UGH what a day at the tea house.
You may have heard by now that we did have a break-in at the tea house this morning. There are three major inconveniences we're dealing with because of this:
1) They busted our front doorframe, so we have to get a whole new door. This is going to be super expensive, but we're hoping the city grant program for exactly this kind of thing will cover it. Insurance won't, as our gen liability coverage just lapsed with our longtime brokers and they've stopped covering agricultural import companies. We're in the process of signing on with a new insurance company and this happened in the couple of weeks where we had no coverage. Because of course it did.
2) They stole our safe, which had a bit of cash but was also temporarily holding some new checkbooks I hadn't yet moved, so now our accounts are frozen to prevent fraud while we fill out the mountains of paperwork and get a whole damn new checking account. I can't order product or pay vendors for a couple of days while this gets sorted, so I'll be behind on even more admin. Ugh.
3) The building management has encouraged us to install a rolling window/door cover and upgrade our security system. The city does have a grant program to cover up to $6k worth of security upgrades as well, so we're hoping that'll cover a lot. If we need to crowdfund a bit, I'll let y'all know. We've had a ton of offers on that front, so good to know the option exists for anything the city won't cover.
Regular tea shop service hasn't been interrupted, but you better believe my boss lady desk just got even more crushing and overwhelming.
Support is appreciated in the form of cheerleading, food delivery gift cards, and spreading the word about your fave tea company to keep our revs flowing while we weather this!
Besos besos besitos, we <3 you!
Oh, and PS Oh, and obvi if you just love throwing money at us but you don't need more tea right now, we have The Donation Link open.