Well, dear reader, we are mere days away from the much anticipated Handmade Arcade. Where I once felt prepared and confident we are ready; I now feel under-prepared and nervous. Our inventory has stayed reasonably stable. With the forethought of The Bibbed Wonder, we almost always have one batch of the shelf ready to go and at least one batch on the drying rack. We do indeed have the soap made and cured, but we don’t have any boxes to put the soap into to package and sell.
We made our Milk and Honey soaps our half-off special last week, and our inventory really took a hit. We are down to five bars of Milk, Honey, and Oatmeal, nine bars of Milk and Honey, and six bars of Honey Yogurt Bee Bars. Unless a shipping miracle happens, we will not take any Milk and Honey products to our biggest show yet, sigh. Our milk and honey products are some of our most popular products. It really does make me twitch not to have the inventory available.
Over the past year and a half, we have dealt with holes in the supply chain, but we have made do with what is available. For example, we ordered black lids for our moisturizer; rather than the smooth lids we usually use, we were sent ribbed lids. Not exactly the product we ordered, but it’s not devastatingly different. We could make do. Also, we have had to change suppliers several times for staple ingredients like French rose clay, kaolin clay, and lye. Lye is becoming increasingly more difficult to find. However, we have been able to acquire enough to meet our needs. When these situations arose, it annoyed us and was a bit stressful, but it has always worked out.
This is the first time, dear reader; a situation is not going to work out. The reason given for the unavailability of the boxes is Covid. My question is, what are people doing if they aren’t going to work? How are they paying their bills? Are they permitted to collect unemployment? Also, how are we still having supply chain issues when the unemployment rate is below pre-pandemic numbers? I don’t understand. Sigh.
Unless a shipping miracle occurs, I will not be taking our most popular products to the biggest show of our small company history. Feeling unprepared makes me feel twitchy. I keep telling myself; we have a large inventory of perfectly lovely soaps and scents and that no one will notice the missing products except for me. However, our milk and honey products are a staple of our line, and they are my go-to products. Sigh. I suppose I will have to make do and try not to twitch. Sigh. In the grand scheme of things, this is a minor problem. Rather than twitch, I will try to focus on the positives and try to be grateful. There are more things to be thankful for than disappointed, perspective, perspective, perspective. However, if I’m being honest, that’s easier said than done.
As always, dear reader, stay safe, be smart, repeat the mantra perspective, perspective, perspective, and keep washing your hands.