Greeting from lockdown Europe
It's a lockdown across swathes of Europe again. Friday the 13th to stress us more.. and only the glimmer of a vaccine hope to keep us cheerful.
That and watching Netflix, the number one show right now is "Queen's Gambit" - I loved it - it made me cry at the end. It's about a young girl, an orphan, who is thought to play chess by the janitor in the basement, and goes on to become world champion. A feel good production, with some ups and downs and in the end it's a story about friendship and collaboration.. and now everyone will spend lockdown playing chess. It's a major trend.. So we have some lockdown / chess set deals below.
It's also Diwali this weekend - so greetings to all those that celibrate this. I'm often in India durring the festival of lights.. All our Indian suppliers are readers of this newsletter.. I miss you guys!!.. and so send this greeting:
May the festival of lights be the harbinger of joy and prosperity!
It seems fitting that this celibration about the power of good over evil.. Diwali is celibrated across faiths and people in different ways (and not only Hindu) for example I know that in Kolkata home of our Mr Chatterjee there they associate the festival with the goddess Kali, who symbolises the victory of good over evil. In Mr Chatterjee factory he has Muslims, Christians and Buddist and all cellibrate Diwali togeather. Lets hope the vaccine is the light to fight the covid evil.
Last week I was telling you about a problem with whales.. and about a happy supplier from Indonesia, you can read about it here. But first let me tell you about 2 huge announcements.. one an anniversary, another a christening..
On Tuesday next week.. It will be incredibly 25 years ago that Ancient Wisdom was born. As they say on Strictly "it's been a hell of a journey". Just like any good Netflix production, a story with quite a few ups and downs, but thankfully every cloud has had a silver lining.. Born on a street market in Sheffield, all that time ago.. I can remember it well. Here (if you have time) is the story of that first day..
It was a wet cold Thursday morning a long time before Google and Facebook, and as I laid out my market stall on a Sheffield street I was more than apprehensive about what people would think. But I was ready by eight, my humble offering laid out on that simple stall.. and stomping from foot to foot I awaited my first customer.
A few months earlier, I'd been reading a book called "Ancient Wisdom" - now out of print. The book highlighted many things that seem out of place in history - the pyramids, Stonehenge etc. At the same time I'd been researching aromatherapy. It struck me that essential oils had been used for thousands of years and ancient people must have known more about them - (healing and enchanting) than perhaps we did. So I put the two together and devised the brand of "Ancient Wisdom" slowly (very slowly, no Internet remember) I found supplies of oils. I found a potter down in Stoke who made me my own design of oil burner, and invested in a pallet load of candles.
The truth was I was stone broke, every penny and more I put into my unusual retail business. In those days no-one had any idea what aromatherapy was, oil burners were a new fangled thing and this was Yorkshire!
The first person to approach was a well built lady of colour with a broad Yorkshire accent. Picking up a bottle of Lavender oil she asked me bruskly "what's it good for lad?" Oh I said recalling my Julia Lawless quotes.. "it's good for relaxing, will help you sleep and if you burn yourself it's an amazing healing oil". Well I can remember it clear as day.. she looked at me, took me in with big brown eyes, and in a low voice said; "You are completely bloody bonkers". And wandered off to the fruit and veg. You can imagine how I felt. The first day I sold one lavender oil and gave some tea tree away to a spotty teenage girl. I went home and almost packed it in.
The next day, I decided I need to get my act together, and made an offer, Lavender Oil, Oil Burner and a nightlight...I piled the oil burners up in bread baskets with a sprinkling of potpourri for good measure. for £4.50. I sold my first oil burner set in five minutes... and Ancient Wisdom was born. Soon I would sell fifty sets a day and gradually found customers for my range of essential oils.
I devised a range of Fragrance Oils - I put my heart into that range working nights to get it right, I listened to customer feedback and I'm pretty sure that nice lady who rejected my lavender became a regular customer for fragrance oils.
That was, amazingly.. almost 25 years ago. On 16-11-20 it is Ancient Wisdom's 25th Birthday.
Since then.. the company has grown, with a few ups and downs, to be an international Giftware company, we still sell Lavender Oil, Fragrance oils and Oil Burners. And also 10,000 other products to more than 80,000 customers all over the world. With warehouses in Indonesia, China, Slovakia, Spain and the UK.. we really couldn't have got here without you.Recently following an horrendous fire in July (another down).. we moved to our new warehouse in Sheffield (a huge up!) - from here it is onwards.
The warehouse has no name.. so we asked for suggestions.. and had hundreds, and after much debate we have decided that the best suggestion came from someone called "Ben" who posted his idea to the AW Blog page.
Calling Ben.. we don't have your contact, please message us so we can send you a bottle of Champagne :)
Our amazing customers have always supported this company with feedback, ideas and criticism (when we need it), our customers - YOU - have shaped AW and helped us to our Birthday.
We want to say thank you.. to Ben.. for his name.. and thank you to YOU - for making AW what it is today..
Stand by for some celebration surprises and news next week.