I should have known something was amiss when I recently had to mail in my Grace Tea order to Massachusetts instead of New York. "Hmmm..." I thought. "Perhaps they moved out of the City to save money, after all, times are tough and why should tea be any different?" Thinking no more about it I sent in my order.
It arrived today. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
I have been buying from Grace Tea (which used to go by Grace Rare Tea) for at least 20 years now. I no more remember the exact date than I remember how I originally found them. I have never ordered much, I am the only tea drinker in the house and the rest of my family of origin either drinks black swill...er...coffee or is not as 'into' tea as am I. But I have faithfully ordered once or twice a year for what seems to me to be forever. I anxiously await that day when the mail fairy flies down the wood stove flue singing, sprinkling tea dust, and presents me with my package. Or something like that. It is always an exciting day nonetheless.
Each order, of course, included a packing slip. What made this packing slip different, and what impressed me from the first, was the tiny little greeting hand written at the bottom: "All Best Wishes, Marguerite Sanders". Marguerite Sanders was the owner.
Now, being the New Yorkophile that I am, I was so very impressed with the OWNER of a company in NEW YORK who bothered to personally sign each and every packing slip. Who does that? Who did it then? Who does it now?
Apparently no one any more.
When I opened my package, and the tea appears as wonderful as always, the packing slip was different: no more regular paper but thin, mechanized packing slip paper, and,
NO GREETING. NO SIGNATURE.
That's a cold halibut upside the head if ever there was one. Well, for me anyway. Inside was a photocopied letter, with a photocopied signature, stating, "As one of the new owners of Grace Tea Company..." New owners? No more All Best Wishes? No more Marguerite? No goodbye? After 20 years of being wished all the best, I felt as though I had been sent a Dear Jan letter.
Little did I realize how much those biannual greetings had come to mean. I always looked for them and then, of course, never thought about them again until the next order arrived. It made me feel as though I had a friend in New York. A friend I had never met, never spoken to, and never would, but still...we did write twice a year! In a way - okay, a business sort of way - but wrote nonetheless.
Now it is all over. I suppose it was time; the Sanders bought the company in 1979. Thirty one years. And I bought from them for 20 of those years. But they were not the first owners - the company started 20 years prior to that. And perhaps the new people will be just fine. At one time the Sanders were the new people and I assume the old customers were a bit put out by whatever changes they inevitably made. But I will sorely miss that personal touch one woman gave to each and every customer - a touch that is now nearly extinct in the world with the passing of the Sanders reign at Grace Tea.
So I think I will try to pick up the ball here. I have nothing to sell and perhaps even less to say. But I will send each and every one of you
All Best Wishes.
