Often when I broach the subject with you, the answer will surprise you. Can you imagine that I browse through an online catalog or the manufacturer's e-shop and just click, order and it will be delivered to me by itself, as we are used to in today's modern world. But the reality is a little different...
All the products that I physically have with us have passed through my hands at least 5 times, in Morocco and here. In Morocco, it still works a little differently, if they give you some advertising material somewhere, you already know that you are in a classy company, where you will also pay a nice extra. :) If someone offers you a catalog, a sophisticated business offer, you know that they are overbuying the products and the price will be many times higher. So if somewhere in the alleys of the souk you see carpets, pillows, ceramics, lights, everything perfectly arranged, gather inspiration there, please the eye and run quickly! This applies to Morocco, you will also find a little bit of everyone here, but please don't run away from us. :)
Many European sellers use so-called sales agents who select, buy, pack and send the products directly in Morocco. I knew from the beginning that this path would not be for me, I need to see the seller/manufacturer, how he communicates (even if I don't understand him, you can also learn a lot from non-verbal communication), what he is like, what products he has, touch them, the products, not the seller. We want to support and buy from people with hearts in the right place. In our photos, you can only see me and Adil, in reality, in Morocco, the whole family and friends are involved in the process, and in Morocco about 30 people help us with everything, even though we do a significant part ourselves, it wouldn't be possible without them and it belongs to them thank you very much and kiss from a distance.
If we need to add something, we simply have to go to Morocco, i.e. buy plane tickets, rent a car, luckily we have an apartment in Marrakesh that will at least save us money on accommodation and most importantly we have a space where we store the goods until the delivery arrives, otherwise I really don't know where we would store it all and we probably wouldn't be able to function.
Most people think of our regular trips to Morocco as a vacation, in fact we run like crazy, from workshop to workshop, inviting our skilled artisans for lunch, coffee, dinner and explaining to them that we would love to help them on their dream trip to of Europe, but that there is really nothing to worry about and they are having a really good time in their native country. We will pick up the products, no, no one will even deliver anything to our apartment address, we will pay, if we haven't already paid before they even started production - yes, everything in cash, in advance, otherwise they won't lift a finger, sometimes they won't lift a finger even if you pay them in advance, that's worse. So we're taking quite a bit of risk, deadlines are fundamentally not respected in Morocco and we have to pay everything in advance in cash. It has already happened to us several times that we spent hours choosing the right products, paid a deposit, after a few days when the order was supposed to be ready, we arrived, the workshop was closed, the guy was nowhere to be found, he didn't answer the phone, cool jazz.
Oh, our overdue invoices, we can only dream about them.
After we choose the products, pick them up, then take them away, store everything in our apartment, and at the end of the stay and at the end of our efforts, only the fun begins. PACKAGING....:) yes, no one will put anything in cartons or bubble wrap, it's all waiting for us. Between packing our suitcases before departure, we skip the kitchen unit, the sofa and the shower, the entire 2kk is put away and we start playing our favorite tetris, or how to pack it as best as possible to save space. Maybe I'll film that for you one day, our arguments and why I have to carry the heavy things and Adil's why you can't put things together in a systematic way is a script for a Moroccan soap opera.
Then we just pray that our nice friend, the driver, sleeps well and comes to load the goods, he doesn't swear too much that it all won't fit in the van, then we have nerves together at the Italian border, where they always charge us such fees that even our authorities didn't understand , what kind of payment is this, but I like Italy, so I take it as a charitable contribution to the development of the countryside and the maintenance of cities. If we were to use the services of transport companies, I believe that you would not even buy a bowl of olives from us, because the price would have to be about 5 times higher just because of the transport. Well, if everything goes well, I'll unwrap the carefully wrapped Tetris again in Brno and every time I curse who wrapped it so stupidly and needlessly carefully... Of course Adil, I'm a salami maker, he's a perfectionist, ying yang.
This article is really just a complaint, but we enjoy it, or we wouldn't be doing it. :) This is just a short summary of how it works in practice, which many of you really can't imagine. And that's why, thank you very much for every order, for every purchase, when after all that exhaustion, trouble, we see you, satisfied customers, then you suddenly forget about everything that preceded it. :)
THANK YOU!
The photo on the right is from the ground floor of the house, some of the goods could no longer fit in our apartment, so we had to pay security for a few days to look after it for us in the entrance hall.