For Birmingham Gardners
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Coordinator :: Alabama Motoring Society & South East
Joined: Nov 2002
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From: Burning-Ham Alabama
For Birmingham Gardners
For those of you that enjoy gardening, you may want to get to Plant Odyssey this week. Everything at the nursery is 50% off!
This is a fantastic locally owned nursery and plant store (two locations in southside) with one of the best selections of hard to find plants and plants selected especially for our area. The lady who owns it and her staff are incredibly knowledgable.
Today, one of them was able to help me with ferns, showing me which would grow best in complete shade in constantly damp acidic soil and which are evergreens or perennials, etc. Try asking those questions to the people in orange vests at Home Depot and see what kind of answer you get!
Unfortunately, this fantastic business may soon become another small business casualty of the big warehouse discount stores.
Here is a copy of an email I received concerning the fate of this great plant store and nursery:
FROM LIBBY RICH, OWNER OF PLANT ODYSSEY - BOTTOM LINE - PRICES ARE SLASHED AND LIBBY NEEDS THE COMMUNITY'S HELP TO STAY IN BUSINESS
Effective immediately, all plants, pots and decorative accessories at the Plant Odyssey Nursery are 50% off. The inventory at Plant Odyssey is 20% off.
It is very difficult for me to write this letter, but it has to be done.I need your help.
On February 2 of this year, the banker who had been assigned my account called and demanded a meeting. The banker, who will remain unnamed, brought his assistant to my office at Plant Odyssey. What followed was a nightmare for me. He stated it was evident that my company was failing, and the bank would no longer give me overdraft protection. His recommendation was that I liquidate my inventory, sell the property, pay the bank what I could, and get a job to pay off the remaining debt. I tried explaining to him that yes, my business was in trouble, but I had made it so far and that with the approach of spring, I was confident I could turn it around. He was unyielding, and he listed my mistakes: my stores remained in an area that could not sustain my business; I expanded (opening Plant Odyssey Nursery) when I shouldn't have; and finally I guaranteed the nursery with Plant Odyssey's assets.
When I asked for a temporary loan, he remarked that the bank would not throw good money after bad. I sat stunned and horrified, listening, unable to believe this was happening. I called my husband and asked him to sit in on this meeting. I spent the time until his arrival walking the bankers through my store and nursery, pointing out the inventory, its great beauty, and extensive selection. The assistant, quiet until then, said I would be a wealthy woman had I just moved my businesses Over the Mountain. When my husband Joe arrived, he loaned me enough money to get me through till spring. The bankers said that on June 15, we would meet again to discuss the future of Plant Odyssey and Plant Odyssey Nursery. They see the impending doom of my stores as just another casualty -- a small neighborhood business succumbing to the giants. They do not care about my being a fixture on Birmingham's Southside; they do not care that I am a highly respected professional in my field. Their decision is based strictly on the numbers. That date approaches and while I have made great strides, it hasn't been enough.
Because I believed in the success of the nursery, I invested all my personal assets, but I am tapped out. When I started doing consultations at peoples homes and then installations, it looked as though it would be enough to keep the nursery open, and it still can. Two or three jobs a week would be all that I need. I had depended on strong weekends to pull out of debt, but instead my piece of the pie got even smaller. I saw my sales cut in half on the two weekends Pike Nursery opened. I do not want the bank to be right (the understatement of the year), but unless I come up with a substantial amount of money, the bank will call the note and Plant Odyssey and Plant Odyssey Nursery will be history. If I have ever helped you in the past, please help me now.
If you can't buy anything, would you please tell a friend? Better yet, forward this email to everyone you know.
Here are our locations so they will know where we are.
Plant Odyssey is at 2912 6th Avenue South. Plant Odyssey Nursery is around the corner and two blocks down at 2900 4th Avenue South.
Effective immediately, all plants, pots and decorative accessories at the Plant Odyssey Nursery are 50% off. The inventory at Plant Odyssey is 20% off. If anyone is interested in a consultation or an installation, please call for an appointment (324-0566). The charge for an on-site visit is $100.
I believe what I do is worthy and that with your help, I can save the stores. I would be grateful to see you in the next two weeks.
Libby
This is a fantastic locally owned nursery and plant store (two locations in southside) with one of the best selections of hard to find plants and plants selected especially for our area. The lady who owns it and her staff are incredibly knowledgable.
Today, one of them was able to help me with ferns, showing me which would grow best in complete shade in constantly damp acidic soil and which are evergreens or perennials, etc. Try asking those questions to the people in orange vests at Home Depot and see what kind of answer you get!
Unfortunately, this fantastic business may soon become another small business casualty of the big warehouse discount stores.
Here is a copy of an email I received concerning the fate of this great plant store and nursery:
FROM LIBBY RICH, OWNER OF PLANT ODYSSEY - BOTTOM LINE - PRICES ARE SLASHED AND LIBBY NEEDS THE COMMUNITY'S HELP TO STAY IN BUSINESS
Effective immediately, all plants, pots and decorative accessories at the Plant Odyssey Nursery are 50% off. The inventory at Plant Odyssey is 20% off.
It is very difficult for me to write this letter, but it has to be done.I need your help.
On February 2 of this year, the banker who had been assigned my account called and demanded a meeting. The banker, who will remain unnamed, brought his assistant to my office at Plant Odyssey. What followed was a nightmare for me. He stated it was evident that my company was failing, and the bank would no longer give me overdraft protection. His recommendation was that I liquidate my inventory, sell the property, pay the bank what I could, and get a job to pay off the remaining debt. I tried explaining to him that yes, my business was in trouble, but I had made it so far and that with the approach of spring, I was confident I could turn it around. He was unyielding, and he listed my mistakes: my stores remained in an area that could not sustain my business; I expanded (opening Plant Odyssey Nursery) when I shouldn't have; and finally I guaranteed the nursery with Plant Odyssey's assets.
When I asked for a temporary loan, he remarked that the bank would not throw good money after bad. I sat stunned and horrified, listening, unable to believe this was happening. I called my husband and asked him to sit in on this meeting. I spent the time until his arrival walking the bankers through my store and nursery, pointing out the inventory, its great beauty, and extensive selection. The assistant, quiet until then, said I would be a wealthy woman had I just moved my businesses Over the Mountain. When my husband Joe arrived, he loaned me enough money to get me through till spring. The bankers said that on June 15, we would meet again to discuss the future of Plant Odyssey and Plant Odyssey Nursery. They see the impending doom of my stores as just another casualty -- a small neighborhood business succumbing to the giants. They do not care about my being a fixture on Birmingham's Southside; they do not care that I am a highly respected professional in my field. Their decision is based strictly on the numbers. That date approaches and while I have made great strides, it hasn't been enough.
Because I believed in the success of the nursery, I invested all my personal assets, but I am tapped out. When I started doing consultations at peoples homes and then installations, it looked as though it would be enough to keep the nursery open, and it still can. Two or three jobs a week would be all that I need. I had depended on strong weekends to pull out of debt, but instead my piece of the pie got even smaller. I saw my sales cut in half on the two weekends Pike Nursery opened. I do not want the bank to be right (the understatement of the year), but unless I come up with a substantial amount of money, the bank will call the note and Plant Odyssey and Plant Odyssey Nursery will be history. If I have ever helped you in the past, please help me now.
If you can't buy anything, would you please tell a friend? Better yet, forward this email to everyone you know.
Here are our locations so they will know where we are.
Plant Odyssey is at 2912 6th Avenue South. Plant Odyssey Nursery is around the corner and two blocks down at 2900 4th Avenue South.
Effective immediately, all plants, pots and decorative accessories at the Plant Odyssey Nursery are 50% off. The inventory at Plant Odyssey is 20% off. If anyone is interested in a consultation or an installation, please call for an appointment (324-0566). The charge for an on-site visit is $100.
I believe what I do is worthy and that with your help, I can save the stores. I would be grateful to see you in the next two weeks.
Libby
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