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Archives for June 2020

CEO Daily Update – 6.3.2020

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Clorox Wipes, N95 Masks, New Floor Dispensers, and Business/COVID Updates

Happy Wednesday!  
 
It was a big day yesterday! Lots of product updates (above), and lots of interesting and enlightening conversations (below).

First, about the product updates – As you will see above, we are launching Clorox sanitizing wipes, N95 masks, and Floor Stand Sanitizer dispensers all in the same day. Wheew!! I want to explain a little about how “this works” when it comes to things like Clorox wipes and N95 masks. There is no reliable supply chain for these things right now. I describe what it’s like out there as the Wild Wild West. Market price is literally defined by what someone is willing to sell something for, and what someone else is willing to pay. There are no rules, and you act fast or you miss the opportunity. On certain items like hand sanitizer dispensers or bottle pumps, I get those manufactured and we have some control. With things like Clorox wipes or N95 masks, it is a no holds barred sourcing showdown. I have been offered pallets of gloves before, and took 8 minutes to make up my mind, and by the time I did they were SOLD. It was a LOT of gloves. I was sick. So, things like Clorox wipes or N95 masks are like that. Someone offers them to me, and I either grab them or I don’t.

I am going to explain what you will see on the site for those items. For the Clorox wipes in the bag, the “on order” qty is on the way to us. Every time someone enters an order, that qty goes down. So in general, what you see on order should be available for you to buy. For the Clorox wipes in the canister, I have committed to about 2000 canisters, but there are a total of roughly 20,000 available. What you see on the site is the amount remaining from the 20,000 available. As soon as I send this email and orders start coming in I will gauge how many to buy and lock the PO in. So, that is why I am saying ORDER FAST if you want them. For the N95 masks it’s similar. We have a vendor that has them available and I have written a PO for the full qty and will edit it as necessary once we see the demand.

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CEO Daily Update – 6.2.2020

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To all my readers, staff, and friends,

Every morning when my CEO Daily email is sent (I write them the night before) I get tons of positive replies with people commenting on how they look forward to my emails, how they are so real, fresh, and different from anything they receive, and other very nice compliments about our company, our products, and our staff.

Yesterday was not that way.

Throughout the day I learned that some of my staff, my friends, and I’m sure some of my readers were confused and in some cases upset by what I wrote about the current events. My intention certainly wasn’t to offend or hurt those I care about. I wrote the email quickly, casually, and without deep consideration. I also attempted to make a joke which was inappropriate.

I am sorry for my lack of sensitivity. I should have taken a more careful and thoughtful approach to writing such an email. I need to seek to understand (which is one of our values) what people are thinking and feeling, which I have already begun to do and plan to continue to do.

Craig Haynie – CEO
CablesAndKits

CEO Daily Update – 6.1.2020

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Protests & Riots, 3.3oz Sanitizer and Premium Thermometers in stock

Happy Monday!  
 
Welcome to a whole new month. It is hard to believe it is June already. When this year started it seemed like everything crazy that could happen happened, and it’s been moving fast. My oldest daughter is turning SEVEN on the 14th and I just realized the other day that it was coming up soon. Then I thought, jeez we are almost half way to Christmas! I can’t believe she is about to turn 7. She was born just yesterday. Time flies.

So about the protesting and rioting … I don’t claim to be an expert at these things but I am just so sad for our country. It seems like every time we turn around we are fighting about something with someone, or fighting with or against something. 9/11, the Taliban, ISIS, sickness, political division, cyber-attacks, identity theft, the threat of trade wars, or real wars, or armed conflicts. Now, we have “life after COVID-19” to deal with and in the midst of that why don’t we kill some people and then burn down some cities. I am not even making a statement about who did what. I am just sad for the state of things. That’s all. I want to say “Can’t we all just get along”, but of course that is not how life works. BUT, what I WILL say is that we should each go out of our way to be gentle, and nice, and understanding with one another. No one said we had to solve every problem, but we can certainly try to not BE a problem. Today I went to pick-up dinner at Chilis (because I wanted my baby back). On the way out of the restaurant I passed a middle aged black lady. Normally I might just smile or nod, but today I went a little further and just said “Hey there, how are you?” and she responded similarly. I didn’t save the world. I just tried to be friendly to someone different from me who may also be sad about the state of things.

Black vs African American? I don’t think there is a single white person that knows 100% for sure which way to say it. African American feels almost patronizing and black feels almost too informal. Who knows! I say that because I want to tell a funny story. I met a guy a couple years ago from the country of South Africa. He is “Afrikaans” and therefore white. (South Africa was colonized in the early 1800’s and there are a few million white Afrikaans speaking people there today.) I have been there and it is an amazing and beautiful country. Anyway, when I met this guy here in the US and discovered that he was from South Africa I asked how long he’d been here. He said he’d moved here nearly 20 years ago, got his citizenship, so he’s an African-American. I don’t know why that made me laugh so hard but it did. I guess it was the fact that he’s a very white guy with an Afrikaans (British sounding) accent claiming to be African-American haha.

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