Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:16PM
What’s in a name? In a business sense everything. Those of you who have children can relate to trying to choose a name. You get out the books and start making lists, you consult family and friends. Some of us don’t want family names, some of us do, some of us want something unique, some want more traditional. We did very much the same thing when we started this adventure. We made the lists and did the traditional names, using words like natural and food/s in a million different ways. It was important that the customer could tell what it is we are doing here, what set us apart from just another food store, and of course still signal the organic enthusiast to come this way. At one point we even contemplated an organic foods café in Newport, something we still talk about doing, maybe, someday. It wouldn’t be until I turned my attention to the logo. The logo would also go through several incarnations. I thought of a globe, a cluster of fruits and vegetables, a door, and a tree. (I think there may even have been a rabbit at some point.) It was the tree and the door that it came down to, and the word green, which helped determine that the door wasn’t the best choice. The tree is commonly used in this industry, it has some strong ties to nature obviously as well as the symbolic “tree of life” which bears a multitude of religious and secular meanings. This tree however had to be different, it couldn’t just be a “tree” it had to symbolize who we are, what we want to do and it had to be recognizable and memorable. It took me two weeks of drawing and re-working to get it together, and it still needed to be cleaned up and made professional for the purpose of print and display. In it you can see so many different things, hearts in the branches, arms of the trees wrapping around each other, circles representing the cycles of our lives and the world we live in. It has a Celtic feel to it and to me it feels like something from Tolkien, books I have read many times since the eigth grade. Once we had the tree the name seemed to fall into place for us. The Green Grocer goes well with the tree. By definition the term is originally a British word meaning a purveyor of fresh fruits and vegetables. Today however being green means so much more. Green is a color that can mean new growth in spring, shady spots in summer heat, or festive winter days. It’s a word that can mean brand new, or natural, it can mean sustainable and even be interpreted as better for you and for the earth. To us green means learning about better ways to care for ourselves and the planet, to leave a better legacy behind for our children, grandchildren and generations to come. We are here to help our customers learn, and we are here to learn from them. To us being a grocer means more than selling you something, it means providing a service to you, it means being given the privilege to delight you every time you shop. Grocer means being a part of the community we are in and sharing one of the most basic foundations of community, food, good food. So there you have it, The Green Grocer, our dream becoming a reality. What do you think of the name? The logo? What do you think of when you hear the name “The Green Grocer”? What are you expecting to see when you walk through the front doors? We can’t wait to hear from you!