Quality Greens introduces points card
Quality Greens, which has five upscale, modern farm markets in the Okanagan, has introduced its QG Points loyalty card.
Signing up allows customers to earn five per cent of purchases in points that can be redeemed for future savings. All you have to do is pick up a card from the cashier at the Kelowna Spall, Kelowna Lakeshore, West Kelowna, Vernon or Penticton store next time you’re in. Points from that initial transaction will automatically be loaded onto the card.
Then you’ll have to register online at QualityGreens.com to activate the card. And then use the card to collect points every time you shop and redeem for discounts whenever you want.
If you forget the card, no big deal. You can also collect and redeem using your phone number or email address.
Central Kitchen is best employer
Kelowna restauranteur Jared Lee doesn’t buy into the high-heels-and-short-skirts-onwaitresses-sells-food-and-drink mantra.
He’d rather servers wear flat shoes and jeans and be comfortable and genuinely friendly with customers. That’s what happens at Central Kitchen and Bar, which Lee co-owns with Devon Murray.
“We hire great personalities and urge them to be comfortable in the way they dress,” said Lee. “That way the focus can be on the food, drink, customers and atmosphere. It results in an organizational culture of job satisfaction and staff retention in an industry plagued with high turnover.”
This way of doing business earned Central a best employer win at the recent Small Business B.C. Awards. Central was also a finalist, but didn’t win, in the best company and People’s Choice categories.
There was one other Okanagan winner in the nine other categories, Wine Crush in Penticton for best concept. The company takes what’s left over after wineries crush grapes and dries it into a powder, which is used in pizza dough, breads, sausages, cheeses, mustard, oil, spices and infused in coffee.
The powder gives products a unique Okanagan taste and an antioxidant boost.
Wine Crush sells its offerings online at WineCrush.ca and at local farmers’ markets.
It also has a pizza wagon with woodfired stone oven that can show up at special events and pre-booked parties to make pies featuring, of course, its grape powder pizza crusts.
More West Harbour
Above: West Harbour in West Kelowna is unveiling phase three plans this afternoon at its lakefront community. Below: This drawing shows one of the home plans for phase three called Amarone, named after an Italian red wine.
They carry names like Amarone, an Italian red wine, in keeping with the Tuscan architectural theme and location in Okanagan wine country.
They are the new home plans offered in phase three of West Harbour, the waterfront community just north Okanagan Lake Bridge on the Westside. About 150 homes are already built and occupied at West Harbour and the first part of phase three will see 12 more lots released.
They will be unveiled at a launch event this afternoon from 12 to 4 p.m.
All dozen of the lots are suitable for larger estate homes which come with a boat slip at the marina fronting the community.
The bungalow with unfinished basement, called the Rose, with land on a 99-year-lease from the Westbank First Nation, comes in at $650,000. A larger two-storey model like the Amarone or Moscato is about $820,000.
The second part of phase three, coming midsummer, Quality Greens, which has five stores in the Okanagan, has introduced a loyalty points card. Pictured here at the community table at the newest store in Kelowna's Mission neighbourhood are managers, clockwise from lower left, Lisa Taylor, Tracie Koebel, Ofri Barmor, Kristen Chadwick, Chris Holmes, Randy Sheehan, Craig Jablonski and Barb Noble. will feature smaller and cheaper villas in duplex formats and a narrower, detached home called a villetta.
The villas and villettas do not come with a boat slip included in the price, but a slip can be purchased separately for $60,000.
There’s already a pool and hot tub at West Harbour and in the summer Harbour Club will open with a fitness centre, lounge and multi-use courts.
In total, West Harbour will cap out at about 220 homes.
The waterfront community is seeing a mix of buyers of all ages from the Okanagan, Vancouver and Alberta.
Spring travel
Will you head to Europe, stay close in B.C. or jaunt to the Yukon or U.S. this spring and summer?
All such vacation options will be outlined at today’s Spring Travel Event at Kelowna’s airport from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The main terminal will have airline, travel agent, hotel and resort representatives at booths with information on destinations reachable with a non-stop or connecting flight from the local airport.
Raffle tickets will also be sold for $5 for one and $10 for three to win prizes such as a return airfare and accommodation adventure for two to Whitehorse with Air North; return trip to Prince George or other points north with Central Mountain Air; flights and stay at St. Eugene Golf Resort & Casino in Cranbrook with Pacific Coastal Airlines; or a $250 voucher for Air Transat or $200 Air Canada Vacations voucher.
Raffle proceeds will go to the Sunshine Foundation, which operates DreamLift, which takes a plane-load of kids with disabilities or life-threatening illnesses to Disneyland from Kelowna every other year.
Parking for the event is free in the long-term lot.
Short stack
Tuesday is the day to eat pancakes for a good cause.
IHOP, which has a restaurant in Kelowna, has its annual National Pancake Day on March 7 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to raise money for the Children’s Miracle network of hospitals.
The all-day timing means fundraising pancakes aren’t just for breakfast, but for lunch, a snack or dinner.
IHOP offers a free short stack of its Original Buttermilk Pancakes in hopes you will pay it forward and make a donation to the charity.
At IHOP’s 1,700 restaurants around the world, five million pancakes with a purpose will be served on National Pancake Day.
Since 2006, IHOP has helped raise $24 million with National Pancake Day.
Steve MacNaull is a business reporter and columnist with The Okanagan Saturday. Contact him by email at: steve.macnaull@ok.bc.ca.