Update 9\/29\/23:<\/b> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\nDG’s consistent support of Shaw was rooted in our desire for a successful partnership. Our primary objective throughout this partnership was to ensure the successful commercialization of PS while upholding our Company’s values of integrity, transparency, and commitment to our partners and customers. Unfortunately, despite DG’s continuous efforts to maintain a constructive relationship with Shaw, our efforts were met with recurrent challenges. <\/p>\n
In August 2023 we sent multiple messages to Shaw and her attorney suggesting creative ways to mitigate the issues and have an amicable working relationship. In return, we received a message from Shaw that DG would need to pay her $1,500,000 if we want to continue selling PS. The current Agreement in place is evergreen and DG does not need any special extension payments, renewals or permissions from Shaw to continue selling PS under the terms of the Agreement, so Shaw’s request was odd and did not make any sense. <\/p>\n
On August 25th, Shaw notified DG that she was being evicted from her apartment that weekend due to unpaid rent. DG scheduled a call with Shaw and for approximately two hours discussed our proposal on how the relationship could work in the future. This proposal required Shaw to post the PS-related content on social media twice a week and included biweekly payments to Shaw to provide her with a stable level of income for a period of time. She agreed in principle with DG’s proposal but wanted her attorney to finalize the details. Shaw then asked for assistance with her overdue rent. DG wanted to be helpful but hesitated given the prior history with Shaw. DG preferred to wait until the new agreement with Shaw was fully in place before providing any help, but that was not possible over the weekend since Shaw’s attorney would need to be involved and he was not available on the weekend. And by Monday Shaw would have been evicted. In the spirit of future cooperation and creating goodwill with Shaw, DG took another chance on Shaw and paid off her past due rent totaling $14,000 (with this additional payment the total funds sent to Shaw equal $161,449.37) that weekend and prevented her and her children from being evicted (link to the confirmations). That backfired for DG (no surprise here given the history). <\/p>\n
The following week DG sent a legal draft of our proposal discussed on the call with Shaw to her attorney. Shaw indicated that her attorney would come back to us, but he never did. In the meantime, we received another strange demand from Shaw for $250,000. And then she posted her recent video on social media with false accusations directed at DG. None of them have any merit and, bear in mind, she posted this video shortly after DG helped her and her children not get evicted. <\/p>\n
We received many messages from people encouraging us to sue Shaw for defamation. We are considering all options, including a lawsuit, but also are mindful of the distractions that it will cause for our organization and the difficulty of collecting any court-awarded damages from Shaw given that she has spent all the funds. <\/p>\n
We are a family-owned business, and our reputation is dear to us. We are asking for your support. <\/p>\n
Shaw’s GoFundMe page containing false claims is still live. We have reported Shaw’s GoFundMe page for fraud (she lied there that she did not receive any payments, but now is admitting publicly that she has received over $120,000 in payments from DG just as we said), but GoFundMe has not taken action to remove Shaw’s page where she is asking for funds under false pretenses. Please, consider reporting the page or asking for a refund if you have donated. Kyrie Irving from Dallas Mavericks donated $24K to Shaw’s GoFundMe campaign (probably without knowing the facts). We want other people to have factual information on this case prior to considering making a donation. We hope that people share the facts on social media about the sequence of events related to this matter, so that Shaw can no longer spread misinformation about our Company. <\/p>\n
Needless to say, we are very disappointed in the status of our partnership with Shaw. But we hope that you will still give us the opportunity to share our products with you. We have a huge selection of bold and flavor-packed hot sauces, pasta sauces, creamy hot sauces, olive oils and more. Please, give them a try, including Pink Sauce! You can see that it is sold at a lower price at retail now. We worked hard to bring it to market, and, despite our challenges with Shaw, we have multiple other partners that are relying on us to drive its commercialization. It has a unique taste and puts an interesting twist on salads, fries, and chicken tenders. At this time, we are unsure how long we will continue selling it and don’t want you to miss your chance to try it.
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