About Us

Penny & I decided to launch SpicesInc.com in early 2008 after leaving the corporate job that I had as the Chief Operations Officer at Dog.com. There comes a time when you have to decide – do you keep working for somebody else or do you lay it all on the line and just go for it – all or nothing. We decided to take a big scary leap of faith.

We were not expecting that the “Great Recession” was about to smack us right upside the head, but once you’ve jumped you don’t get to ask for a do over.

I worked for entrepreneurs (some more than a little ~~crazy~~ eccentric) for more than 10 years. I was the one who would take their vision (or the latest version of it) and have to make it happen on a day-to-day basis. At one time or another I covered the full spectrum in these various catalog and online businesses – marketing, purchasing, merchandising, operations, customer service and enough IT to be dangerous. The driving force of our business philosophy – everything must revolve around our customers. Without them – we don’t stand a chance!

This philosophy was seeded in my first career working in restaurants. In this career part 1, I was an operations guy who would be sent in to fix restaurants that were drastically underperforming (broken) or to open new restaurants all across the country. The last time I counted I had worked in more than 80 restaurants in 6 states over a 12 year period. We moved around a lot in those early years!

So I was ready to take my leap of faith, the time had come to build my own business from scratch. I had lunch with one of the smartest guys in the world, one of my entrepreneur heroes, and our lunch conversation turned to spices. Talk about an A-HA moment! It seemed so natural and it was a way to go full circle back towards food. I was hooked.

In building successful businesses for these various entrepreneurs I found that the more focus given to delivering outstanding customer service the stronger a company would grow. So SpicesInc.com will use this customer service model as our center piece and it will drive all of our day-to-day decisions. I have long admired and closely followed first Nordstrom’s, then Zappos as well as a host of regional small businesses that excelled at great service. Not good customer service but great.

One thing we don’t have is a retail store where you can come in and smell the amazing spices we carry. So we have to find a way to convey the quality of our spices to our potential customers without the benefit of the intoxicating aromas. We must provide as much information about the products as possible. Whether it is in the size and quality of our product selection, multiple product sizes offered, product information or product images – we have to give our customers more not less.

But that’s only part of it. We know that high shipping costs have driven customers absolutely crazy for years. Customers demand great value but they don’t want to be gouged. So I want to be sure that we provide them with options.

Want it faster? Choose FedEx Ground.
Not in a big hurry and want it cheaper? Choose Economy Shipping.
Want the best value for your hard earned dollar? Order more than $35 and we’ll ship it for free!

Another part of our mission is to give back. We have tremendous personal respect for businesses that recognize the importance of giving back to others, especially in these tough times. That’s why back in July of 2010 we decided that we would begin donating 1% of our sales (not our profits but total sales) to help fight hunger in kids, their families and seniors in our country. The group we chose to support is FeedingAmerica.org. 96% of their donations go directly into securing and distributing food across the U.S.

We are proud and excited to have the opportunity to come to work every day while trying to build something great. Great for our customers, great for those that work for us and great for our community. To grow this business and provide jobs, not only for us, but others would be the greatest personal achievement we could ask for. And if we have some fun along the way – then that’s cool too!

If there is anything that we can do for you, if there is a spice, herb or seasoning that you are looking for or if you just want to talk spices… give me a call or drop me an email – I’m Greg. Nice to meet ya!

Greg Patterson
Owner/ Founder
SpicesInc.com
gpatterson@spicesinc.com
1-888-762-8642
1-570-394-9042 (my cell number)