Our employees and ourselves depend on The Garlic Shoppe and
Rapazzini Winery to put food in our mouths, roofs over our heads,
insurance on our bodies and hopefully a reasonable profit for
retirement.
Dear Editor,
Our employees and ourselves depend on The Garlic Shoppe and Rapazzini Winery to put food in our mouths, roofs over our heads, insurance on our bodies and hopefully a reasonable profit for retirement. This is real life drama not some writer’s story. This is much more than a tempest in a teapot. This is the basis of the American way of life – support of the FREE MARKET. And in this particular case, the unjust use of taxpayer funds to compete unfairly with private businesses. What is clear is that the best place for jobs is in the private sector not government programs. We have three businesses directly effected.
We have been struggling like most small business the past three years to just stay in business due to the tough economy. We have been hoping to make it to the next upswing in the business cycle by working hard seven days a week. All we ask is for a level playing field. That is not possible when the Welcome Center rent is FREE.
A private business would be required to pay around $72,000 for the space in the outlets. That’s $6,000 per month over the cost of the actual product that’s needs to come in just to pay the rent of $200 per day or $400 in retail sales per day.
That alone makes this competition unfair between a taxpayer funded business and private businesses. Now throw in that the taxpayers pay for everything else to run this business – all the employees salaries, social security, workmen’s comp, health insurance, utilities, maintenance, advertising, business insurance, etc. Upfront a private business also has to pay for the fixtures to display the stuff, computers and cash registers, signage and all it takes to make a shop a real business.
The Visitors Bureau says they will only sell $10,000 a year – just a tiny bit of their $300,000 taxpayer funding – $10,000 is a heck of a lot of money to most small businesses. When have you ever heard of a government program staying the same size? You don’t.
Government programs always grow bigger because they don’t have to depend on the market to grow they just do it with someone else’s money – YOURS and MINE from our taxes. When the Visitors Bureau gets a taste of money that is all profit to them since all the costs and expenses are paid for by the taxpayers don’t you think they will want to sell more and more? Of course they will. They will increase their sales floor and inventory to be able to sell more to each person that walks through their doors. The Visitors Bureau will not then send that visitor to another store when they can sell then stuff right there and all the money will go to the Visitors Bureau.
That will directly cut into the sales and profits of all the garlicky-themed businesses. I also believe it will cut into the direct to consumer sales for the wineries if the Visitors Bureau also sells wine. They will also have to get a liquor license. Who will be responsible for any extra insurance and lawsuits that come from selling alcohol? Many jobs are also produced by the manufacturers and packagers of the many items that we make right here in Gilroy. We have our sauces and seasonings actually made and bottled right here in Gilroy, too. We also have our labels designed and printed right here too. That’s right – we put our money where our mouths are and do business locally. We also carry almost all of the brands made here in Gilroy to sell at retail in our businesses including Garlic Capital, Pepper Plant, Christopher Ranch, Garlic Survival plus hundreds of other small vendors in California and around the country.
The Garlic Shoppe has been serving garlicky visitors since 1985 and directing those visitors to restaurants, wineries, hotels and motels, antique shops, local county and state parks and Gilroy Gardens as an unpaid visitors bureau. Rapazzini Winery has been in business since 1961. We expanded our garlic wine offerings to two cooking wines, one white and the other red, and Chateau de Garlic drinking wine is now offered in both red and white. We make those to encourage people to bring their friends to Gilroy to try something unique. We also direct a lot of visitors to the other wineries on Hecker Pass and off Leavesely Road since we are located on the high-traffic U.S. 101 freeway.
Charlie Larson, Gilroy
