Here is another picture taken during my holiday, with my i-phone, as I did not want to carry my Nikon with me all the time and as I did not want to transport the camera on my bike. I took it in the one and only church that we visited and had a look at from the inside: The Good Shepherd cathedral in San Sebastian. It is not an old church, but yet looks more “gothic” than many old gothic church that was treated with a baroque decoration program.

I like the picture for the lights effects (again). It is not really important what goddess or person is in the back (it is Maria holding baby Jesus). There are colored light reflections on the floor, coming from the colored glass windows. There is a thin line of light around the column to the left and there is the yellow light around the mother holding her baby. It is as if the colors on the floor, the lively pattern, the light  sparkles, emanate from the statue.

Of course, they don’t. But it looks like.

So, what’s up in tauerville today besides looking sentimentally at pictures that I took in my vacation? For one I need to pack air du désert marocain and prepare orders for retailers. This means besides putting the air du désert marocain into metal boxes, and then in cardboard boxes and all in another cardboard box: Making shipment and customs papers and prepare the invoices for later payment. I am still using an excel file for the invoices. The shipment papers are done online: Super fast and efficient. Getting the papers done properly: The first step in a series of many steps in perfume logistics.

Talking logistics: I personally have my own, very personal rating of countries and regions. It is based on what experience we make when shipping things. The US have a high rating, like triple A, on my private rating. Shipment with customs in between and everything around it works. Effectively and fair.

Germany gets something like a A-B rating as sometimes the German customs goes havoc and demands commercial invoices for single samples. Yes, they do. The commercial invoice is a one page document with some information such as custom tariff numbers, country of origin, an official statement declaring values etc., and a person needs to sign it. This is the reason why we mostly ship orders to Germany with a commercial invoice.

Italy gets a BB minus rating with negative outlook as the postal service as well as customs is on one hand dysfunctional and the other hand totally out of control. A 7 ml purse spray of a fragrance for instance might have 2 months from Switzerland to Italy, gets a “sanitary inspection” in between by some institution within Italy (paid for by the recipient) and will be delivered only if you are lucky. Imagine you have a company located in Italy, and need to wait 2 months for a sample. Shipment with courier does not really help either.

This is one of the reasons why we do not ship to Italy. And this why I was looking for a distribution partner within Italy. Shipment with a truck and through a distributor works fine.

There are funny results in my personal logistics rating, too. We shipped to Adis Ababa, repetitively, without troubles, with a few days delivery times: Triple A for Ethiopia?