David's AW News: Behaving Badly & Goldfish

Greetings from Indonesia

I hope you guys are doing well!

Shortly I will be moving from here. Which is both exciting and sad.. but the circle of life at AW must continue.. standby for fresh adventures.

The thing about all Indonesia (in my experience anyway) is the stress free nature of the people. The calm, gentle, no drama approach to life and other people.  Maybe because of the many diverse peoples on many different islands.. that this relatively new nation (slogan: Strength in diversity) had to learn how to get along. to accept others as they are. I'm going to miss this..

Last week I was telling you about the "No Drama Keep Smile" jolly bodybuilding politician of Bali.  And I also explained a bit about the complex process of loading a container in the AW warehouse.. if you missed it you can catch up here.

Our Digital marketing team is the personification of Indonesian friendliness in diversity.. AW-Advantage.com.. (BTW these guys can help you grow your online business).

Between the office and warehouse we have six very different cultural groups.. that all get along without stress and with total (as far as I can see) acceptance. This week we launched (or should say relaunched) the AW Gold Reward Amnesty.. it's my plan for rewarding our loyal customers... like you :).. more below.

Behaving badly in Bali.

Let me tell you not every visitor to Indonesia appreciates or responds well to the gentle culture here. There is a certain type of annoying swaggering, excess testosterone, overly privileged, low IQ foreigner who thinks it's ok to behave like a prat. For example to ride around without a helmet, under-dressed, over-tattooed and with zero respect for traffic rules.  They can do this (and much worse).. because in this country the locals will just accept them as they are, so there is no check on bad behaviour. There is a social media genre in Indonesia called Bule (which is slang for foreigner) Behaving Badly. The locals don't get upset or angry, they just shake their heads in disbelief and post to Tiktok or Facebook. Search: Bule behaving badly in Bali.. in any social media for some light entertainment.

Sadly some of those folk are fellow Brits, but many are run-away Russians as locals are happy to point out.

Fortunately these types mostly frequent only pockets of Bali best avoided (which I do). So anyway that gentle, accepting, trusting nature - the culture of Indonesia.. is what makes it relatively easy to do business. Artisans even often openly share their product costs and ask what is an acceptable price. Is this under threat from over tourism?.. Yes I see some locals learning to be mistrustful because of bad experiences. Sad but I hope the good will prevail.

There is a village in south Java (which springs to mind) where we buy traditional woven place mats.. the locals are open and kind and invite you into their homes.. . It would be awful if this way of life was destroyed. By the way, the natural vetiver place mats and runners they make are very special in that they are naturally scented. An amazing gift for Christmas.

So let me tell you about the Gold Reward Membership... You will have noticed we give volume discounts in most families (or ranges) of products. This is to encourage retailers like you to carry a good selection of a similar product range, because a good selection means you will give your customers confidence and thus sell more.. It also means your order can be picked and packed more efficiently, so the savings can be passed on to you.

All good so far right (I know this because I used to be a retailer many moons ago).. except that for sure you will sell out of the most popular lines quickly and then need to restock. Restocking is expensive.. so our system is that you can restock (within 30 days) and still get the discount. We call this the Gold Reward Discount..  

It's all good if you can remember to order regularly.. if you are loyal to your stock your customers will be loyal to you.. but life gets in the way.. and well you know what happens..

SO.. that's why we invented the Gold Reward Membership, what with covid and Brexit it kind of got forgotten.. but we are delighted to bring it back..

Plus we are actively dreaming up many more benefits/gifts we can bestow on our lovely regular customers - helping you to sell more, boost your profit margin and have more fun.

After all we are all in the Gift Trade - our business to help people love other people - no less! Gifts are a profound and deeply meaningful part of human nature. I believe we should be humbled and grateful to be part of this process.

Wishing you a lovely week.

Be kind to someone, and let's get this show on the road!

Take care

David