Customer reprimanded beekeeper for closing market stand early

metro

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by angela barbuti

Her words stung.

A Brooklyn woman looking for pollen buzzed famed New York City beekeeper Andrew Cote after he closed his stand at the Union Square Greenmarket an hour early Wednesday amid a brutal storm. Said.

Dissatisfied customers complained to Côté, who posted a scathing letter on his Instagram.

She was unhappy that even though she arrived at the market at 5 o'clock, which closed at 6 p.m., the shopkeeper had already packed up and refused to serve her.

“A little wind and rain can't drive real farmers out of the market so quickly,” wrote the women, who identified themselves only as Rachel H. of Brooklyn and provided a fake email address.

“I'm going to buy my pollen on Amazon from now on. If you refuse service, I'll report it to the market management. I hope I get stung.”

“I tried so hard to calm her down, but even as I stood and talked to her, the rain was pouring down on my face at 60 miles an hour,” said Côté, 52, of a stand called Andrews Honey. (age) told the Post.

“There was nothing left of the setup and everything was in the truck. There was really nothing I could do for her.”

Managers at the market, run by the nonprofit GrowNYC, allowed farmers to leave at 1 p.m. Côté explained that he stayed on Wednesday due to bad weather, but decided to stay longer to satisfy his customers.

Côté, who lives on the Upper West Side and manages nearly 100 hives and millions of bees in Manhattan alone, also offered multiple options for obtaining pollen.

“I'll be back on Saturday, and she can order online, and if she wants, I'll alternate parking so I can meet her on the Upper West Side the next morning.”

He shared the letter on his Instagram page @andrewshoney and said the customer “forgot that we were in the middle of a storm so bad that half of the farmers didn't even show up and 90% had already gone home. '' with the caption. The winds were so bad that tents were blown down and destroyed, and one farmer suffered a concussion from his tent being fanned by the wind. ”

The fourth-generation beekeeper, who is also one of the experts the NYPD contacts when a swarm needs to be removed, said he decided to post the memo on social media “out of frustration.”

Côté's followers supported Côté, saying things like, “Rachel is not a kind person,'' “I'm happy to lose her as a customer,'' and “I'm seeing a crowd showing up outside her apartment.'' I wrote a comment.

Another added: “Looks like Rachel is the one getting stung by this comment.”

“I knew the community would come together and give a little bit of support, because after standing out all day in that awful weather, to be able to do harm to me in the form of getting stung at the last minute. To be honest, I was disappointed because they wanted me to do that,' and the threat of going to management,'' Côté said.

“My wife said, 'That's what you get for trying to help others.' No good deed goes unpunished.”