Thursday, October 29, 2009

The first wave



We have a tractor trailer coming today to pick up the first wave of gifts - 9 pallets wrapped and ready to go. I was a little worried about having the space to get these together, but it all worked out fine.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

A New Skill



We learned how to wrap boxes on a pallet yesterday...and discovered that, YES, we can actually fit these things out the door.

The Home Stretch



The boxes are snaking down the hallway...we're running out of room!

But the client stopped in yesterday and checked on our progress, and they were totally thrilled. If the program is successful, the next time around it will be about 2000 gifts. Yikes!

We are contemplating warehouse space and World Basket Domination....LOL.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Update, Part 3



And many, many more that still need to be shrink wrapped and bowed. We had a potential crisis yesterday that halted production, but luckily it turned out to be a false alarm. Onward and upward...

Update, Part 2



We've got about 250 gifts completed and in various stages of production. These are waiting to packed.

Update from the SGB Annex



We had busy productive weekend at SGB, and we're at about the halfway point with our project. The first wave of baskets are boxed, labeled and ready to go out.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

The Basket Factory



We've had a productive couple days at our satellite location, aka "The Basket Factory". The first 100 baskets are complete and have moved into the shrink wrap area. Thankfully, all the unexpected kinks in the project have been worked out, the rest of our materials have finally arrived, and we're moving full-speed ahead. 540 gifts in 2 weeks? No problem!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Of Mice and Men



You know that saying about the best laid plans of mice and men going awry?

When we moved to our new space in the spring, we felt pretty confident that the extra square footage and a more easily accessible location would serve us well for at least the next few years.

A few months later, we are pretty well settled in and gearing up for our first holiday season in our new location. At this time of year, we are typically doing a lot of planning - creating holiday designs, lining up extra inventory, and enjoying some free time before the holiday onslaught.

We were surprised (and thrilled!) when we landed 2 large and unexpected new orders, due within a week of each other and both on VERY short notice. We went from being pretty happy with our new space to looking around going, "Really? WHERE ON EARTH are we going to put all this stuff????"

But, we've never backed down from a challenge (like the year we outgrew our original downtown location....but that's another story). We contacted the building manager in our old place on Teall Avenue and rented extra space for the holidays. This will be our satellite location for the next couple of months, devoted entirely to our larger corporate orders. The inventory and supplies have started to arrive, and we are getting ready to start working on the first order - 540 baskets, due in less than 2 weeks, and packed to ship - on pallets no less, which is a first for us.

The picture above is one of our new work rooms - the calm before the storm!