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PIECES OF VERMONT
Owned & operated by
RES eCom, Inc.
PO Box 578
Jacksonville, VT 05342
800-507-7721
About Us Contact Us
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About PiecesOfVermont.com
"PIECES OF VERMONT"®
Shipping orders directly from Vermont since 2000
1999: The business RES eCom, Inc. was founded in 1999 by Rick Smith who grew up in Grafton and Wilmington, Vermont, skied at
Mount Snow ski resort for years and was an avid trout fisherman. He has two Bachelor Degrees; one in
Mechanical Engineering and one in Information Technology. After a short career as a Manufacturing Engineer in the Aerospace Machining industry, Rick's life changed
dramatically with a spinal cord injury, and he was forced to change careers.
"Life dealt me a pretty heavy blow and the career I loved as a Manufacturing Engineer, simply wasn't
practical any longer. So, in 1999 I decided that since I was so familiar with Vermont, why not create a website to help some of
Vermont's smaller businesses sell Vermont specialty foods, maple syrup products, stoneware pottery, and woodenware items over the Internet.
I contracted a marking firm who came up with the phrase PIECES OF VERMONT® as the most appropriate way to describe the services and
products I intended to incorporate into the site. The web address www.PiecesOfVermont.com (POVT) was then registered,
and after a 4 month development time, the website was launched and we started shipping orders from Vermont in early 2000." - Rick, Founder
2000 - 2006: Over the past nine+ years the website has gone through several development phases and numerous revisions.
Today the website holds it's own against larger Vermont Direct Mail Order businesses. The website is easily found
in Google.com, as well as Yahoo!,
and maintains a reputation as a grass-roots website offering Vermont wares with 1-to-1 direct
customer service. Currently the website has four primary businesses drop-shipping products from separate various locations throughout
Vermont.
"We have a wonderful group of folks involved with POVT, and we cross-stock most of our items so that orders can ship from various locations depending
on what's included in each order. It's a model that's worked well, says Rick.
The website originally focused on selling Vermont gift baskets,
Grade B maple syrup, Vermont cheese gifts,
select specialty foods, and traditional maple sugar candy shapes, as well as stoneware pottery,
wooden salad bowls, Maple Landmark toys, soy candles, and few other products.
2007: Though RES eCom, Inc. was originally founded in 1999 as a NY corporation, in 2007 the corporation was
re-established in VT and dissolved in NY. Since the first order was shipped in 2000, and to this day, 80% of the revenue generated from POVT has gone to
Vermont small businesses. The corporation has been extremely pleased with Chittenden Bank,
now a division of People's Bank, which has
branch locations throughout Vermont and New England.
The goal of the company has always been to help some of Vermont's smaller merchants increase sales by reaching
more customers on the World Wide Web, without increasing costs to those merchants.
The lion's share of the profit continues to go directly to Vermont small businesses, such as
the Robb Family Farm of W. Brattleboro, Vermont. The Robb Farm is a small, 3rd generation
dairy farm that like most small farms has had it's share of challenges in recent years. POVT has
significantly helped owners Helen and Charlie Robb Sr. expand the farm's mail order business to augment the dairy income, specializing in
unique maple sugar candy gifts, cheddar cheese gifts, and personalized wedding favors.
POVT has also been instrumental in helping MAPLE CITY CANDY, a small, old-fashioned candy store in
Northern, Vermont, generate online sales. As store competition draws more and more "walk in traffic" away to larger big box stores, online
sales have become increasingly important to their bottom line.
"I love MAPLE CITY CANDY. Store owner and candy-maker Chad Metayer has been an integral part of POVT's success in the past couple years, producing
our maple sugar candy, as well as helping us design CHAMP - The Monster of all Maple Candy®,
one of our first luxury maple candy shapes," says Rick.
"Chad's store reminds me of Fletchers, an old-time drug and candy store in
Bellows Falls, Vermont (long since out of business). Fletchers was the sort of store where you could find just about anything from
balsa wood toy airplanes to Teaberry gum. The space was cramped, but you always found what you needed at Fletchers. It was friendly small store service.
We all miss mom-and-pop stores like that. We're very pleased that MAPLE CITY CANDY is thriving and part of POVT."
2010: Today the website has retooled and become more focused, specializing on Premium Maple Sugar Candy and Chocolate-Maple Candy gifts,
while maintaining a strong customer base who also purchase pure Grade B maple syrup, Vermont cheese Gifts,
Vermont Bowl Company wooden bowls and cutting boards, maple wedding favors,
and a select shelf of Vermont specialty foods that are incorporated into a successful
"Build a Gift Basket" shopping experience.
PiecesOfVermont.com
"PIECES OF VERMONT"®
Owned & operated by
RES eCom, Inc.
PO Box 578
Jacksonville, VT 05342
800-507-7721
About Us Contact Us
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