On Thursday, December 19th, our boutique on Coral Way was tragically struck by a fire. The cause is still unknown, but the affected area contained employee lockers, a sink, a coffee machine, a refrigerator, and cleaning supplies, along with a few LED lights and flashlights for hurricane preparedness.
The flames spread rapidly, and the situation became uncontrollable. Thankfully, our team reacted swiftly, evacuating safely. We waited outside, anxiously watching the smoke pour from the building for about 30 minutes. The Miami Fire Department arrived and tackled the blaze with impressive speed, but the damage was already significant. While the fire itself didn’t reach far, the smoke devastated everything, including our computers, phones, iPads, and more.
Our Coral Way Boutique, which serves as our primary shipping hub and spans 5,000 sqft, suffered great losses, with several orders consumed by flames. Thankfully, the fire did not reach our coolers and freezers, saving a substantial portion of our inventory. Still, we face losses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Insurance is in place, but recovery will take time. Well see how insurance goes, hoping for good things.
The problem is compounded by the fact that this is one of our busiest weeks of the year and where we make most of our revenue. Moreover, we were king of hoping to enjoy the festivities with our loved ones... so this is definitely a nightmare.
At the time of the fire Luis, 6pm, (CEO) had just left to get ready to go to Orlando to finish opening the new boutique there. Gabe (CMO) was driving to visit our Tampa boutique. The rest of the team was working hard on preparing orders for shipment. We ALL have slept but a few hours in the last 2 days as we try to make sure we stay afloat and our customers get their orders.
In the wake of this challenge, our family of employees came together, working tirelessly to relocate our inventory to other locations. The support we received was nothing short of amazing. We are incredibly grateful to our neighbors at Cana Wine Shop, who had recently closed their operations at Coral Way. They generously offered us their space, enabling us to set up a temporary storefront in just 36 hours.
During this transition, we also moved our shipping and customer service operations to our other boutiques. This shift accounts for our slower response times, but our dedicated team is doing everything possible to ensure orders are fulfilled in time for Christmas, even upgrading to overnight shipping when necessary.
Some of our accounting employees have created a GoFundMe campaign to help during this tough time. We are start up, we have not raised capital yet and this hurts. Our Coral Way boutique was LARGE and housed a big team and keeping that team employed (which we will do) will require funds we may not have readily available (we are working on it). So the funds here, whatever and however much they are will be dedicated to our employees.
That said... we dont expect it. But we do encourage everyone to support us through purchases, visits to the Wagyu Bar, and positive thoughts or prayers. You can also INVEST in Meat N' Bone via our crowdfunding campaign.
It’s truly heartbreaking to witness the loss of something we built with our own hands (I literally painted the store). However, the outpouring of love and support from friends, customers, suppliers, neighbors, and local government has been a source of strength. While a few individuals have reacted insensitively, we remain focused on our mission and committed to rebuilding. Thank you for all the love!!
We will emerge stronger than ever.
💚So how can you help?
✨ Send us good vibes
🛍️ Shop our products and help promote our brand
📍 Visit our other boutiques in #Pinecrest #CoralSprings #Wellington #OaklandPark and #Tampa
🍽️ Enjoy a meal at @TheWagyuBar (thanks for keeping us fed guys!)
💖 Invest in our Crowdfunding Campaign.
🙏 Contribute to our GoFundMe (all proceeds will be used to keep all of our staff until we rebuild, which we will do our best to anyway).
Go Meat N' Bone!!