UPDATE: There is no longer a threat of strike with Canada Post and ALL orders began shipping as usual starting Monday, July 11th.

We have been getting a few messages about the Canada Post lock out / strike so I thought I would post about it here. I will cover all the details so that everyone understands what to expect in regards to Mally Designs during this time. Below are a few FAQ's:

What shipping destinations will be affected by this?

All of Canada will be affected. Please note that we have a plan in place for shipping to the United States and internationally and there will be no disruption of orders shipping to these areas. Orders shipping within Canada may result in delayed delivery if ordered after Monday June 27th and Tuesday June 28th for BC. Prior to that we will be working some magic to get your orders out to you prior to the strike. 

Is it possible to pick up mallydesigns.com orders?

Yes, absolutely. For local customers, we are offering pick-ups at our studio in Mission, BC. I understand that this not convenient for everyone in our local area, so here is a complete list of pick up locations we will be offering:

• Mission - Mally Designs Studio (any day / time)
• North Vancouver - Deep Cove (Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings)
• Vancouver - Jericho Beach (Every other Thursday starting July 7th)
• Chilliwack - Cultus Lake Main Beach (Every other Wednesday starting June 29th)
• Whistler - Farmer's Market, upper village (most Sundays as shown here)

We will be at many of these locations for our own personal events. As a family we participate in paddleboard races at these locations throughout the summer, so we thought we would arrange pick ups at these locations. To pick up, please enter ORDERPICKUP in the coupon code section during checkout. You will save the shipping and we will contact you to determine your best meeting time and place based on the locations mentioned above. This option is also available to our wholesale customers.

What happens if I order during the strike and my shipping destination is in Canada?

We will handle these orders case by case. After you order, we will email you within 24 hours and ask which option you prefer. If you are in our region we will offer pick up at one of our pick up locations. If you are near a border and ship to the United States like many online shoppers do, we can re-direct your order to your US address of choice, or you can choose to upgrade your shipping to a courier shipping price which we can quote. You may also wait for your order until after the strike, or choose to cancel / refund your order. 

Will Mally Designs offer courier service?

At this time we have decided not to offer courier shipping through our website due to the fact that the courier prices are just not feasible for most customers. We are not going to be adjusting our shipping prices to offer this option, however if we have customers that do wish to pay more for courier service, please contact us and we will be happy to send quotes based on your order.

How will the Canada Post lockout affect Mally Designs?

We went through this 5 years ago and honestly, we survived just fine. I know a lot of small shops within my networking circles are panicking right now. It is an inconvenience for sure. As a small business we rely on customers placing orders and our Canada Post postal service to ship our orders to our customers. With the majority of our customer base in Canada, we hope it doesn't last too long for an agreement to be made and shipping service to resume. We have upgraded a few shipments going all the way to the east coast of Canada to xpresspost, at our expense, just to be sure it got there leading up to the strike. We are thankful that this strike is happening now, and not during our holiday sales period of November / December when our sales increase significantly.

What is Mally Designs doing to prepare?

Having been through this before we know that yes, there will be a small dip in sales, but our customers were so amazing and understanding. I don't think we had one single complaint due to the order delays. To our surprise, customers kept ordering and they understood that it would take until the strike was over for their order to ship. That said, we will not be directing our social media and online advertising, etc. to our Canadian customers as much, but we will shift to our US and international customer base. We will be contacting our wholesale customers and stockists in the United States for example to keep our production and sales rolling during this time.

How will Mally Designs make the most of this?

We have decided to focus on some tasks that have been lingering for quite some time. We are always so busy filling and shipping orders, but now we will finally have the chance to refresh our website, work on some design work, product development and collaborations. We are looking forward to taking this slower time to do those things because before we know it, our crazy season will be here! It will be a nice break from the usual hustle, but believe me we will be jumping for joy the moment Canada Post's service resumes, and all orders will be ready and waiting. :) 

I guess, all in all it won't be so bad. We are extremely positive people and we know we will get through it. The worst case scenario is a few less people will get to experience this for the next little while: