Postage Don't

For the first time in my life, I sent a letter to a company praising their product. I have never sent a complaint letter, so it's really the first time I have ever sat down and expressed my feelings about any company and what they sell.

I am IN LOVE with Green Mountain Gringo Salsa. It's fresh, delicious and I could easily use it on anything (chips, eggs, chicken, pork, etc). I had discovered this salsa at a health food store when I was in college 20 years ago. I never ran across it again until just a few months ago, when I got on my healthier eating kick, and found it at the co-op I tend to frequent. So after going through many jars (I save the jars too, btw, and drink from them now) and once my husband caught me standing in the fridge just smelling the tomatoey-oniony-peppery-cilantroey goodness, I decided to pen my feelings. I crafted a funny, yet intelligent, note about my love affair with Green Mountain Gringo Salsa and sent it off to the "Contact Us" email on their website.

Within a few hours, I received a very friendly email from the president of Green Mountain Gringo Salsa! The PRESIDENT! She thanked me for the "great note" and was very happy to know that I had "been reunited with my long lost salsa" (I told you I crafted quite a good letter about loving salsa). She asked that I send her my mailing address so that she could send me some coupons. I was tempted to say that it wasn't necessary and that I love the salsa enough to pay full dollar, but times are tough so... I was pretty excited to receive a few things from my beloved salsa company.

I was pleased that I had taken a moment to say "good job" to a little salsa maker in North Carolina. Putting a little goodness out into the world really does feel nice. A few days ago, I had a sticker on my door from the post office stating that I had something that needed to be picked up. Brad ran up the street to get whatever was waiting for me. He handed me a business size envelope that clearly had a few clunky items in it. I opened it to find a Green Mountain Gringo magnet, a pen made out of recycled-material (I'd expect nothing less) and a few coupons for 50 cents off. Oh...wait...50 cents off a jar of salsa when you buy a full priced bag of their chips. Oh and why did Brad have to run up to the United State Postal Service office? Because the magnet, the recycled-material pen, and the two 50 cent off when you buy a bag of chips coupons had been sent POSTAGE DUE. So, let's say I used my two 50 cent coupons....two bags of chips at full price at $2.12 each (so that I could redeem my coupons) plus two jars of salsa at $4.27 each, minus the $1.00 in coupons, that would mean I paid approximately $11.78 (before tax). And I got the stellar deal simply by waxing on about my love of salsa and then paying $1.22 at the post office. So really, my compliment to the company cost me exactly $13.00 (before tax).

I'm completely tempted to write a "break up" letter to the Green Mountain Gringo folks now. BUT...I'll just chalk this one up to some hippie kid working in the office and shoving magnets and recycled-material pens into envelopes for the random customer who deserves them. I'll still eat my delicious, natural salsa but the honeymoon phase is over. Instead if passionately smelling it while standing in the kitchen...we'll just watch old re-runs on TV together as we slowly grow apart.

And I've just started reading "When Your Salsa Has Gone Too Far; Knowing Where to Draw the Line."