New Orleans based GourmetFoodMall.com, Inc. maintains operations during and after Hurricane Katrina and joins in the relief effort

 Press Release

September 20, 2005

Related: GourmetFoodMall Hurricane Katrina Relief Floor

GourmetFoodMall.com, the destination site on the internet for gourmet products and specialty foods, is a New Orleans, Louisiana based internet technology company that has maintained business operations throughout the hurricane Katrina disaster.

“Thank goodness we had the foresight to have our servers based in Houston, Texas and our backup servers elsewhere”, stated company Founder, Andrew Restivo.  In the virtual environment of internet based businesses, “servers” are the physical location of the computer(s) where the website is housed.  From this access point, internet users across the globe are able to do business, shop or perform a myriad of other functions with the company’s website.

“It was critical for us to maintain operations as we have over 150 clients from all over the USA and Canada.”  Mr. Restivo added, “It is our fiduciary responsibility to make sure that a local or regional disaster does not affect the business operations of our clients in the non-affected areas… and in our case it did not.  In fact, from August 29 – 30th over 60 orders were placed with our clients that are in other parts of the country.”

GourmetFoodMall functions similar to an online portal.  Specialty food companies maintain their website/webstore within the GourmetFoodMall framework, but the online orders are actually placed with and fulfilled directly by each individual merchant. 

Some of GourmetFoodMall’s clients were not so lucky.  According to Mr. Restivo, there are eight GourmetFoodMall specialty food clients that are in the New Orleans area.  “Of the eight clients, only three had ecommerce stores.  The other four had what we call catalog stores… or stores that only provided information instead of allowing online buying… We temporarily de-activated the three ecommerce stores so online shoppers could not place orders until we are sure that these clients are up and running again.”

According to Mr. Restivo, the company is planning on setting up a Katrina Relief “floor” in their virtual mall with participating merchants that have agreed to donate a portion of their sales to the relief effort.  What GourmetFoodMall wants to do is to focus on assisting small specialty food producers and retailers based in the affected area.  The specialty food industry in general is comprised of mostly small to medium size companies and this disaster is having a terrible effect on their lives.  Not only are the owner’s families struggling, but also the workers in their business are in need.

 “There are a lot of relief agencies that are focused on individuals that have been displaced.  That is a mammoth task in itself.  The New Orleans area is one of the culinary capitals of this country and we want to help preserve this food culture so we can continue to enjoy it for generations to come.”

Most of the restaurants in the New Orleans area depend on ingredients provided by local specialty food producers.  In order for these internationally know restaurants to come back to their greatness… access to these ingredients is necessary. 

GourmetFoodMall is asking its clients to donate a portion of their sales to this relief effort.  With the Hurricane Katrina “floor” online shoppers will be able to identify those companies that will assist in this rebuilding effort.  According to Mr. Restivo, GourmetFoodMall’s Hurricane Katrina program will be up and running in just a couple days. 

In addition, over the next 90 days GourmetFoodMall is donating to the Katrina relief effort half of the registration fees it collects from new clients that qualify to join the GourmetFoodMall web portal.  “We have added three new clients within the past week and want to extend an invitation to other specialty food companies to join with us.” 

‘’If your company has unique and high quality products with a great story to tell… we want to feature you on our award winning website for this holiday season. “

GourmetFoodMall is looking to select qualified USA and Canadian specialty food companies wishing to market their products to consumers and/or wholesale industry buyers in the United States and Canada.

These companies, if they qualify, will be able to take advantage of GourmetFoodMall’s unique, multi-channel approach to e-commerce. This method, called “The Recipe for Success”, has proven to be very successful for a wide variety of businesses, both large and small, and GourmetFoodMall is pleased to announce that qualified Canadian businesses can now take advantage of these services.

GourmetFoodMall offers superior solutions to all four of the key areas for eCommerce.

GourmetFoodMall gives merchants a location that is highly visible to the search engines, and therefore to customers seeking unique specialty food products. GourmetFoodMall offers a platform that is unique to the eCommerce industry, allowing retail customers to shop in a variety of stores with one simple checkout and a wholesale site (www.gourmetfoodmall.net) that allows potential customers to fill out a variety of business forms that help streamline the wholesale purchasing process. 

GourmetFoodMall’s capable professionals also help companies outline a strategy to maximize online sales and sales through other offline channels, as well. Finally, GourmetFoodMall offers specialty food companies the chance to feature their unique product in an environment that was designed specifically for the gourmet products and specialty food industry.

The e-business professionals at GourmetFoodMall will be happy to discuss how “The Recipe for Success” can benefit all of your sales channels while having a positive impact in restoring the lives of those who have suffered so much.  GourmetFoodMall would like to encourage companies wishing to help in the Katrina relief effort and in enhancing their online presence in the USA and Canada to fill out a “Prospective Merchant Form” at (www.gourmetfoodmall.com).

GourmetFoodMall is the premier resource on eBusiness for the gourmet products and specialty food industry. We offer a complete integrated eCommerce solution. Gourmet Food Mall provides you with a state of the art platform to do business on the Internet, the location where your webstore and products can be seen by your targeted customers, and the customized strategies that you need to use to be successful & profitable in the online channel.

We are actively selecting companies with unique products and a great story to tell to be featured on the award winning GourmetFoodMall website. To find out if your company qualifies to be a GourmetFoodMall merchant, fill out a Prospective Merchant Form at the GourmetFoodMall.com website.

Contact Information

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For more information, media should contact Andrew Restivo, Founder of GourmetFoodMall at (504) 669-9548.

GourmetFoodMall.com, Inc.

2400 Veterans Blvd., Suite 484

Kenner, LA  70062

email: arestivo@gourmetfoodmall.com

phone: (504) 669-9548