Born in the Great Depression, Harry & David files for bankruptcy

[Ferret Annica]

Fruit basket and gift seller Harry & David filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, brought down by a weak economy and a proliferation of competitors.

The Medford, Ore., company agreed with a majority of its senior creditors on a reorganization plan that will eliminate “substantial” debt and provide financing to restructure its balance sheet, according to court documents.

Harry & David Holdings Inc., which grew out of an orchard business about a century ago, has been struggling as businesses slashed corporate gift budgets and consumers cut spending in the weak economy. It relies on discretionary spending that’s often the first to get cut from household and business budgets.

I have worked in the H&D (Bear Creek Corporation) seasonal order entry phone center in Eugene, OR which was eliminated this year.
Harry and David started their company in the Great Depression by loading up Royal Riviera Pears (Cumus Pears) in their truck and giving free samples to hotels and other places around the country and built the 'Fruit of the Month Club' gifts into an American Icon.

Makes one pause to think about such a well known business born in hard times could not survive today's business climate and economic troubles.

I missed my job last November and December. I had a lean time this last holiday season and was fearful this could happen to Bear Creek Corp.

http://www.harryanddavid.com/gifts/store/home___

[SoCalDem]

1. Not surprised at all..

Specialty/Gift venues are suffering bigtime.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. yup. Looking for places to cut in your budget? Gift baskets and candies can go

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. That stuff is EXPENSIVE! I'd get their catalog periodically. The prices

are astronomical. Stricly rich people only.

[GoCubsGo]

35. Hell...

I could never afford the discounted overstock one finds at TJ Maxx, even when I was working regularly and making decent money. I always wanted to try something of theirs to see why it was worth what they were charging for it, but I could never bring myself to pay for even the stuff that was on clearance after being marked down.

[orwell]

36. +1000

[roguevalley]

41. I picked the pears. I grew up four miles from them and all

my friends and I worked in orchards. Some of their moms made the baked goods and candy. I LOVE Harry and David. This is tragic news to me. This is an iconic company and a good one. Very, very sad.

[Poll_Blind]

3. That's too bad, really a shame. I've never worked for them but just about...

...everyone I know here in Eugene has put in time. And I don't recall ever hearing anything bad about them as employers.

PB

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. didn't know they were so big

[Ferret Annica]

19. Yes, it is Medford's major industry

For example, many of the basket weavers are multi-generational and their orchards stretch for miles. Also there were three phone order entry points, Eugene, Medford, OR and Hopewell, OH. I started doing this in 1985 and have seen the phone center get smaller and smaller, as younger people took to the Internet order entry site. Which of course means our customers calling in are usually older people.

It is a process where we were expected to be patient and take as long as possible. Which can be a long time when dealing with someone in their 80s and 90s who have bad hearing, eyes, or have to slowly go up the stairs to retrieve a Visa Card, or go get a worker at a nursing home to aid them in finishing their order.

I always got a satisfactory rating as I have excellent customer service and communication skills, but I loathe cross sells and prompting to upgrade and order as we were expected to do. That went against my grain very deeply.

[Liberal_in_LA]

30. "slowly go up the stairs to retrieve a Visa Card"

:)

[cali]

5. there stuff is horribly overpriced and they

stupidly expanded to stores all over the country.

http://www.harryanddavid.com/gifts/store/view____storefront.html

[SoCalDem]

10. I expect places llike Crate & Barrell & that chi-chi kitchen place

(forget its name) to be in trouble soon (if they are not already)

My daughter in law will ONLY shop there.. her measuring cups are so damned heavy, I can barely lift them,:rofl: she took me there once when we visited, and they wanted $150.00 for a set of Pryex-y mixing bowls:)

[davidinalameda]

25. Williams Sonoma?

overpriced kitchen stuff

[SoCalDem]

27. That's the place:) thanks.. n/t

[davidinalameda]

45. I love their stuff

but yeah, it's way overpriced

[Liberal_in_LA]

31. name sounds very 'chi chi'

[Zanzoobar]

6. Maybe their advertising sucked. Never heard of them. n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

making 'upscale' purchases gets you on their catolog list - ordering flowers for example

[Zanzoobar]

13. Ah. I'm on the DMA mail list and the DMA catalog list.

It does help prevent a lot of junk.

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. Click on link below...behold their $140 gift baskets.

http://www.harryanddavid.com

[roguevalley]

42. A friend worked in the office and told me Jackie Kennedy and

half the world's famous people did orders there all the time. Great place, Harry and David. You should smell the cooking. :)

[KamaAina]

8. I hear they were hard-core RWers

Once they included a questionnaire with the Fruit of the Month that asked things like "Do you hold a favorable view of the American Nazi Party?" :scared:

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. no way!

[Ferret Annica]

20. Medford is in Southwest, OR and is conservative

And we in Eugene, OR always had our beefs with the 'Medfordites,' but I highly doubt such a questionnaire ever existed. We were forbidden to discuss politics and in training they emphasized never getting into business killing realms like politics and religion.


Any Telephone Sales Rep that is overheard doing so will being monitored faced strong sanctions. The worst thing I ever had to do contrary to my Wicca religion for example is to vary from the 'Happy Holidays' generic greeting we were made to use to go ahead and wish someone a 'Merry Christmas' if they offered the sentiment to me first.

One thing I very strongly cared about was to be extra polite to older customers and to leave my personal baggage about religion at the door. I have had customers offer sentiments on politics, but we were taught steering questions to get the order back on track.

And if the customer got nasty, we would first give the reality check this was inappropriate and offer to start over.

[roguevalley]

43. you would have to show me. that sounds like a lie. a huge lie.

Re: nazi thing, not your response. :) This dropped down a ways

[KamaAina]

47. It's something I read years ago, long before the intertubes.

So there's no record of it one way or the other.

[roguevalley]

50. oh. well, I know them pretty well as a corp. it has to be wrong.

:(

[craigmatic]

11. Does this mean that times are worse now?

[nolabear]

12. NOOOOOOOO!! Can I get custody of the Moose Munch?

[RebelOne]

39. That's my daughter's favorite from them.

I send it to her every year. I'll go for joint custody with you.

[1776Forever]

14. They have a big location in Ohio near Heath. This will come as a big blow to that area!

I love their cherry jam and I will miss that - I know I am decadent to mention it but it was one of only a few luxuries I do enjoy now and then. You could order 4 of them for a pretty decent price compared to the store bought brands. I always used one of the coupons on-line to help out.

Sorry to hear this for the workers and the company sake!

[Ferret Annica]

23. Last year was the first year we did away with the twenty percent off...

... an additional item to the order special. And our company employee thank you meal became a snack with most of the vending machines taken out of the break room. The thing I hated was the cheap equipment with old tube monitors and cheesy headphone which are horrible to use in a huge room full of people talking as they took orders all around you. (Medford which operates year round has far better equipment and work stations.)

I miss the employee discount which helped me afford Harry and David gifts to older relatives. I still order from them, but I have had to cut the size and cost per item aspect of my order.

[rzemanfl]

15. The Wisconsin Cheeseman folded too. They used to be huge

in the gift basket/box biz. Now the rich handle their bribes in cash.

[wickerwoman]

17. Nooooo....

must stock up lifetime supply of chocolate covered cherries and moose munch!

[Moondog]

26. oh, yeah!!!

Sad to see this outfit go under.

[Trajan]

18. The very rich (and many ignorant conservatives) have decided small businesses can go to hell ....

Big business cares only for today's bottom line .....

Small business, like that of Harry and David - depend on 'discretionary' spending by individuals and families ... The same individuals and families who's wages have been intentionally suppressed by big business conservatives for decades now .... Those individuals and families now have little 'extra' money with which to sustain the many small businesses in our communities ...

There is no running or hiding from the consequences - If you cut into family incomes, for a sustained period, there will be impacts for the whole economy - And not all of it is good for business.

EVERY dollar saved from one company's payroll is another dollar NOT spent for a Harry and David's Fruit Basket ....

There is no free ride ....

[emilyg]

21. Their prices went up. I stopped using them.

[lynne]

22. Ever looked at the price of their stuff? No wonder they filed for bankruptcy -

- I did corporate gift basket purchasing in large quantities for a firm I worked for. Each and every time I would review what Harry and David had to offer and each and every time I did NOT order from them due to their high prices and how very few items were included in each basket when compared to other gift baskets. I also had reports back from other employees about receiving their baskets in the past and the fruit spoiling quickly.

Sorry but if you're not competitive, you're not going to stay in business. Plain and simple and true.

edit: typo

[Poll_Blind]

28. Out of curiosity, who made the fruit gift baskets you DID recommend?

PB

[lynne]

33. Seems like Wine Country Gift Baskets usually won out -

- although we didn't send baskets that included wine. We once priced trying to buy the basket locally and purchase in bulk at Costco to make them ourselves but it was more expensive than using Wine Country and having them shipped.

[Poll_Blind]

40. t/y!

PB

[Botany]

24. My Grandfather sold some of his fruit to Harry & David ..... it helped pay for ..

... my mom's college.



Ashland, Oregon

[Starry Messenger]

29. That's really sad.

I always loved looking at their catalog every year at Christmas. I think my grandma used to order from there for the holidays. It's tragic seeing all of these old businesses crumble. :(

[Raine]

32. What a shame

to have survived even the depression and now be in such trouble. A cousin of mine always gave me something from them as a Christmas gift, this is very sad news.

[nessa]

34. Chapter 11 does not equal out of business...

It's a reorganization not a liquidation, to get creditors to stop collections until the company can a plan in place and a handle on the debt. Many companies survive it, some more than once.

[Ferret Annica]

37. You are correct, and I have faith in H&D's resiliency

The world just would not be the same without such a steady supply of Royal Riviera Pears and Moose Munch. :)

[laconicsax]

38. Overpriced gift baskets don't do well in a bad economy.

The quality may be good, but they mark up their prices beyond a sane amount. Rogue Creamery Oregonzola cheese is about $25-30/lb at the Creamery in Central Point, and about $10 for a 3.5oz wedge at the Harry and David store 6 miles south in Medford. They don't even repackage it--just add their own price sticker.

[roguevalley]

44. I grew up one block from them. Ah, the old days. :)

[REP]

46. I love H&D's pears

The last box I got did not last long. Nothing wrong with 'em - I ate them for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Delicious.

[quaker bill]

55. agreed +100

[Arugula Latte]

48. Crap. There goes another piece of my childhood.

Every Xmas my grandpa would send us a big gift basket of pears and candies and cheeses and all sorts of interesting things. That was my first association with the state of "Oregon" and now I live here. I really feel for all the workers. :(

[Kip Humphrey]

49. ditto that.

[KT2000]

51. Private equity firm bought H&D

at the time there was ZERO debt. They likely used the comapny as collateral for acquiring more debt - to the tune of $198 million, owed to Wells Fargo.
This is what those firms do - they buy small, medium companies, use them as financial instruments - meaning, the assets of the company allows the firm to acquire more cash. They run the comapny in the ground because they really do not care about the company or the employees - only about using the company and its assets until they are gone.
Then they file bankruptcy.
Then - they go buy more companies and repeat.
Some firms buy the companies, send the labor overseas and only maintain a shell to manage the computer system that interfaces with the firm's.

Another tell - business was bad so they raised their prices!
This company made it through the Depression!

[Selatius]

52. Private equity firms are little better than house flippers. They flip entire businesses instead.

They take a good company, order it to borrow a large chunk of money, and make that company to declare that chunk as apart of executive compensation. The new owners get rich very quickly, and they can turn around and sell it to another private equity firm, or simply dismember the company and sell the pieces to settle the debts and take more profit.

[KT2000]

54. Yes - and there are also

fees involved. When the small company that is purchased undergoes some transactions with the parnet equity firm, fees - big fees are generated that must be paid to the equity firm.

The greedheads are dismantling this country to enrich a few- pretty much sight unseen.

[hayu_lol]

53. This is really sad...

Have several friends over the mountains in Ashland, Medford and the surrounding area who have worked for this company for years. Hope H&D survive and keep the jobs going.