Alamo Pecan Behind the Scenes: All Elves on Deck
“A world in which elves exist and magic works offers greater opportunities to digress and explore.” Terry Brooks
Once upon a time in San Saba, Texas, a small pecan company branded as Alamo Pecan launched a gifting service from a kitchen table. The future was unsure, but our minds were looking toward greater things - the promise of more to come.
At the beginning, our small staff - comprised mostly of family - was able to manage 10 - 20 - 30 boxes per order with a focus on fast servicing of orders. The first Alamo season had enough orders to fill the size of an average notebook. When our inner core couldn’t service the orders in the quick fashion that has become Alamo precedent, we enlisted the help of our very own elves, our children. We laugh now, but we had a personal staff of eight ranging from the 2nd grade to the 10th grade. Those times brought our families together. Our children's’ mentality and drive for pitching in during crazy times made us proud and also put additional love into the boxes going out. We never explained the importance of order processing, exemplary customer service or the need for efficiency to our brood — they inherently knew. Cheerfully, the little elves teamed up to label bags, fill tins, construct boxes or clean the kitchen. They were Alamo’s first elves and, like Santa, we couldn’t have accomplished delivering our delicious gifts without them.
Though our original elves still return after 19 years to lend their magic during holiday rush, happily sacrificing our own family celebrations until the last holiday box goes out, Alamo’s elf network has grown over the years. This network has facilitated Alamo’s growth with the side effect of local job opportunities in San Saba - it has bestowed upon us the help of amazing pecan packing and order entry experts. Word of mouth has repeatedly proved the best tool and each year we welcome back old elves and embrace new ones as our order books no longer notebooks, but shelves. Nowadays we have several full-time elves in addition to our seasonal and on-call elves.
Alamo’s elves make magic. We couldn’t uphold the Alamo promise of quality product and service without these essential helpers. Gratitude pouring out of us like coffee, we always recognize our elves at the end of a long season. We present awards like: Most Dedicated Elf, 12th Man Elf, MVP of the Season Elf, The Golden Scoop Elf. Alamo is not just a business, it’s a family owned and operated business. Each basket or tray that you order - whether personal or as a corporate gift is packaged by our brood of cheerful, careful, efficient family of elves.