Good News! The ZOO is now scheduled to clear customs in Detroit sometime next week commencing 1/24/22
After some serious confusion on my part and long shipping delays, we expect to be able to ship either next week or very soon the week after.
If you’re on our mailing list (form opposite) you will be informed when our website is open to receive orders.
If the final shipping cost is close to the original quote, we expect to offer The ZOO to our waiting list customers at $149.00 But this may change.
Thanks for your patience and meanwhile stay safe.
John Chisholm
LIttlezookeepers
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Our Supply Chain Story.
There’s such poor understanding of how inter-connected the world is today, that I love to tell the story of how The ZOO reaches your home. First a bit of background. When we made The ZOO in our US workshop, we were able to say it was Made In America because it had more than 45% American content. That content was mostly my labor. The wood came from Russia and most of the hardware from China or Taiwan. Some parts were made in America from imported raw materials. Why did the wood come from Russia? It was because no North American plywood manufacturers make the high quality multilayer grade of playwood we demanded.
When I could no longer keep pace with production we turned to China. No US manufacturer would make the complete item let alone at an affordable cost. My daughter and I visited the factory in China to make sure that it was up to standard both environmentally and in relation to their employees. What we found was amazing. A modern factory using the latest equipment, mainly German. All the board products, except plywood, came from North America. All the solid wood for things like table legs, came from New Zealand.
When our container is ready, it’s transported to Canada on an Israeli ship. (ZIM Lines). In Vancouver it’s loaded onto a train, crosses into the US and ends up in Detroit. Here it clears customs and is transported to our storage area. From there on it’s distributed to our customers by services such as FedEx and USPS. All our advertising dollars, insurance fess and so on go to American companies too.
The Chinese work far longer hours but wages and benefits are continually improving. We have experienced exceptional customer service and attention to detail. We see ourselves as part of the international community and are also proud to be supporting the planet through our Endagered Species Fund. Sad to say, that many of the animals in yout kid’s zoo may no longer exist in the wild by the time they become adults. There are already more tigers in captivity in the US alone than remain in their natural environment.