Impending Canada Post Workers Strike

Canada Post workers are set to potentially go on strike early July *- I think I've heard July 2nd, but what do I know. This is bad news for me because I've recently ordered a watering can in the shape of an elephant (the water comes out of its trunk!) for Caleb. It's shipping from the US and due to arrive mid-July, which might be right in the middle of the strike. Jon told me to just go with the generic watering cans - no rain spout, long delivery time from the US, potentially very, very long delivery time, cost 3x as much as a regular one for an adult - but as soon as I saw the elephant... But I'm sure the real question for most of you is how will this strike affect our outgoing shipments? The short answer is we're not too sure yet. We're busy trying to keep everything crossed that there won't even be a strike! However, we've been busy looking at other carriers just in case. We're hoping to keep things moving along the best we can! Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Other carriers may not be able to ship to rural destinations, or it may be completely exorbitant, and we may not be able to sustain the cost of that. In either case, we'll let you know what's going on and see what we can do.
• Some other carriers also cannot ship to PO boxes.

We very likely will have a bumpy road to setting up a new carrier, and we, as always, know that you guys are patient and willing to bear with us as we try our best. We will not be increasing shipping rates unless the strike goes on for a long time. We've been absorbing the extra costs of our Canada Post shipping, but private carriers will be more expensive. Right now, we're forecasting some increase for a little while, and hoping that things will right themselves before too long. As we see how much packages are costing, we may have to make some changes (i.e. increase the cost of shipping). I read an article on how Canada Post may be shooting itself in the foot, with this strike. Small businesses (like us) will have to look at other carriers (like we are doing now) in order to continue to stay alive - trust me when I say not being able to ship orders online for even a few days can be huge to a business as small as ours. Once we overcome the hurdle of getting set up and learning a new system and routine, we might never come back. That's not to say we're never coming back! You know me and how much I love the whole notion of the postal system and dropping off love letters in red boxes and having them magically appear days later and provinces away. It's just a thought to think about. I think this may be another argument for making Canada Post an essential service, as it really, really detrimentally affects small businesses like ours. In any case, if you've got any snail mail waiting to get out, now's the time. If you have any parcels that are really urgent you can always pay a bit more to go with a private company like FedEx or Canpar, but snail mail is a bit tougher. Within Canada or internationally, you should be sending letters out today or tomorrow, or at the latest Monday - internationally, of course, as long as it exits the country and into the hands of the receiving country's post before the strike, your letter will make it to its destination just fine. It's times like these that I regret not having the electronic contacts of some of my penpals, so at least just this once I could legitimately blame a long response time on something other than me procrastinating. At the very least, an extremely thin silver lining is that our train trip out west is planned for the end of July - far enough away that if the strike does happen and we need to set something up, we have enough time to make sure everything is in place and rolling on wheels before we head out. If the strike was timed to happen right when we were going on our trip, I think we might have had to cancel the whole thing. And who knows! Maybe if you're in Toronto, or coming to the city for a trip, it'll be a good time for an in-store pick-up, to check out our shop and say hello!   *As a side note, I just love how the article uses the word "alarmist" with quotation marks. It literally makes me laugh out loud to think that Canada Post doesn't want to be "alarmist" in telling everyone that there may be no mail delivery, which could mean no elephant watering can, but in a serious way, could really affect how small businesses and their owners and their employees can afford to continue to put dinner on the table. But the real priority is, you know, making sure they're not being "alarmist" or anything.