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AmericasMart®AmericasMart®nAtlanta Mounts Aggressive Hurricane Katrina Outreach and Assistance Program
October 5, 2005
n full realization of the devastating impact that Hurricane Katrina has had on its customers across the southeast, AMERICASMART®nATLANTA, its vendors and employees have undertaken an aggressive outreach effort designed to aid and support those affected by Katrina's ravages.
AMERICASMART and its employees have personally contributed thousands of dollars to Red Cross relief, as well as truckloads of clothing and other essentials. Huge stores of food, donated from our ARAMARK pantries, have been delivered to the Atlanta Food Bank and AMC, Inc. President Jeff Portman, as part of his Angel Flight commitment, has flown more than 3,000 pounds of emergency supplies to the Gulf Coast and more than 30 evacuees into Atlanta and other cities across the region.
"Katrina's ravages have forever changed the lives of those retailers and manufacturers who have come to depend on AMERICASMART for the business opportunities that we've long provided," states Jeffrey L. Portman, president, AMC, Inc., parent of AMERICASMART®nATLANTA. "We care. We are deeply concerned and committed to assisting however, wherever and whenever we can."
Additional AMERICASMART commitments include:
- Contacting as many exhibitors as possible in affected regions to ascertain their situation and needs.
- Creating a Hurricane Katrina Customer Support & Service page at AmericasMart.com to link buyers and manufacturers, who can access this service, to communicate on the status of product orders, shipments and other factors concerning their business.
- Enhancing the Support & Service page with links to service agencies assisting evacuees, including the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Atlanta Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity, Travelers Aid and Dress for Success.
- Encouraging employees to take one day of work in Hurricane Relief services.
- Encouraging our temporary labor service agencies to seek out and employee those who have been displaced by the hurricane.
- Refunding any deposits to exhibitors unable to attend our Atlanta Fall Gift & Home Furnishings Market featuring The Atlanta Gourmet Market because of hurricane impact.
For more information on AMERICASMART's Hurricane Katrina customer service mission, please contact Keri Arroll, Public Relations & Media Services Director, at 404.220.2106 or via email at
karroll@americasmart.com.
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AMERICASMART®nATLANTA is the largest wholesale marketplace of its kind in the world, and is a leading international market source for a wide variety of consumer goods. It hosts 23 wholesale markets and six Market Wednesdays that annually attract more than 548,000 attendees from every U.S. state and 80 countries.
Retailers attending its markets identify AMERICASMART as the gift/home furnishings/area rug wholesale marketplace most important to their business-as compared to all competing U.S. wholesale markets-in independent research conducted by Moore & Symons, Inc.
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