'A colossally stupid idea'

The call came in first thing in the morning:

“Mr. Moore? We have an update on your container of bags. Customs and Border Patrol are holding them.”

“Got it. Did they give an ETA on when they’ll release them?”

A pause.

“That’s not really how they work.”

I was a few months into an experiment in global logistics – one that some in my life called “a stupid idea,” and others called “a colossally stupid idea.”

The experiment was this: Could I contract directly with an overseas manufacturer to produce and ship a container’s worth of branded paper bags?

And, presumably, do so without running afoul of any three-letter government agencies?

(We’ll pick up that story – which touches on the never hotter topic of tariffs – another day.)

The experiment had been born out of sheer frustration. While working as a purchaser for a 100-unit restaurant chain that bought, among other things, paper bags, I watched as our “secure” supply of logoed bags suddenly ran out during the Covid-induced supply-chain crunch. 

No time table was given for when logoed bags would be produced again. In the meantime, we were subbed liquor-store grade generic brown bags. SAD!

We scrambled to find an alternate supplier. Most claimed they didn’t have capacity, or they gave a 16-week lead time, or they wanted to charge an arm and a leg. 

A dangerous thought occurred: perhaps I could bypass a few steps on the supply chain and design and produce a logoed bag myself.

Perhaps the products could be made as affordable as possible by keeping overhead ridiculously low, and by removing some of the less “value-add” links in the supply chain.

Perhaps I could work with a dialed-in cofounder to leverage some of the genuinely groundbreaking technologies that have been developed over the past few years… so we could create a supply company that looks a bit more 2025 than 1965.

There’s much more to this story, obviously, which will be shared in future emails.

For now, we’ll leave it at this: bringing a modern refresh to a legacy industry is not easy! But we’re making progress.

PS: We sell excellent, affordable 8-lb and 12-lb branded bags. Reach out for a quick quote + some lovely samples.