David's AW News: In China

Greetings from Yiwu in China

Hope you are doing well and ready for the week. It's very hot here, as hot as I can ever remember being..

Last week I was telling you about life in Bali and how a BBC journalist called me around midnight (Bali time) from the UK.. if you missed it and want to find out why you can catch up here.

On Sunday evening Bondhan (Our man in Indonesia) drove me to the airport, my time here seemed far too short and lots of jobs not really finished.. but anyway, I had a night flight to Guangzhou, China, to catch.

Bali airport these days is super efficient, and like a dream to drift through, everyone is so kind and thoughtful even the security and passport control.. Bought some last-minute gifts, a glass of wine in the lounge and then ambled to the gate to board a China Southern night flight to Guangzhou.

On board, there are only a few business class seats, so get very fussed over.. more wine and more food than I can eat. Really delightful, friendly service. I managed to sleep a little on the 5 hour flight and we arrived in Guangzhou at 6am with a connection to Yiwu at 8.20am..

From calm to chaos.. I wasn't expecting this.. last time I was in China it was not busy in the airport.. but now thousands of people in long winding lines for passport control and only one young guy struggling to control the mass of Indian's, Russian; South Americans and Turkish - all sorts of odd people, including me.

From relaxed Bali to Chaotic Guangzhou - Culture Shock!

That culture shock I don't usually get inside Asia.. and the staff I interacted with on a stressful trip though the airport, addressed me (annoyingly) in Russian, snatched my passport off me. Refused to help or look at my ticket when I requested a fast lane since my connection was very short. Anyway, I just rolled with it.. and made it to the gate midway through boarding..

A short flight to Yiwu - 90 minutes and a much more relaxed airport experience.. and Coco is waiting for me as I leave the airport.. It's not so bad.

As I step outside... WOW! This is hot.. It's stifling. Never have I known this stonking heat. The sky is blue and the sun is hot.. the heat is dry. This is not normal.

The next day, Tomas arrives from Spain on a flight from Spain (where he has been looking for a new warehouse urgently - see last week's news) we meet at his hotel.. where staff are putting reflective shields on the cars in the sun - so helpful to stop everything melting.

The Heat Problem

Tomas had brought some candle samples for us to work on, and he brought an apple from the breakfast buffet. After our day in the Yiwu market.. back at the car in 43c the apple had stewed and turned black and the candle wax had turned to liquid and run away.

This is a worrying problem because we have loaded a few containers with Candles in them.. Coco has been careful to make sure they are loaded upright and not at the edges of the container.. but I fear between China and the UK there will be some heat. Anyway.. we just got news that the EU and the UK are imposing (Trump like) tariffs on candles of 75% from this month. So candles anyway are going to be off the menu. (hint - stock up).

The Temu Problem.

We have done our usual round of visiting some of our old suppliers and seeing what's new.. But apart from the heat in China.. We have another major problem. And this is related to the reason the BBC guy called me. So yesterday we went along to see one of our old suppliers.. We buy amongst other things.. Chakra Gemstone String Bracelets.

It's a lovely family business, like many with a lady boss. Her husband, Son and daughter-in-law are all hands on sorting, making, labelling and packing jewellery. As hardworking and enthusiastic about the gemstone jewellery family as you can get.

But then I spotted this label.. this label had been supplied by Temu - the lady boss told me.. she speaks no English, doesn't understand it anyway. I asked her if she knew what EC REP means.. she said maybe a customer - has no idea. Coco explained that it's the person in the EU who is supposed to represent your company if there is any problem with the product.. Blank look. The company name at the top.. is not their company at all.. who is it.. Shrug.. she has no idea. The thing is I recognise those names.. we made test purchases from Temu and had the same names on the labels. If you find those addresses on Google maps they are Pizza parlors or something. Last time I checked.

She then went off on a total rant about Temu.. they demand stock at prices impossible to supply.. so cut quality to the minimum, use fake or glass beads.

Then explained, if stock sells too slow Temu will charge "rent", if goods are a day late they are fined. They are fined so many times..it's hard to make a profit.

But she went on to explain, American trade has gone, business is not great and to fill the gap they end up using Temu even if it is hard work.

Temu have very persuasive reps who call non-stop, promising the earth if you trade.. but the reality is different. There have even been street protests about it.

With Temu nobody wins, only Temu.. and the only silver lining is our lovely supplier lady absolutely assured us our products she would never list on Temu.

The Temu problem is huge.. and we have already met quite a few companies who list on Temu and we have had to reject the product. The first thing we do is a Temu search now and if the product is listed we say sorry, we cannot buy. Sometimes, actually quite often though a nice product is simply listed with stolen pictures and a poor replica is sent instead.. it's a dog-eat-dog world here in Yiwu.

Anyway, rest assured, we are doing our best to bring you family business, ethically produced, and beautiful gifts..

Meanwhile, back in EU, Halloween is creeping closer – are you ready for the big day? Check out the scary and mystical gifts we have on offer.

So wishing you a lovely week.

Take care

David