Tragedy and the Artisan

Every year or two I go through my list of the supplies I need and I research suppliers. Then I make a spreadsheet of each supply and three or more places I can get it, and what it currently costs. Why?
This is my backup plan. You never know when tragedy will strike and *poof* your supplier is closed. Instead of rushing around and looking for a new place to get something, I just open up my handy spreadsheet and head to the places on the list and go from there. True, the prices could have changed a little from my last research, but it will get me through an order or two while I research again what my other options are. There is nothing worse than needing something right away and not having a place to get it quickly.

On the flip side, sometimes there are things so special that there really is just one place to get it. My air freshener blanks are just one of those things. I have tried the three or four places I can get them and have decided on just one. And then tragedy strikes! The artisan that hand makes the paper that I use for my air fresheners has experienced a devastating house fire. Like me she is a small enterprise who works out of her home. Along with loosing her business and her house she has lost family pets too (a miracle, no human loss/injury). I cannot wrap my head around such devastation. I think it hits me hard because I am in the same situation. A fire wouldn't just displace me, but would close my source of income too. It is my ultimate fear.

But from my side as a business owner, through everything that happened there was an abundance of communication. I had just placed and order not a week before the fire stuck. I received a refund, an email, and a phone call explaining what had happened. Consummate professionalism. Amazing. I have tried other air freshener paper manufacturers, and I don't like any of them. There is no backup plan for this product in my lineup. I will make what I have left, and wait for her to rebuild. I will be here waiting to give her my order, my money, to help her rebuild her business one customer at a time. I would rather not offer air fresheners than to offer a product I don't like myself. And until that phone call comes, that she is ready to start again, I will pray for her and her family to find the strength to make it through this.