A Tea-ful Happy Ending

This is absolutely an instance of the power of social media. The case of the missing tea that was picked up in Paris early November has been solved. After I posted about our missing Mariage Freres order on our social media channels on Sunday, I received so many helpful tips and words of encouragement from so many folks who follow along. One being from a woman in Portland whose husband works for a freight company who had a long list of questions regarding our situation as well as a few ideas. But the message I received from our friend Sarah was the one that got the ball rolling. Her background includes event planning on an international scale. She knows her way around a packing slip and loves a challenge. She said to me, “Let me take a crack at this, I know you are swamped right now.” Little did I know what good sleuthing skills she had! We have had a global freight forwarder who I have worked with for 20 years completely drop the ball and sad to say, became completely useless in helping find this pallet of tea after it had cleared customs in Seattle. Which is their job! Our friend Sarah, who knows little to nothing about this freight forwarding world was ruthless in combing over the paperwork, making calls, making more calls, following up on those calls, and within 24 hours her vehicle, which luckily is quite large, was filled with our unpacked pallet of tea! The photo is with Sarah after we unloaded the boxes in front of the shop last night. So there you have it. The power of friendship, folks chipping in to help out, and a ‘can do’ attitude—a pretty awesome trio. Needless to say, our shelves will be once again brimming with tea. Cheers to you Sarah!