GTFO It’s Vegan
GTFO It’s Vegan is the largest online retailer and wholesaler of vegan and plant-based groceries. We have over 3,000 vegan and plant-based products across multiple categories including bakery, cheese and dairy, meat, seafood, pantry, snack, prepared, pet, and home/self-care items.
We cater to everyone, from vegans, vegetarians, flexitarians, diet restrictive (e.g. dairy, gluten, etc.), athletes, plant-based curious, and those looking to eat and live better. We also serve both retail and wholesale (restaurant, grocery stores, etc.) customers. We help people eat better, feel better, and live better.
Our Guiding – Spiritual Principles
GRACE: We are grateful for everything our team does to make this a better company (whether it’s our employees, contractors, vendors, partners, etc). We instill in our team to express their gratitude when someone does a great job.
ABUNDANCE: There’s enough for everyone to benefit from our venture (whether money, happiness, friendship, love, etc).
HOPE: We are hopeful that our efforts can make this world a better place (to work, to exist, to live, to be, to thrive).
FLOW: Everything we do should come with a sense of ease. We flow with the river downstream. If we find ourselves swimming upstream, we regroup, move on, and find a better path.
We don’t exist without our customers; if we don’t make our customers happy then we will never realize our mission and our guiding principles of grace, abundance, hope, and flow.
We currently serve the U.S. and Canada markets. When a customer places an order, we pick, pack, and ship their order within 24-48 hours and deliver it right to their door in an eco-friendly cold-shipper.
HOW DID WE GET STARTED?
I remember the day, July 27 2015. My wife Tanya and co-founder of GTFO It’s Vegan said “honey, we are going vegan!” Now realize at the time, we lived in Chicago, the heart of steak country, and I looked at her with skeptical eyes and said “GTFO, are your serious!?!” At the time I was 45 years old and had grown up in the midwest where meat was a standard part of our diet. As a loving and devoted husband, I, of course, said I was open to the idea, but wanted to know why.
Tanya went on to explain how she had read about the cruelty of animals, the negative impacts on the environment and our health, and as spiritual human beings – it does not align with what is right, just, and why we are on this planet. To summarize it best, one of my favorite authors, Henry David Thoreau said…
“I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized.”
So the next day I had my very last Italian sandwich from Potbelly’s and final pepperoni deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati’s and, with that, committed to a new way of eating, and more importantly, thinking.
What I didn’t know at the time, was the positive impact it has on my health. I was born with a hole in my heart, something called Tetrology of Fallot, which was partially fixed when I was 5. But as life has it, and as a common outcome of having this type of surgery in 1975, I then needed another surgery in 2006 to replace my pulmonary valve.
I thought I was in the clear, but in 2015, when my wife made the declaration we were going vegan, I also had my annual heart check up and learned that my aortic valve was expanding beyond the acceptable limits and I would need a third open heart surgery. Already having two open heart surgeries, I could not imagine having a third. Not to mention at this point I had 3 amazing children, Sam, Jake and Brooklyn, and honestly couldn’t fathom going through a surgery for which I may not wake up.
My cardiologist suggested we monitor the situation and make the decision in six months. Six months later I had another MRI of my heart and the results were something they have never seen before…simply put, the diameter of my aortic valve decreased and I would not need another surgery. Nothing else had changed in my life but my diet. So if I had any question before, I now was a true believer.
So my wife Tanya (Co-Founder of GTFO, It’s Vegan) and I sought to start a company that would give others the benefits from what she gave me 5 years ago — another chance at life. And of course, innovation in vegan food has come so far along that the options are limitless and new vegan food innovations are available that we could never have imagined before (e.g. plant based burgers, vegan butter, etc.)..so living a vegan lifestyle is easy. Our goal with GTFO It’s Vegan is to make living a vegan lifestyle easy, fun, and delicious.
