North Texas Business Scrambling After Being Left With Nuts Intended For American Airlines
ARLINGTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - A small business owner in Arlington says she is worried her business will go under if she doesn't figure out how to sell about $1 million worth of mixed nuts that was intended to be sold to Fort Worth-based American Airlines.
Kim Peacock, the owner of GNS Foods, says for the past 30 years she has been supplying "First Class" nuts to American Airlines, but all of that stopped in March at the beginning of the pandemic when American Airlines cut back on serving warm nuts and stopped buying from her.
Peacock said she is now left with 70,000 1.25 pounds bags of prepackaged mixed nuts, and raw product for another 100-thousand bags.
Seeing as how she lost American Americans as her buyer, she took to selling online at Greatnuts.com and in-person sales, pricing each bag at cost to anyone who will buy then.
However, she is worried that won't be enough to make back the amount of money invested into this most recent batch she expected to sell to American, in effect, forcing her to close down.
Peacock said, "We just want to recoup our money."
American Airlines sent her a cease and desist letter on Friday, because she had previously used their name in the product description while trying to sell the mixed nuts.
The mention of American Airlines was quickly dropped, and American Airlines sent CBS 11 the following statement saying the issue was resolved.
"American removed certain products from our onboard catering service earlier this year in response to the pandemic. This, as well as the fact that we are operating a significantly reduced schedule, has unfortunately led to a surplus of certain items, including nuts. The product American has ordered from GNS Foods is currently in a warehouse in Illinois. We understand this is a difficult situation for everyone involved, and we of course hope to be in a position where our onboard service is back to normal in a post-COVID-19 world. In the meantime, American is more than happy for GNS to sell the nuts at its facility in Texas. We simply asked GNS not to use American's name to market or brand that product, as it was never ordered by American, and they gladly agreed. We are pleased to have this matter resolved and we appreciate GNS responding so promptly."