Mariner Jack Captains Log #10.
Finally getting a chance to update our blog! Apologies for the MIA, Christmas in the beard world is non-stop! Anywho, we are getting back into the normal day to day swing of things around the Mariner Jack port.
We are constantly humbled with the ever increasing list of fantastic Barber Shops and online stores wishing to stock our products. When we started this adventure 15 months ago, people actually wanting our products in their shops was a pipe dream! The fact that the people who know this industry, know that many products are cheaper than ours and yet, are still willing to stock us is amazing. They understand the quality that comes from hand crafting a product.
When you hand make a product, it's not perfect. A machine will stick a label on dead straight every single time, will dispense the same concoction of ingredients again and again until someone presses an off button. Reliable yes, but a machine cannot impart a sense of craftsmanship in the items it makes. A machine made product cannot post an instagram photo of the process, knife in hand slicing shea butter for beard balms. It cannot show the time, effort and endless cups of coffee!
When someone can hold one of our oils or balms in their hands and passionately talk about it without even thinking, without struggling to think of something other than 'some company makes it', I know we've got it right.
Our stockist list is ever growing as the word spreads about our products. 'Once people try them in store, it sells itself' is one of my favourite quotes. It drives home that these products aren't, and never will be available in the high street chains. We want to work with likeminded independent businesses to raise the overall quality of hair products. There's so much pristine, white and black bottles with gold calligraphy writing sitting on the shelves.
We love that our products are different, you won't often see proper old school glassware in the industry anymore. Partly due to advances in plastics over the years, mostly unfortunately, it's because of cost. A glass jar can cost 10x more than a plastic one. If you are mass producing then sure, that could add up to a significant chunk of profit loss. For us though, you can't beat a proper glass jar or bottle. It exudes quality and class in a way nothing else does.
Being handmade has more advantages than just quality. We can work from home, we have our blending room many of you would have seen in photos. No noisy machinery and having to store masses of ingredients. We never buy in more than we need, not only does this ensure freshness of the ingredients but it also means there's no massive warehouse costs to store it all. That means we don't have to charge the earth to cover more costs like the massive companies do.
Please do not confuse this blog post for a rant, although we can totally understand if it has come across like that. This blog post is about explaining in simple terms how shopping with small, independent companies has its rewards. Sure it may cost £1-£2 more, but you'll know from the start that the products you are getting are significantly better. That order you place with us helps feed our family and keep a roof over our head. It won't go to some CEO to buy his second Mercedes or third holiday home in Lanzarote.
This is a journey, it will never be a sprint. If you wish to join us as a stockist of Mariner Jack.
please email hello@marinerjack.com.
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