We can HELP flatten the CURVE - order but don't get it delivered until AFTER Lock-Down! Let's protect our courier drivers ♥♥
25 March 2020
To all our Customers
Here at the shop we spent the whole of Tuesday working like literal crazed people to cram a weeks’ work into ONE day to try and ensure that our KitClub Members’ boxes as well as our online customers’ orders can be shipped out.
Our only concern was getting our customers’ parcels to them BEFORE lockdown. Then, late Tuesday afternoon, our courier company informed us that NONE of the parcels would reach our customers until after 16 April.
We were blown away. How is this possible, we protested. Lockdown is only from midnight 26 March!
Indeed, we were informed, but due to the congestion caused by PANIC buying of NON-ESSENTIAL GOODS ONLINE from the South African public, all wanting their orders to now be DELIVERED before midnight 26 March, a bottleneck has been caused and the companies are now sending IMPORTANT and ESSENTIAL goods first. This includes monthly deliveries of chronic medication and orders that were in the queue before the lockdown was announced.
So, we were welcome to send the parcels, but parcels would probably be stranded at various Depots around the country until well after 16 April, and the backlog can be sorted out.
They poor courier man in front of us had NO sanitizer. He told us that it was used up the day before, and he simply cannot get any anywhere. He has to enter each premises and ASK at most premises for sanitisation before handling the parcels. People were RUDE and demeaning to him. He was on his almost 100th collection for the day. Normally he collects from us at 11am. It was late afternoon when he arrived at our shop.
It was then that I made the decision. I was NOT going to endanger any person’s life. I did not want to contribute to this man’s anguish. He is a HUMAN BEING, made in the image of God and I expect him to endanger HIS life so that I can tap myself on the shoulder and say WOW, look at us, we got all our customer’s parcels out before lock down! How WONDERFUL are we!
No, I was not going to do that. So, to all our customers, eagerly awaiting their KitClub April releases – you are, unfortunately, going to have to wait a little longer.
If you want to cancel, you are welcome. If any of our online customers want a refund, you are welcome.
I am sending my staff home NOW and we will ONLY return once the president announces that NON-ESSENTIAL businesses can re-open.
Unfortunately, I am not willing to expose my staff to any undue risk. I am also not going to subject my staff to any intolerance from customers.
Your life is just as important as my staff and that courier delivery man’s life. I cannot control what other people do, but I can control MY part in safe-guarding people against possible exposure.
If you think I am over-reacting or harming my business – that is your prerogative. I considered how I would feel if my child/spouse/sibling had to come to work, fearing that anything they touch could be contaminated, delivering parcels with NO PROTECTION to hundreds of home and business addresses daily, touching gates, doorbells, pens etc and being treated like a DISPOSABLE item – only good for one use, then to be discarded and not even thought of again.
How often DO you consider the courier guy that brings your parcels? The cashier behind the till? The petrol attendant? The security guard? YOUR DOMESTIC STAFF???? The cleaner at the mall mopping the floor behind every customer? The bathroom attendant at filling stations? Do you even acknowledge these people as PEOPLE????
Someone sent me a “thank you, Corona” post about how the Corona Virus COVID-19 is “helping” the planet. Well, it is no good if it helps the PLANET but the PEOPLE who inhabit the planet’s hearts are NOT changed.
May the Lord have mercy on all of us.
Scrapbook Studio Jeffreys Bay will COMPLETELY SHUT DOWN UNTIL AFTER LOCKDOWN.
Our ONLINE SHOP will remain OPEN.
We will still be sending out Inspiration through our WA Broadcasts, Email, Facebook and YouTube Channels.
PAID Orders will ONLY be processed during the week AFTER 16 April – IF the President allows non- essential businesses to re-open. That is a Thursday. Parcels will ONLY be sent out after 20 April in order to allow the backlog that would have occurred due to lockdown, to be caught up by the Logistic Companies.
We know that ALL our customers will understand this and can appreciate where we are coming from.
We also HOPE and PRAY that all our customers who call upon the Sovereign God of the Bible will remember that HE promised to give us our DAILY bread and that He knows what we, who call HIM FATHER, need.
Let us LIVE now what we proclaim to believe.
