RE: Rules about naming names - Part I - Very Long

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

I've pondered whether to join this discussion, but feel I can offer some

thoughts from a supplier's point of view that might provide a larger

picture. This aromatic community is a small one, spread across cyberspace

with no face-to-face interaction; we are perceived by what we write on lists

and also (sometimes unfortunately) by what others write about us. Gossip

abounds. I have always championed that gossip is good; it promotes

transparency, however the flip side is that facts often get distorted and it

seems to be human nature to embellish, sometimes to the absurd. Take the

rose otto story on Anya's blog (Which I have spoken to her about and she has

agreed to remove all reference to. After all, this list may be a closed,

private discussion in the eyes of the law, but a blog certainly is not.) I

know the full details of that story because I was the one who organized the

group buy. In Bulgaria the government controls the production as well as

the labs that verify and approve all Bulgarian rose otto distribution. It is

packaged in sealed metal cancuns (1 kilo ea) with the Bulgarian government

stamp of authenticity to assure compliance with quality standards. The

producer will send a representative sample before the deal is struck and the

sealing of the cancun is under the watch of the government. A few years

back, there was a great deal of corruption within the Bulgarian government

and bogus rose otto was sold after good samples were presented to customers.

No one knows exactly where the corruption originated, some think a

technician in the labs, which is logical. We had a very good year that year

and I (along with others in the buy) collectively invested approximately

$38K in rose otto. I was the one who received the sample (which was

authentic); I had it msgc tested and the sample passed muster. When our

cancuns arrived they weren't quite like others that we had received in the

past, rather more crude metal, but they were properly sealed and had the

government seal attached as usual. I send kilos in cancuns intact on to

those who had purchased one or more kilo, but didn't open the remainder to

rebottle immediately. One of those in this buy was Marge of Natures

Gift, who called me with her concerns upon opening her cancun. I

immediately opened one of ours and determined by odor quality alone that we

had not been sent the rose otto that was sent to us as a representative

sample. I called all others in the buy to have them send the product back

to me. None of this oil got into the marketplace. And no reputations were

damaged or ruined as a result of this as stated in Anya's blog; this

supposed 'fact' obviously got embellished as the gossipers reveled. It took

6 months to fully refund all monies to those in the buy, and I am grateful

for their patience. It took me over 2 years to get a small percentage of our

large investment as restitution from the original seller working through the

Bulgarian government.

Most essential oil sellers work diligently to develop mutual trust with

producers and their representatives around the world. This trust is

developed by trial and error. All producers require up front payment and

companies like mine have overly-large inventory investments because of the

seasonal aspect of essential oil production cycles, great amounts sit on our

shelves or in our coolers as prepaid inventory for longer than any

reasonable accountant would allow is good business. Most of us rebottle by

hand into retail sizes and this is a labor-intensive endeavor. We here at

SB have small table top electronic bottling equipment, which we use for

hydrosols, fixed oils and some less expensive essential oils. But would you

trust something as precious as rose otto, jasmine sambac, blue lotus or

saffron be relegated to a machine? We don't. All precious oils that are

thick, solid absolutes, concretes and waxes are difficult to work with,

measure and repackage. All very time consuming. In business, all time is,

unfortunately, money. I think sometimes comments are made here about the

prices charged by various sellers without knowing realistic information

regarding true costs, including purchase price (which is rising alarmingly

every year as production doesn't meet demand and supplies diminish), haz-mat

shipping costs, import, custom fees and duty, cost of containers, storage

and labor for rebottling along with marketing, advertising and other

overhead. Comparing seller to seller in this regard is sometimes like

comparing apples to oranges, especially depending on the original quantity

purchased by the seller and from which producer. Insurance costs are rising

sharply, as are federal, regional and local taxes. Even though the work of

bottling itself could be performed by minimum wage employees, many of us

hire knowledgeable, interested people who are vested in the holistic

aromatic concept and bring education and creative experience to the

workplace. Do we pay them minimum wage? I think not hardly.

To be continued . . .