I don’t want to sound like a whiner myself but dealing with some individuals can almost put me over the edge. Does summer bring out the worst in people or just the worst people?

“Three dollars for that!? That’s way too expensive. Six dollars a pound!? Are you kidding!?”

And to say this loudly in front of us for what? To shame us? Why? Are we supposed to be blind to the fancy cars they drive and the expensive clothes they’re wearing? Dyeing your hair isn’t cheap either.

It’s amazing. On one hand we have unappreciative people griping about the $6/lb price of our strawberries at our farm store, straight to our face and in front of other customers, and on the other, we have folks calling us gushing with gratitude after buying our berries for $10/lb from a grocery store in Calgary. They are leaving messages on our answering machine after hours just to thank us for making such an amazing product available. Sometimes the contrast between customers can be breathtaking.

If you can’t afford something, don’t buy it. Who drops by the Rolls Royce dealership just to complain about the prices? They’ve put in endless hours, engineering, and investment to create a luxurious product and they don’t apologize about the price. We’ve spent 25 years developing our soil and our methods of growing the best strawberry around. We are unapologetically confident that we deserve to be paid well for our investment and expertise.

I used to respond to these complaints by trying to explain the costs of growing a strawberry, but I know better now. Your friends aren’t asking for an explanation and your detractors have their fingers in their ears. I’ve got better things to do than pencil out cost structures for people who aren’t worthy of our efforts or product.

Perhaps there are some people reading this who wonder why we continue to talk in these terms, that maybe we’re defensive or negative. Those of you who know what we do and why and how we do it, will appreciate our defense of it. 
We grow clean food for a price that’s fair for everybody involved. Anyone who doesn’t agree is going to have to find somewhere else to shop.

As of today, we’re officially refusing to serve anybody who complains about our prices. We will no longer be attempting to explain ourselves.