New Costless Trucks!

If you have been stuck in traffic and look at an 8 foot Coke can on the side of a truck, you're sitting next to one of our Costless Express trucks.

Recently we added 2 new trucks to our growing fleet, and had fresh decals placed on the truck boxes. We are very proud of our trucks and hope you'll enjoiy seeing us roll up to your business with your next order.

Calvin

Free Samples!

Everyone (myself included!) enjoys a little something for free every now and then.

Today, I was on one of my regular warehouse walkthroughs with Kingstone, our warehouse lead, and stopped to admire our "Free Samples" area.

If you are not familiar with our free samples, then you are in for a treat! On our Costless Express site, we offer our Next Day Delivery customers a selection of free samples that they can add to any web order.

Add a few samples on your next order, and enjoy!

I ran a report of how many free samples we have given away since we started the website in 2001. To date, we have given away over 250,000 samples!

Calvin

Summer Reading

I hope all of you are enjoying the summer, and get a chance to take some holiday time off.
For me, I just came back from a long deserved 2 weeks off, and as an avid reader, I enjoyed reading business books on this holiday.
I wanted to tell you all about a great book called Mastering The Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish. Verne is the founder of YEO (Young Entrepreneurs Organization), a group I have been a part of for many years.

I suggest all leaders of businesses read the Rockefeller Habits. It truly is one book that will transform Costless Express, and possibly your business too. The principles are simple, yet so powerful.

Enjoy!
Calvin Johnson

Staying Cool!

The hot weather is coming soon. I know it doesn't look like it now with the way the weather has been this June, but we at Costless Express are an optimistic bunch.

In anticipation of a Hot and Sunny Summer, we have upgraded our warehouse refrigeration to a new 10’ x 25’ walk in cooler to house all the delicious milk and creamo products our customers love to order.

Milk products are one of the most popular items we sell here and for good reason; our prices and delivery times are superior to the traditional coffee companies our customers used to order milk from. Now with Costless ToGo, our customers can get milk delivered the very same day!

Stay cool Vancouver!

Calvin Johnson

Miracle Weekend 2007

This weekend is the BC Children’s Hospital Miracle Weekend.

On the Saturday night I joined some of Vancouver’s business leaders as part of the “Miracle Makers” panel at the BCTV Studios. Our goal was to call friends, family and associates over a very brief 1 hour period to raise money for the Hospital.

With my trusty Black Berry in hand, I was able to locate some very generous people who gladly helped support me. I was able to raise $4000 for the hospital. Thanks So Much to all the people who donated. The Kids appreciate it!

BC Children’s Hospital Foundation raised $14,688,536 for BC Children’s Hospital during the 20th annual Miracle Weekend, hosted by Global TV on June 2-3, surpassing its fundraising goal. Miracle Weekend events have raised approximately $120 million for the hospital since the first Miracle Weekend was held in 1988. That year, Miracle Weekend raised $1.6 million.

Calvin

Raising Funds For Children's Hospital!

Giving back to the community has always been important to Costless Express. The BC Children's Hospital is one charity our staff supports and it's easy to see why. Most of our staff has children, Sandy and I included. Our two boys (Alex, 1, and Aidan, 4) are blessed with good health, but having such a world class hospital as BC Children's puts us at ease.

Today, myself and our staff took over a corner of the Vancouver Art Gallery lawn and held a fund raiser for BC Children's Hospital.

We set up a tent and gave away everything from chips and chocolate bars to printers and microwaves. Our theme was to spin a prize wheel once you made a donation. "Every Spin's a Win!"

Our first spin was a fellow from Seattle and he donated $20, spun the wheel and won a cordless phone set!

The day was hot and sunny and our staff felt like they were on an episode of "The Apprentice." At times we stood on the sidewalk and sold chocolate bars to people in cars and passers-by. Our "squeaky" bicycle horns we all carried really caught people's attention.

It turned out to be great fun for our staff and our overall fundraising exceeded $4000. Thanks to everyone for the support and donations.

Regards,

Calvin Johnson

Our New Vans!

If there is one passion in business I have, it's marketing. Today our vans arrived, and how can you miss them. The giant pictures turned out great and really tell the story of our new Costless ToGo Service. If you were in traffic behind our van, wouldn't you start getting hungry?

I had a funny story about one of our warehouse staff this morning as he drove one of the vans from the sign shop to downtown.

I called him on his cell phone and asked, "How does the van look?" I was so excited to see the results later in the day.

Well, his answer was less than enthusiastic, with a somber, "I guess it's OK."

I started getting concerned and asked "Does it look OK? What's wrong?"

He replied "No, the van looks cool, it's just that everyone is staring at me."

Ahh.. I love marketing. Look for our vans downtown, and stare all you want.

Cheers!

Calvin

Special thanks to Randy at Andsigns - top quality work again! 11 trucks and counting.