So this, my dear friends, is our dramatic story, and I am begging you — BRIBING YOU WITH A DISCOUNT, EVEN — to consider pre-ordering instead of navigating away. If you choose to pre-order, you'll know every step in your magnets' journey. I will keep you abreast of every dramatic update in their saga. And we'll have a tracker so you'll know exactly where your magnets are. And right now, they're in jail.

Today is Monday, October 12, and the last 72 hours have been a high stakes, life-or-death emotional roller coaster at the Mighty and Bright warehouse.

Okay, that's a wee dramatic.

But I am a single mom who is fully supported by my small business, and I did get an email that made my blood run cold in the middle of Trivia Night with six of my neighbors.

Here's what happened.

At Mighty and Bright, the company I started thirteen years ago, we periodically get big influxes of orders. That's always really exciting! I literally (and I mean this literally, like I literally mean literally) whisper "thank you" every time an order comes in. 

Variable amounts of orders also make planning how many to buy of each of our products a little hard.

I knew we were cutting it close with our order of magnets, especially when they got delayed at the factory. When they were finished, I made up for lost time by having five boxes shipped by air, and the rest by sea. We would have PLENTY of time, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

So last Thursday evening I went to trivia night with my neighbors. 

Our magnets should have been on the sea. I imagined them coasting merrily along, probably enjoying a nice breeze, getting close to Los Angeles, where they were looking forward to drinking a matcha before hitching a ride with FedEx to Oregon.

Then, after an especially rousing round of trivia focused on British cars, I checked my email and LEARNED SOME VERY BAD NEWS.

Our magnets were not nearing Los Angeles. There was no sea breeze.

My guy Colin in China, who very responsibly handles my shipping, regretfully informed me that the magnets HAD NOT EVEN LEFT CHINA. Customs held the container, removed everything from it (including our magnets), inspected every box, and was (very slowly) reloading it.

So instead of merrily sailing along, our magnets were not even on a ship and there was no indication of when they'd even board a ship.

One of the great joys of modern small business ownership is that you can literally check the status of anything at any time. So, from the bathroom of the trivia bar, I verified that we only had enough magnets to make it a week.

Which means that a small business nightmare was about to unfold: we would be

OUT.

OF.

STOCK.

We'd have nothing to sell, and it'd be weeks (a.k.a. A LIFETIME in American culture) until this problem would resolve.

So here it is, Monday afternoon, and it turns out we did not have a week of stock. After packing this morning's orders, we have seventeen packs of magnets. 

Scratch that, we just got an order.

We have fifteen packs of magnets.

Now, things could be worse. The magnets are coming. They're loaded back into the container. Colin will send me an email tonight while I stress watch Tell Me Lies with an update about whether they'll be loaded onto the ship that leaves in two days, or if they'll have to catch the next one.

Either way, you guys, I paid for the fast boat, not the slow boat (fat lot of good that did, LOL), so they won't be on the ocean for five weeks, just three and a half.

So this, my dear friends, is our dramatic story (still unfolding), and I am begging you — BRIBING YOU WITH A DISCOUNT, EVEN — to consider pre-ordering instead of navigating away. If you choose to pre-order, you'll know every step in your magnets' journey. I will keep you abreast of every dramatic update in our saga right here. We'll have a tracker so you'll know exactly where your magnets are.

Right now, of course, they're in jail. But soon, that'll change.

Thanks for your patience with a small business. We have the best customers ever.