David's AW News: Crazy in India, Plans & Protest Songs

Greetings from a hot and humid Bali.

I don't know if you want to hear this but it has been almost too hot to work. I know the UK has been getting some spring-like weather and blue skies - so Spring is in the air.

I'm still getting over our man Ringo wanting to retire..big news in last week's missive, if you missed you can catch up here. I spoke to Ringo the other day in his village, we miss you, I told him, and he said he was missing Ancient Wisdom also, so maybe..

Well Mother's Day is almost upon us, and focus moves to Easter.. Spring is in the air and it does feel more lively.. things are happening!!

And it's St Patricks day today.. Guinness and Green Ties Day.

And I'm still angry about Temu and Shein. The more I think about it the more unfair it seems. I was very sad to see that an old established wholesaler, a brilliant company run by lovely people, has been forced to close down.  And Temu is a big factor in this.  I have some updates on this below..

Remember that bus.. it inspired me to compose a protest song..

And some disturbing news from China.. below.

I was speaking to Coco in China this morning. She said there is a lot of news about Taiwan at the moment, the government getting upset about all sorts of things..  She really thinks something bad will happen soon. I hope not, because another major disruption to trade is the last thing we need. You heard it here first.

All I can say is you are safer at AW, we have more non-China stock than most, and what we do have is ethically sourced to the best of our ability. Coco spends half her life making sure products are tested for all sorts of extreme standards, labelling and certificates. This all adds to the cost. But we do it all. Temu does none of this.

OK ok I'm a bit obsessed.. haha.. sorry.

Beautiful things sell!

We have beautiful products from Indonesia, Nepal, India etc, made by artisans that care.. products that your customers will keep for a lifetime, (not end up in the landfill in weeks).

And as we sometimes forget, Rodrigo and co reminded us (from the AW showroom this week) to display your products on wood to look good. The setting is all important.. and natural wood displays really enforce the quality aspect of the products you sell, I'm not sure if anyone has done a study, but I'm guessing the perceived value of gift products displayed on wooden shelves over plastic racking must repay the investment is displayed 1000%..

See our displays below.. and more cost effective than you might imagine.

We have two main suppliers for this kind of furniture in Bali.. One is a super organised and hardworking  lady boss, called Widya Dewi. Years ago when we first met she was holding a job at the local bank while her handy husband was producing furniture in carved out jungle compound. Since then they have built a large house, had children and grown the business to be able to produce container load orders efficiently. We are really happy to work with this family business. And as always we have confidence that the wood is ethically sourced, trace documents are provided and standards are good.


Meanwhile in India

It is that totally wild time of year.. I'm kind of happy to miss it.. but our Indian friends just LOVE it so MUCH.

It's Holi, a time when it is socially expectable to throw powder paint at friends and people you just bumped into.. to get stoned and party all night.. all polite social norms are shelved - go WILD guys!!

Wishing all our Indian (and Nepal) friends a wonderful fun and colourful Holi.

Our Mr Chatterjee showing us his colours!

Meanwhile it's almost time to move on.. shortly I will be in Nepal and then India and then..(wait and see)..

But I need your help!!

We will send you a survey shortly.. I'd appreciate if you could share your wisdom and suggest the things that you think would delight your customers.. or the things you can sell but find hard to get..

I need your insights from the cutting edge of retail..

Temu protest song..

I realised the Brexit Bus said £350 million a week.. when I asked Perplexity deep seek to carefully calculate what loophole traders are costing the UK.. it came back with £860 million a week!!

I mean WTF!! You can see the carefully calculated, verifiedand citated results here

I had so much fun (AI) creating a protest song.. then making a video.. Here it is..Please like and share 

I know.. I'm obsessed.. but it has to stop.

And if not yet signed..please sign our Change.org petition. Thank you.

https://www.change.org/TaxTemuProtectUKTraders 

Have a lovely week!

David

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