Couriers, Seinfeld and Face Shields
Oh friends, how I have missed you. For loads of reasons the Jenkins team hasn’t put together our regular Fresh News this year and with all that we have been through over the last few months I have really missed the contact with our industry friends.
Some of us have had many more conversations than would have been the normal, mainly in response to the freight and courier clusters that we have been enduring. Many a day has been spent at my kitchen table, (now my home office) bordering on tears feeling so helpless not being able to track our products or get a response from an overloaded and equally frustrated customer service person at a courier company.
I’m a libra, so the even scales thing is real for me, out of the frustration also came some of my most satisfying moments, the reverse side of my courier problems has been the joy in getting a result or product to a packing shed just in time. The most fun has been with using my Uber app, arranging for a driver to collect “not a person, but 3 boxes of labels please” and tracking the delivery to a very satisfied customer at the other end. Love that technology, yes it comes at a cost but the cost of not delivering on demands is much higher.
While I’m telling you about myself, I could easily be described as a pragmatist.
A pragmatist is someone who is pragmatic, that is to say, someone who is practical and focused on reaching a goal. A pragmatist usually has a straightforward, matter-of-fact approach and doesn't let emotion distract her.
Not sure why crying over couriers was even a thing then but we have all had our struggles with Covid, and not many would be able to admit that they weren’t affected in some way at some time.
The other thing that may have happened during Covid is a lot of Netflix watching, I don’t think I have ever watched an episode of Seinfeld but his pragmatic style of humour in this show was great. Jerry Seinfeld: 23 Hours to Kill. Jerry Seinfeld takes the stage in New York and tackles talking vs. texting, bad buffets vs. so-called "great" restaurants and the magic of Pop Tarts. If you enjoy hearing it like it really is, give the show a watch.
Another challenge since March for many has been receiving imported products. I am so lucky to say that our USA supplier of ElastiTag® products have been trucking along with almost no interruption to supply. They did make contact though early on to make sure our orders were all up to date as they were diversifying into making face shields and mask products for the healthcare sector.
For years, Bedford Industries has been depended upon to provide functional, everyday products. The Bedford Twist Tie®, CloseIt® and ElastiTag® family of products are trusted in a number of industries. While that has not changed amidst the coronavirus pandemic, increasing demand has been placed on their Bendable Components®, especially the nose wire tie — integral for face mask manufacturers and the army of home crafters that has evolved.
To help support them in the fight, they setup an online order system for nose wire tie by the box. Also available for purchase on the site is the new ElastiShield™, a PET face shield attached to an elastomer loop that offers an additional protective layer to conserve N95 respirators in short supply.
By retooling some ElastiTag manufacturing lines, they produced a prototype within one day and received FDA registration. Since late March, they have been producing hundreds of thousands of ElastiShields per week, shipping to medical personnel, first responders, food processors, and other industry workers across the USA.
Fingers crossed that our recovery in NZ will be as smooth as possible. Take care friends and talk again soon.
Cheers, Jo.