Hello ,
Greetings from Yiwu, China
Here it's almost Mid-autumn festival, or as I call it Moon Cake Day. A big thing in China, and across the Chinese world.
Last week I was telling you about Yiwu and asking what the Next Big Thing (NBT) might be, you can read about ithere.
THANKS & THANKS again for the huge response.. so many rich and varied ideas on what the NBT might be, now we really are not short of ideas to work on.
We have been active in Yiwu over eight years, and things have changed a lot over that time, mostly for the better.
I can remember when getting in a car and driving twenty minutes to our offices, was a major adventure and super stressful experience. To amuse myself I would count how many prangs, crashes and accidents we would pass. Never less than two and sometimes half a dozen. In a city where fixing even a major dent, is minimal cost, the Yiwu residents drove with fatalistic abandon, and treated accidents as a fact of life, and chatting casually soon agreed who would pay for the fix, exchange QQ number... and drive on. People would crash red lights, make dodgy turns, pull out without caring or looking who's coming (it's their job to avoid me), and the roads were crammed with illegal makeshift tin-box taxi's. Trucks would be piled up crazy high, with extra cartons strapped on. I mean.. It was the wild freaking west or is that east..?
Then China got Health & Safety..
Speaking of H&S.. we are mega busy at AW, a few days behind with orders and everyone is running to get your orders out. We have lots of extra staff and the managers are all on it, finding ways to unblock any waiting orders and get stuff out. So every evening I check the stats, have we met today's target? Well on Wednesday, I was horrified to see the worst stats of the year, with all these extra people, we actually ship 60% under target, What the Hell!?? So of course I ever-so-politely asked why?
The answer, dear customer, (including dear customers waiting for your order); It's Heath & Safety. All the permanent staff at AW had been summonsed for their "Handling materials at height" course. In other words how to go up a ladder and get a box. It takes all day to to do this, with meeting in rooms to study notes, practice sessions and so forth. Did we have to do it right now, at this mad crazy busy point? Well yes, because apparent everyone must be re-trained every two years, and at two years and one day, people will suddenly forget the training and fall of ladders left and right. Meanwhile while most of the company is ensconced in a meeting room upstairs learning stuff they already know, about ten guys from the agency, who don't need to learn this, are busy unsupervised in warehouse, doing their unsupervised best to get your orders out and of course... I fear.. randomly falling off ladders.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for H&S, I have a heightened awareness of potentially dangerous things, I really worry about our people all the time.. but... but... grrrrrr.
Back to China, now they have really fixed everything, they caught H&S big style. So they made sure everyone knows it's good to stop at a zebra crossing. Those tin-box taxi's were banned a couple of years ago, the roads are neat and tidy, and if you drive incorrectly, cross the wrong line and your phone will vibrate with an incoming message you have been fined 200 rmb, about £20.. Guess what - now I rarely see an accident. It's safe and pleasant to drive around, although they do honk a bit more than they should, but I guess deaths on the roads here have plummeted. H&S it's all good.
In fact I feel that H&S is now more implemented and organised in China than Europe, I could give you lots of examples. In our candle factory, the manager has been sent away for training in H&S and must train his staff. A much better system than ours. Our fragrance oils and essential oils, imported from England, have to be kept, when not used in a locked room that has been stripped of all electric - no lights, no air-con. nothing. After dark, use your mobile phone to see what you need...
Some of our fragrance oils, apparently contain something we haven't been trained to touch yet (no idea what this is) - some guys turned up, put all those oils to one side and stuck official - do not touch - notices on them. So about £10,000 worth of oils has to sit there while the manager goes on yet another training course, which he passed, but now we have to wait for the officials to come back remove the -do not touch - stickers.
So when we are out of stock of your favourite best selling soy-wax candle.. you know why.. H&S..
I really can't believe it's almost the end of September, the year has gone so quickly..
Soon it will be Halloween, and Bonfire night and Christmas is upon us..
And boy have we got some awesome deals for you..
Check it out below.
Have a great weekend, whatever you do take care, don't fall off any ladders.
Take care.
David
