“COVID consciousness a stream of thoughts through a viral pandemic lockdown
By Andy McConkey
But if it does, what will happen…? A delay to
production, and getting that big preorder to the
National Trust won’t happen on time. Not a good start
for a new customer! And preorders for our schools will
be a disaster. We’ve given them guaranteed delivery
dates, with penalties. A delay would be bad for our
reputation, but will also wipe out any margin on those
deals. Still, it’s not really going to happen is it. Hmm.
Maybe we should take out insurance on those delay
penalties? But actually, who would underwrite that
risk? Na. No point, we’d end up being shafted by the
insurers anyway.
Wow. Never wanted to go on a cruise ship anyway. But
definitely don’t now. Give me a paddleboard and
distance from other people any day.
Well coronavirus has been a bit of a thing hasn’t it? It’s
made the SUP world, amongst many others, go a bit
topsy turvy in the last six months. As McConks, we feel
like we’ve been put through the spin cycle several times
since January, and to give you a flavour of what a SUP
brand goes through, we’ve captured our internal
monologue over the period…
February 2020
Ha! Another bloody virus from China. No doubt another
SARS or MERS. These things are always overblown. One
day a nasty one will come, but what’s the likelihood it’s
this one? Zero. But what if…? Na. Don’t panic. Despite
what the Daily Fail says, this isn’t affecting us.
But actually, we’ve got a load due for production
straight after Chinese New Year spring break. Production
after spring break is always delayed. It never goes
smoothly at the best of times – workers always find a
reason not to get back south. And will COV2 make
things even slower? Surely not. Still, at least we know
our factory looks after their workers, gives them leave
and looks after them if they’re ill. We sure as hell pay a
premium to use them, but times like this make you
remember why. But I do worry about Harry. He never
seems to take leave. But it’s his factory. So his choice I
guess. Amazing work ethic and so goddamn
professional, but I couldn’t work his hours.
Thankfully, all of our suppliers are in southern China,
and it sure as hell ain’t gonna get far out of Wuhan. And
at least in Guangzhou, air quality is tightly measured
and controlled, unlike the northern factories. That
tighter control makes me a little more confident that
biosecurity hazards are better understand than
amongst some of the cowboy factory zones!
March 2020
This Italy thing doesn’t look good. Surely it’s only a
matter of time now. They’ve already exported it to dozens
of countries, and it’s ski season! All those people in
chalets and gondolas. Urghh! If you can smell the garlic
three metres away, surely the virus is travelling that far.
Lots of our customers like winter sports. Wonder if any of
the instructors are going to find themselves stuck in the
Alps for a while? We don’t sell much in Europe, so it
shouldn’t affect our sales too much. That’s even if we get
the new container; paddles are behind schedule, pumps
are weeks behind schedule. Thankfully the SUPs are on
schedule, but they’re not much use without bags, pumps
and paddles. We can’t fly things in and it makes sense to
have everything in the carton up front, otherwise our
pick-up costs increase with border checks, and heaven
knows we make little enough margin as it is. How the hell
some of these brands can sell for £400 or less I don’t
know. Some corners have to be cut. But they get people
on the water, and that’s no bad thing. However, someone
is losing out somewhere. Whether that’s workers or the
environment, or both, who knows?
Hold the front page, the SUPs are now behind schedule.
Let’s hope there’s not an early season rush! Wonder
what the weather will be like? Early season totally
depends on the weather. We’re probably due a good one.
And we’ll miss it.
Wow. Things are looking pretty bad in London now.
Hospitals being overwhelmed with COVID-19. It all
sounds quite scary. What are the chances of London
being locked down like France and Italy? Must happen
surely? What can we do to help? Hmmm…
Lockdown. Total. Only allowed out for exercise one hour a
day, medicines and to go the shops. We’d already closed
the shop to take some of the strain off border. Their
contract with NHS and bulk food suppliers is obviously
s t a n d u p p a d d l e m a g u k 6