How things develop...
It all started with a bad-tasting glass of water. So bad that I never wanted to drink such bad water again. So I went on a search and discovered Fine Liquids, found enormously amazing waters at astronomical prices and fell in love with this world of fine waters.
I myself was a difficult customer at Fine Liquids. After I bought the company 3 years ago and took it over as the new owner, I came across a few complaints that amazed me. Why? Well, it was my complaints, my dissatisfaction when something wasn't delivered as I had imagined, or when water simply couldn't be obtained. Well, things that I'm trying to do better today, and in doing so I'm hitting my own limits and those of other countries and customs.
In 2018 I took over the company at the wrong time, had an accident that pretty much disabled my knee for almost a year, do some warehouse work there... Yes, and then it was time to open a shop on the Internet because Lehmann didn't want to give up his. Well, I didn't want him to be as dusty as he was, I never understood that anyway.
I've really done a lot in my life, even a web shop for Ewald Liedtke's Königsberger Marzipan, but that was basically nothing compared to the FINE LIQUIDS project.
It was perfectly clear to me that I filled a niche and that I had to fill it exceptionally and unassailably. Today we have around 40 brands from over 20 countries and each brand alone needs about a week to be listed and online, and that is just the work of researching the article, writing, photographing, depositing, advertising, short to get him present. And that's just the work when the goods are there. There is a flood of activities before you have this product, because there are hardly any distributors you can simply buy from, no, in most cases you buy directly from the family business. With the little ones, at the sources, at the source.
Now that sounds a bit lame. But it shouldn't. That's not what it is about. I just want to say that my wife was, as always, more right than I was. I completely underestimated how much work it is at the end of the day. Last week I was in the warehouse until midnight and thought that was completely crazy, not knowing that this week, last night, well actually this morning I was at work until half past three.
Why do you want to know? I tell you. When I put on the first items in the shop 3 years ago with a broken knee with ice cubes on it and surfed the sofa for days, I didn't realize that a shop like this would need incredible care. Kind of like plants that want to be watered, cut and fertilized... Who needs something like that when you already have a garden that requires green cuttings every 14 days? What can I say, when I realized in the middle of the Christmas business last year how many people couldn't get along with our shop, I finally had to get the cart out of the mud after many previous rescue attempts. Since then I have been working with my technology agency Ermentraut and the result is the new shop that is now available. Completely processed and edited in German hands and German language. Sounds strange, but it's not, because my experience has taught me that it doesn't get you anywhere if you tell a developer who speaks broken English to take a look at why the shop has become slow and he thinks you should switch from IONOS to BLUEHOST. Both sucked in the end.
It is perfectly clear to me that the ordering process with us over the last 12 months has not been a walk in the park for one or the other, so it was and is all the more important for me to get the shop in shape and hey, we're still in the middle of it, so have Please be patient with us until everything works the way we imagine it to.
The point is, we need a shop that works worldwide and immediately shows everyone the correct shipping price and enables an ordering process that complies with the legal provisions of the EU and Germany and remains manageable and affordable for us.
A perfectly coordinated shop is something completely normal for you and yet you can experience for yourself, for example on Amazon, how difficult this goal is to achieve. Milin Patel is responsible for our UK business, he is a partner and master franchisee. It urgently needs a shop with which he can accompany our first real store after our showroom in his city, London. More franchisees coming from other regions under our umbrella want to start, expect properly functioning systems from me - which is a real challenge, especially in times of Corona.
But I can see that I've warmed myself up and now I have to be careful not to get out of hand. Corona has brought one or the other brand into insolvency, be that as it may, we have taken advantage of the opportunities and are better positioned than ever. Give us a few more days until we can be sure that the shop is up and running. Until then, it will remain the same, of course you can still order from us by telephone and e-mail. No question.
So far up to here.
My next post will then be about the events of 2021 and the Fine Liquids community and the dimension of the virtual meetings. Stay tense, thirsty and loved by us,
Yours, Pat Eckert