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Bob is our grandfather.

He started Bob's Market in 1970.

So we're currently on our 53rd year and having a lot of fun at it.

I'm Alan Barnett's third generation.

My name is Eric Barnett.

I'm a third-generation family member here at Bob's Market.

We here at Bob's Market have been what we like to call partners with Ball Seed.

We've been supplying plugs through Ball Seed since 1997.

We serve a lot of different customers.

We have retail stores.

We have our wholesale division.

We also do plugs.

From the get-go, Bob instilled in us three major factors: quality, service, and business integrity.

Those are things that he preaches religiously still to this day.

One of the things that he would say every day when he'd come in is pay attention to the little details.

If you pay attention to the little details, the rest of it takes care of itself.

I mean, the little details go from weighing the trays as they're being sown every hour.

So as you sow the seed every hour, we check to make sure we're in the correct parameters as it goes through the water bars.

So we weigh it, make sure it's within specs, then it either goes in the germination chamber or directly to a heated floor to germinate.

That's one of the major details.

I think to improve our future here is surrounding yourself with the right people.

We're continually trying to better ourselves with the right people in the correct areas.

Without our employees, we'd be nothing.

So I mean, that's everything here at Bob's.

Just try to be a family atmosphere.

We put the time in to make it good.

Great answer.

Being able to communicate with the customers on a daily, that's a big deal.

When a customer calls and they can speak to one of us or one of our dads or uncles, it's a big deal not just getting an operator and saying, here, let me transfer you to someone else.

So they get to talk to an owner or a third-generation person, whether it be Eric or myself or even our wives.

Both of our wives work in the business, so they can talk to any of us.

I mean, technology-wise, we've learned over the years that trying to get away from double poly in a plug range is a good effort.

We went years ago with rounded style houses to peaked style houses.

Now we have some very new technology in Nexus and DeCluet with a Vinlo style range with glass or acrylic roofs.

They give you more light transmittance, better ventilation, a very good atmosphere for the plugs.

We've learned over the years that one of the advantages here in Mason is being within 500 miles of multiple millions of people in the United States.

We pride ourselves on being able to deliver on our own trucks.

We have a fleet of tractor trailers to straight trucks to even a small van, and about 92% of all of our plugs go on a grower truck.

So very little goes in a box.

We all know how that can happen.

You get it shipped in, it's either frozen or damaged.

That's something we really pride ourselves on.

You have one of our truck drivers hired by Bob's right there in the morning ready to unload.

What drives me to get up and come to work every day is seeing plants grow and advance each and every day and striving to make that next crop that much better.

It's in our blood.

We both grew up, I mean, there's pictures of us when we were toddlers running around the greenhouses.

When you see that from being sown seed to getting pushed on a truck, it's a good feeling because you know the customer is getting a good product that we've poured a lot of time into, a lot of effort.

Yeah, it's a good thing.

You nailed it.

Thanks.

It has been beneficial to be able to know, you know, there's people, boots on the ground, trying to sell our product because they have a trust in what we do and they know that we're going to take care of it.

We've been able to create a bunch of friendships, business partners, customers throughout the years.

I can say this, working with Ball since 1996, 97 has been a blessing for Bob's.

This industry is a lot like family.

So I would look at Ball Seed as a lot of family members.

Nailed it again.