soon to be fabled blue jacket, to one of the most amazing franchisees we have in our system, Reva Gartzke of Austin, Texas. What makes Reva so special is not just her business acumen and razor-sharp intellect, but her generosity and caring for others. I’ve always believed that the true mark of person, how that person will be viewed by others and the world, is determined by their unselfish willingness to sacrifice and care for, assist and lead others. I believe Reva embodies these attributes and makes her a giant in our franchise system and in her community.

Reva Gartzke and Tariq Farid at the 2012 Edible Arrangements Convention

In the past 6 or so years I have known Reva, she has opened three very successful stores, two in Austin and one in Round Rock, with a fourth coming soon in Cedar Park. More importantly, she has been instrumentally involved with helping us improve operational efficiencies throughout the system. I, and all of my colleagues at Edible Arrangements and the other franchisees, value her opinion highly. What struck me even more at the convention was a video shown just before the award was given to Reva where three of her employees passionately described what Reva means to them. Their heartfelt testimonials proved to all of us the impact Reva has on their lives, the impact she has on many people’s lives. All of them described her compassion and caring for them and others, interest in their well-being and leadership in helping them build successful lives and careers. She shows the same caring for her guests as she does her employees, friends and strangers. To Reva, it’s not just about business, it’s about people.

In addition, Reva, like many of our franchisees, is active in her community. But I feel her involvement and total commitment in one cause sets her apart. Reva is heavily involved in Big Brothers Big sisters and has been for many years. She is so involved and appreciated that in 2010 she was named the Texas Big sister of the Year. Please watch a video of Reva and her little sister, Nacaya, by clicking Here.

All of us at Edible Arrangements feel privileged to have the opportunity to know Reva, and grateful for having her as franchisee. She is a friend and leader to so many. For Reva understands that when you gave back you get so much more in return.

 

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