What can fame buy? In an era of influencer-led promotions, visibility is one of the primary ways for many small businesses to come into everyone’s attention. However, it doesn’t necessarily pay the bills. Recently, a small bakery owner, Fanny Lam, in East Vancouver, was faced with the same conundrum. But there was a curveball coming.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
She firmly decided against it and even called out the person looking for the collab. Surprisingly, it was Metta Sandiford-Artest, the former forward for the Los Angeles Lakers, who made over 83 million dollars during his 17 years as a professional basketball player. But the truly eye-opening request to Lam was hidden in the offer details.
“It raises a question of why small businesses like us, who often have the least resources to spare, are being asked to constantly provide free products for people or organizations that can afford to pay for them,” Lam wrote in a post shared on the bakery’s Instagram account.
“You cannot tell me that an NBA legend can’t afford a birthday cake for his kid, and asks a small bakery making approximately 0.0001% of his fortune for a free cake.”
According to Lam, the request was made through an email from Cindy Diaz requesting a custom-made cake for their son Hiro’s second birthday being celebrated in Richmond, BC. To her, however, the biggest question was the imbalance of the request, because “collaboration,” of course, meant “free.”
“Our business relies on word of mouth and support from our paying customers. Exposure isn’t our main focus. Exposure doesn’t pay the bills,” Lam said in the same Instagram post.
Lam had opened a small storefront for the bakery seven years ago on East First Avenue near Commercial Drive. Only recently did she expand to a second location in Port Moody. Still, she has to pay for the ingredients, services, and overall cost of keeping up the stores. For Artest, though, an estimated $200 to $300 for the cake would not be a big amount. What’s interesting is that Lam wasn’t the only one approached by the former NBA player’s team.
Metta Standiford-Artest’s team approached another vendor for “collaboration” as well
The email that reached Lam specified that their team had reached out to a handful of vendors for a collaboration request. Interestingly, she wasn’t bluffing.
According to CTV News, La Grotta del Formaggio, an Italian Deli in Vancouver, also received a similar email. However, they did not follow up with the request.
They shared that they receive such requests from influencers, celebrities, and corporations on a daily basis.
“We don’t really expect the people who send out these requests to understand the economics of running a bakery,” Lam had said in response to the request for the custom cake.
Since he retired from the NBA, Sandiford-Artest has created Artest Management Group, a company that consists of two departments: films and consultancy, aimed at helping professional athletes organize their financial issues.
What’s interesting is that the family has reached out but still hasn’t apologized.
Sandiford-Artest Family Yet to Apologize
Lam said that the NBA legend’s wife, Maya Sandiford-Artest, an actress and model from Vancouver Island who attended UBC, contacted her personally following the post. However, instead of an apology, Lam said that the reply she got was damage control.
“There was no apology, no acknowledgment about how inappropriate the request was,” Lam said, describing the exchange. “All they could say was the email was sent out by an assistant, without their knowledge.”
Maya requested that Lam remove the post completely, but Lam refused. She did hide information related to the child’s birthday party. She believed that it was a fair decision since she did not intend to embarrass the family.
The couple has yet to make any statement when contacted by the journalists about the incident.