Greetings from sunny Spain
Put that Mick Jagger voice on and let's sing (in your head at least).. bear with me I'll explain later..
No, you can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you find
You get what you need
Hope you guys are well and the trade is good. Welcome to a new UK - new management, new blood. a fresh broom.. as predicted Sir Kieth and the labour government are back in the driving seat.
So let's hope for more sunny days ahead.. let's hope Britain finds its mojo and we all find what we need.
Last week I was telling you about my idea for a new AW catchphrase.. and a wave of new products landing in AW land.. if you missed it you can catch up here.
Tomas arrived from Slovakia on Tuesday. Coco arrived on Wednesday morning... well just after midnight on Tuesday.. I went to the airport and waited for her to arrive... It was so busy streams of people arriving and lots of emotional reunions on a warm (25c) night. Like that scene in "Love Actually". I was a little early and waiting and waiting for ages. Streams of folk of all types and styles... I'm searching the faces trying to find.... but then she arrived looking cool and beautiful.. as though she had just stepped out for the evening.. and not been travelling for 36 hours.
She has a bag of samples of products we are working on.. and Tomas came the next day to see Coco and the samples... Then we went for lunch (including Coco's favourite, grilled Sardines) on the beach nearby.
Finding what you need... Coming soon on our website!
Our big news this week is after a surprisingly huge amount of work... Raul (the IT wizard) and Tomas with some help have launched a NEW SEARCH BAR...
It's been a long time coming (like Coco) but might spread light on parts of AW you never knew existed. Try it out and see what you can find... We are hoping you can find things more attuned to your customer base. Now you can search by price range, from low to high or vice versa. By category and search come as you type.. so you can feel your way around the world of AW in a whole new way.
Try searching for Pink or Blue.. if you want to theme a part of your gift shop..it kind of worked before but now to a whole new level... hope you like it and find it useful.
On Friday it was Tomas's 40th Birthday.. and we celebrated a little lowkey with friends and family BBQ this afternoon. Feel free to send birthday wishes.. he will appreciate it... Tomas.
If you have time... I'd like to tell you a little story...
In Bali.. a while back - Ringo and I travelled to the north coast one day to see if we could find some new suppliers... The second city on Bali is Singearaja, a port town...The name means Lion King. One place that our contact recommended was an artisan tye-dye factory.. making super cool products - everything from scarves and t-shirts to wall coverings and bags. Their best-selling product was a slouchy low-slung casual linen bag, with bright colours running to pastel in a unique shape. We tried hard to make a deal to buy them for you.. but the usual problem was that the quantity we wanted was unrealistic for them to make.
They were selling them in the attached gift shop for the equivalent of €35.. which seemed reasonable.. but the retail price in the UK (even if we could have bought it) would be €75+ - which is steep even for a posh tote bag...
Later in India, I told our man Chatterjee about the concept.. and we thought he could develop something out of washed (soft) jute. He had a contact not far from his factory where two brothers beavered away making tye-dye materials - (I actually wrote about them)
The Tye-dye bro.. and artisan worker.
Finally, we made it... A year later it arrived in the UK and Europe.
See it's quite big and nicely slouchy.. RRP at €15 - seems reasonable to me.. €20 would be fine. Check here.
I'm more disappointed than a conservative minister who lost his seat today...