To Twitt or not to Twitt

When I set up this Blog, I figured that it would be a good way to keep everyone up to date about what is happening at The Patch. What I found is that writing a paragraph or 2 frequently is not going to happen. That is why I like the idea a Twitter, 140 characters max, quick and concise. Last week I set up our Twitter account and added it to the home page of our store. This is going to be the best way to keep up with things as they are changed in our store. We will have new product announcements, updates on back in stock items, really anything that will positively or negatively affect your shopping experience in our store.

It’s About Time

It is hard to believe that our last blog article was over a year ago. All I can say is “it’s been a busy year” and “time flies”. Hopefully this will help to catch up.

As some of you know, since it’s inception, we have always had a local retail presence in the Mount Dora area. Originally we were the Crabbage Patch up at Renningers, the local farmers/flea market. After that, for 2 years, we had a regular retail store that was dedicated to everything hermit crab. We also changed our name to The Hermit Crab Patch (see below). We really enjoyed having a place where our local customers could come, bring their crabs, and get everything they needed. We were also fortunate to have several of our out of state customers drop by while they were on vacation. 

It wasn’t however with out it’s challenges. The financial and time commitment of having the retail operation while maintaining our online store led us to not renew our lease at the end of 2010. So now we are solely selling through our online store. It has been kind of a bitter sweet transition for Tammy and I. On one hand we certainly do like the flexibility we now have to pursue additional personal and business projects. And I must say that spending a quiet Sunday together has been great. On the other hand we do miss seeing our customers and their ‘crabby’ families.

For now, we are staying with the current setup and looking to new areas of focus and growth.

Exotic Land Hermit Crabs Debut A paradigm shift is happening

Today was Exotic Land Hermit Crabs official Grand Opening of their online store.

Bob Wampler  is the founder and Director of Operations for Exotic Land Hermit Crabs. Over a year in the making, he and his family have dedicated the time and resources necessary to develop a land hermit crab import facility that is unparalleled.

ELHC has developed relationships with collectors from around the world and offers an amazing variety of exotic land hermit crabs. They have exclusively introduced several species for the very first time in the United States and have discovered species that have never been seen before.

We at The Hermit Crab Patch have always believed that the only way to offer healthy hermit crabs to our customers is to keep them in the proper conditions where they have the ability to bury and molt when they need to, and to wait until each crab has had a successful molt with us before offering them for sale. This philosophy is what makes us unique and our Coenobita clypeatus hermit crabs the healthiest available.

Likewise, Exotic Land Hermit Crabs has adopted this same philosophy becoming the first importer ever to house hermit crabs in an environment that allows them to bury and molt at will. It is their goal to change the paradigm of how hermit crabs are kept once they are brought in from the wild. By allowing their exotic crabs to bury and molt before selling them, they ensure that each crab is healthy before going to its new home.

This is especially critical in an online business because of overnight shipping costs involved. Stressed crabs that have been prevented from burying to molt; often continue to deteriorate, drop legs and/or claws and usually die. From a monetary standpoint alone...if you have to pay overnight shipping online, why not pay it once and feel confident that your crabs will be as healthy as possible?!

It is time to raise the status of these highly intelligent and beautiful creatures from being a novelty gift to the lifelong companions they can and should rightly be. Proper care at each level...collecting, wholesale and retail is critical to prevent the damage that so many of us have witnessed and ultimately results in death.

If you are in the market for exotic land hermit crabs... there is only one place you should buy from. Please help support the effort of Exotic Land Hermit Crabs to provide the finest and healthiest exotic land hermit crabs available.

Welcome ELHC!


(Update to this post: we have removed the links to ELHC since they are currently not open for business)

The Happy Hermit Is Here

Hold onto your shells! We are pleased to announce that The Happy Hermit is back and manufacturing the same high quality natural, wholesome Kibbles that have been favorites of hermit crabs and owners alike! The Happy Hermit is now available at The Hermit Crab Patch and will be offering a selection of both, staple and limited edition Kibbles. Currently available for sale are: The Happy Hermit Staple Kibble, Bluegreen Carotene (Limited Edition), PB & J Toast (Limited Edition), Bugs & Nuts, Seaweed Monster, TootieFruitie (Limited Edition), Holiday Dinner (Limited Edition), Crabby Din'Din' (Limited Edition). Please be sure to check out our online store for prices and a list of all natural ingredients. We are very excited to be able to offer another natural hermit crab food line and one that is a familiar, trusted favorite of so many hermit crab owners and their hermit crabs alike.

The Hermit Crab Patch Website Facelift

We have opened our new website better integrating our care information and online store. www.hermitcrabpatch.com has taken the place of www.thecrabbagepatch.com.

One of the biggest changes we made is to our Shell category. We now size our shell openings by smaller increments, sort shells by opening shape, crab size and finish. It is also easy now to purchase multiple numbers and sizes of each shell type with a single click.

We have added more customer features including ability to leave product reviews, view your order history and track orders from your account. We have also implemented a support ticket system to provide a better way for our customers to communicate with us and us with them.

We are continually working to add new and better hermit crab care products and we have added a variety of items to our new store.

For our FAQ section we have added a knowledge base where are continually increasing help content and answers to questions that our customers have submitted over the years.

We hope you enjoy our new site and please do not hesitate to offer any feedback you think may be helpful.

The last phase of our name change is complete.

Many of you may have noticed and wondered why we changed our name from The Crabbage Patch to The Hermit Crab Patch?

Crabbage is a made up word and one of many endearing names that Tammy has for her pet hermit crabs, so when she started our hermit crab business the name 'The Crabbage Patch' came right to mind.

As time went on and our business grew we figured the next step was to register The Crabbage Patch trademark. The final step in the trademark process, once the US Patent and Trademark office attorney has reviewed the mark and found no conflicts, is to publish the request in the Trademark Official Gazette for 30 days. This allows any parties concerned, the opportunity to view pending trademarks before they are registered.

Everything looked good and we were down to the last days of the process when we received a letter from the attorneys for Original Appalachian Artworks, Inc. owners of the Cabbage Patch Kids trademark. Citing that their client was 'entitled to dilution protection under the Federal Trademark Anti-Dilution statute' we were asked to 'cease and desist all use of the mark 'The Crabbage Patch' and abandon our trademark application.

I was familiar with the term Infringement but had never heard the term Dilution of a trademark. Searching on Wiki you find ...

The Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1995 is a United States federal law which protects famous trademarks from uses that dilute their distinctiveness, even in the absence of any likelihood of confusion or competition. It went into effect on January 16, 1996. This act has been largely supplanted by the Trademark Dilution Revision Act of 2006 (TDRA), signed into law on October 6, 2006. ... Amendments to the FTDA took effect on October 6, 2006. The Act still protects only famous marks. However, Congress amended the act so that it expressly provides protection against a use of a mark that is "likely" to cause dilution. The new statute thus eliminates the requirement of proving "actual dilution."

This caught us quite by surprise and initially we were upset. How could they oppose something we made up? We looked into our options and decided that, primarily due to the differences in resources, we were not going to fight their opposition. We came up with a mutual agreement that still allowed us to retain some similarity to our original name. So in October 2008, coinciding with our move to a new retail location, we became The Hermit Crab Patch.

We have decided not to dwell on our old name and actually feel good about 'The Hermit Crab Patch' as it better defines what our focus is. As much as we liked the old name, we are focusing on the future as we move forward.

Kirk and Tammy