My two cents worth:
I don't believe IMHO that there is a right OR wrong answer here. I do agree with ML and others that a "jury trial" can't be conducted without a defendant present, but I also believe that some of you have been "burnt" before (in some cases more than once).
From a business point of view marketing is key. In fact, I have been spending my 25th and 26th hours of each day trying to rework both our catalog and our website so that both are fact based and neither misconstrued. That being said I have not seen Dunn's site. We have in the past purchased fish (rosy reds I think, but don't quote me on that) from them, but we sent our truck to their farm to pick up these orders.
In the early years Ken tried the whole "peddle the fish" thing, and that resulted in more problems than anything else. You get a driver out on the road who has no proper stocking experience, and all he sees are $ signs when selling. That is why we now book orders ahead of schedule, discuss proper stocking strategies with the customer, and then route our truck directly to the individual ponds. Our drivers do present catalogs to the customers (as well as anyone else who stops the truck in route), they have products on board like ocean blue or microblift should the customer request it, but they refer the customer back to me for questions or further stocking. Often times someone will see the truck on the highway and call into the office to request info. We do not do the "stop at the farm depo" to sell our fish, but that does not mean that it does not work for others. It just means that after 40 plus years Ken has refined his approach to stocking individual ponds.
Back to Dunn's I don't recall any negatives from our experience, but then again we dealt straight with the office and not the drivers.
Maybe they SHOULD be invited to this forum. I know that I have learned more in the past few months here than in the past two years as an employee at Ken's. When stuck in one area of the country it is hard to tune in to other areas and the way things are done differently.
You all have given me a chance to express my stance, my opinions, and my attempt at humor. But more than anything else you all have given me knowledge and drive that I would not have found in any textbook or seminar.
I thank each and every one of you for that.
Deb
