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48 49 one of our locations,”he says.“Our points of differen- tiation are the breadth of our offerings, the quality of our products, the level of service that we provide, and the buying power by having our own consoli- dating warehouses in Florida and consolidating the purchasing of all of our customers under one roof, so they all reap the benefits of that.We have brick and mortar at our four main locations that we own, which not all of our competition has. Some people just ship in and drop containers; we have full ware- house facilities with dry storage, frozen storage, and multi-temp, refrigerated storage.We are a broadline distribution company,meaning that we have every- thing from produce to fresh meats, to frozen meats, to dry goods. So, the breadth of our offerings is far superior to any of our competitors.We also have a fleet of refrigerated trucks, so our delivery boxes are all refrigerated to maintain the cold chain.Our trucks are loaded off of a refrigerated dock to our pre-chilled trucks, so that we maintain that cold chain and that is definitely a point of differentiation. We have a stable, dedicated, and experienced staff at all locations.We have some employees that have 35 or 40 years with the company and because of MERCHANTS MARKET GROUP these reasons,we have a lot of very loyal customers.” The recent hurricanes that swept through the Caribbean have damaged various parts of the Group’s facilities, but Wilson insists that the company will rebound.“Obviously the most recent game changing events were Hurricanes Irma and Maria,”he states. “Every one of our locations received some damage and was impacted at various levels.We have, unfor- tunately, had to close our St.Maarten facility as there was significant damage to the roof, exterior, and interior of the facility.We are working with a contrac- tor to finalize the plans for rebuilding.We will prac- tically have a newwarehouse when we reopen, but this is great news for our customers as we will have increased efficiencies in place when we reopen and these efficiencies will benefit all of our customers.” “In addition to the remodeling of the St.Maarten warehouse with features to increase efficiencies,we will be doing an addition to our Anguilla warehouse. Our continued goal is to improve efficiencies and streamline processes while still maintaining a pulse on our customers’ needs and being in tune with market demands.We are investing a great deal of money and resources into all of our facilities to make themmore efficient and productive.We have recently invested over $1 million in our fleet, our warehouse equipment, and facilities, and we will continue up-