The Texas Basket Company, Jacksonville

I've been wanting to stop here for years and today on our way to Lake Palestine was finally able to make that stop! I'm really glad we did!! My wife and I really liked the handmade baskets they make out of East Texas Pine in all sizes and all kinds of shapes!!! They make them round, square, Texas shaped, Longhorn Shaped, in all kinds of different colors. The folks are really friendly, and they also have a few antiques as well as home wares for your home and kitchen! We bought baskets of different sizes for our 6 year old to gather eggs from our chickens as well as baskets to put vegetables from our garden in. I have heard that they sometimes give factory tours, but no one said anything about it today while we were there. I've heard the company has been in business since 1919!!! A very long time and they still make what I would say is not only a nostalgic looking basket, but very well still usable in today's times!

You can't find nicer people than the proprietors of this place. My sister and I visited and toured this place today in celebration of their 100th anniversary as a business. They even fed us. Interesting tour of the factory and very gift shop/outlet store.

Longtime wholesale customer, but have had an extremely bad experience this year. We ordered baskets to be filled with plants and resold. Without any prior notice, the company has been unable to fill the order. We have thousands of dollars of plants purchased and on site with no way to get them planted. All of the finished baskets were sold to our customers, who are furious with us. we added to our production facilities to raise the plants, and now have no use for that 6 figure investment. The salesman we deal with told me the owner would call to discuss this issue. Still waiting for the call. Bad business, and worse character.

**Truckers** I was a day late due to Walmart slow unloading. They loaded me on a Saturday. Takes about an hour. Getting in is tricky I went in the morning so no cars were in the way. As you cross the railroad make a wide first right. The dock is straight through the middle of the two buildings in a dead end. You have to wiggle yourself right into the dock making sure you don’t hit any overhead structures. Then back out the way you came in. The guys are cool and help you and watch that you don’t hit anything. I’ll come here again if the price is right.

There was only 1 person working and she was friendly. We came so our son could see the production. It was 2pm and nothing fun nor exciting was happening here! The prices on the items in the store were laughable to say the least! We did purchase baskets made there. Everything else was very over priced! They had one very small planter for 65 bucks! It was flimsy and made in China on bottom. Just expected more in 2021 especially when baskets are taking off again.