Fredericton — Geraldine Walters, 38, is ready to fulfill her dream of owning a store with a variety of lemon-themed and lemon-scented items. There’s only one problem — she’s been given a cease-and-desist letter from the lawyers of the popular yoga apparel store Lululemon.
“I thought it would be alright if I used the name Lu Lu lemon as it’s written differently than the name they use,” explained Walters. Geraldine said she has always thought there was a large, mostly uncaptured market for lemon-themed items.
“I love lemons, and I love lemon scents and lemon-shaped things. They’ve always been so hard to find anywhere else, so I wanted to give people like me the opportunity to get what they want,” she said, the fires of passion lighting up her eyes.
Walters allowed The Manatee‘s reporter into her unopened store to see the items for himself. There were varieties of candles, soaps, creams and other bathroom-related items. Lemon-shaped and scented stress balls, lemon-flavoured candy, lemon-of-the-month calendars, and literally hundreds of other sour, obscure items. Strangely enough, there is not a single actual lemon.
“Oh dear, lemons are just too expensive for me to buy directly. I don’t have a source for fresh lemons, so I’d have to go to the local Sobeys store and pay 79 cents each, and then I’d have to charge $1.50 for it to be worth my while,” she said. “And who would pay $1.50 for a lemon when they can get one half the price right up the street?”
Sadly, it looks as though Geraldine’s dream has come to a heartbreaking stalemate while she is tied up in the time-consuming litigations. When asked why she won’t consider using a different name for her lemon store, she responded: “This is the name I want, and I don’t think that it’s right that people can buy names. Next thing you know, someone will be telling me that I’m no longer allowed to be called Geraldine because someone else owns it. Besides, I already had all my posters made and my signs printed, and I can never get that 300 dollars back.”
Geraldine is still holding onto the hope that her store can soon open, but things aren’t looking too bright for the future of this downtown lemon store. She is already two months behind in her lease agreement, and the legal fees are mounting. Defeat is a bitter, lemon-flavoured pill that she may soon have to swallow.
Lululemon is rooted in Fascist ideals from Ayn Rand. No surprises here folks.