Posts

David's AW News: Trying Not To Complain

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Greetings from Spain, How are you doing today? Here in Spain, it's still almost too hot.. I'm trying not to complain . I hear good weather is also blessing the UK this weekend.. so hopefully you can enjoy it ...   Rodrigo, our marketing man in the UK.. will certainly be enjoying it. Here he is enjoying the weather with the recently expanded team.   This week, we are excited to welcome Alex (the cool guy in the baseball cap) A traditional AW picture, always includes a Buddha statue. Toni is stressed. Toni, our man in Spain, has had a busy (and stressful) week - a container from India finally arrived after clearing customs with what seems to me ridiculously unfair treatment. (I'm trying not to complain) . Despite having all our paperwork carefully prepared and in place, answering every customs query and despite never ever doing anything dodgy.   The delays in customs create storage charges, which we have to pay even though it's not us causing the delay.. and the...

David's AW News: Heatwaves, Holly & India

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Greetings from the middle of a heatwave in Spain It's hot here in summer, but this summer is a little too much. Hard to sleep at night, I'm waking up in a pool of sweat.. sorry too much info. Last week I was telling you about Slovakia, and how damned efficient they are there. But also friendly and fun. And I was telling you that with the help of Katarina, we made some content for YouTube.. It was lots of fun!! Travel Update Regular readers will know that the circle of life goes on at AW and that involves constantly bringing you new products, and that involves travelling.. I have spent much of this week coordinating with our man in India, Mr Chatterjee, about an Indian tour in October.. and it's looking pretty epic. We are going gemstone hunting in regions unknown, hoping to open up new hippy textile connections in one of India's iconic cities and meanwhile catching up with old suppliers. Before that will be Indonesia, China and Nepal.. so a lot to organise.. sta...

David's AW News: So Efficient So Slovakian!

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Greetings from Spain... Yes, I'm back home for a while. Last week I was telling you about our beautiful Slovakia warehouse and all those Buddhas we have there, creating a calm and serene working environment. If you missed it, you can catch up here . It was amazing working with the Slovakian team.. so organised and efficient. Something about Eastern European folk is so good at finding the best way to have a smooth workflow. Well done, team! Here me with the Buddha in the outdoor relax zone we have. On Wednesday, I left Tomas and Raul working on the new dropshipping website (update below) and took an early morning taxi from Trnava, Slovakia to Vienna Airport. More efficient stuff.. I'm so impressed with the stress-free check-in experience. No people, just scan your boarding card to get a luggage label, take luggage to the belt, here is the weight shown, scan the luggage tag and boarding card again .. And my luggage is gone. So quick, sweet and easy. All the airlines...

David's AW News: About Tomas, Erika and Buddha

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Greetings from Trnova, Slovakia. Yes, I'm in our Eastern Europe distribution warehouse.. Our big beautiful (Buddha) warehouse. On Wednesday afternoon, Tomas, Raul (the IT wizard), and me took an Uber to Leeds Bradford airport and boarded a packed and rowdy Ryanair flight to Bratislava. When we landed, all the Slovaks clapped and cheered, have you experienced that? I think only Slovak and Czech people do that.  Last week, I was telling you about sinkholes in Bali and our new arrivals. If you missed it, you can catch up here . Regular readers will know about our Trnova adventures. This is Tomas's home town, and after Brexit happened and we realised that selling into Europe to independent gift shops was just not going to work well, so opened a warehouse quickly here.. it has been wildly successful, and a few years ago we moved to a big, beautiful new warehouse - 6000 pallet spaces.  We wanted to make an amazing space that our team could enjoy working in.. Tomas and Erika (and te...

David's AW News: Holes, Bowls and Products Back in Stock!

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Greetings from heatwave Sheffield. I hope you are finding time to enjoy the beautiful weather here in the UK.. I'm so lucky to be here at this time.. but so busy. It's been a crazy - mad crazy week. The main focus has been the launch of the new big beautiful dropshipping website .. full honest update below. Last week I was telling you about how we almost lost our shipment of Full Moon Singing Bowls from Nepal.. and how our man James tracked them down and recovered them. If you missed it you can catch up here .. We are so happy to get them back, our new social media girl Holly.. enthusiastically got into the world of Singing Bowls (including the Full Moon Bowls).. and made an info YouTube video for your enlightenment, entertainment and inspiration...   actually Singing Bowls are booming (pun intended ) business.. lovers of singing bowls - that includes me.. are obsessed with them.. will pay big money for the more exotic bowls and spend hours practicing to make the spine...

David's AW News: Lost Moon Bowls Come Home.

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Greetings from Ancient Wisdom HQ.. Sheffield It's all happening this week, and a bit of drama as we almost lost our Full Moon Bowls. Last week I was telling you about the Lokta paper that just arrived, and how the new Dropshipping website is launching.. If you missed it you can catch up here . It's July already.. I can't believe how fast this year is flying by.. and on the 1st of July (that was Tuesday), we welcomed a new team member.. Holly.. who is our new social media manager. These days a very important job. Holly is a keen yoga enthusiast and instructor, so already halfway an Ancient Wisdom team member. An Indian shipment of GemstoneTree Gardens - some with Yoga figures just arrived.. so it seemed a good fit for Holly to make her first social media post about this collection. So a BIG welcome to Holly, if you have time please check out the above YouTube and send Holly some encouragement, feedback or just say Hi.. in the comments.. Thank you   and you might...

David's AW News: Guinea Pigs & the New Dropshipping Website

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Greetings from AW HQ - UK I'm in the UK, in Sheffield, at the heart of AW.  Tomas is here, Raul (the IT wizard) has flown in from KL, I'm here. Working on something amazing.. It's all happening here; we are working 24/7 on the new Dropshipping website. Which will be launched very soon. I'm hoping it will be a game changer for YOU!   (more details below) Last week I was telling you about my short time in Spain at home, and our guy in Indonesia stuck in Java.. if you missed it, you can catch up here . Well, it's all happening here.. and I quickly got involved with Rodrigo and the team.. we already made a "Can you sell this? Video.. about the Indian Rag Rugs .. did you see it? Update from Indonesia. Our man Bondhan went to Java to load another container of the Big Statues (they are selling faster than we can ship them) - they are good but very complicated because the only way to ship them cost effectively is by filling the void space around the statues with small,...