Customs cleared a smaller shipment this afternoon, which contains only the small gift boxes of my dragon beard candy. These gift boxes contain 9 pieces of candy each, and the 18-piece boxes are still held up by the FDA.
It would have taken a miraculous feat of bureaucratic achievement for me to get my larger shipment, which contains sampling tubes, larger gift boxes, individual packages, the paper gift wrapping, the pretty shopping bags, or similar, until Monday or so.
My Hong Kong supplier just called me to find out if I got the shipment, and of course it hasn't quite cleared... She called FedEx to see if they could work another kind of miracle, but, alas, it wasn't possible.
Anyway, I have something to sell, so I won't have to go to the event empty-handed. I'll take requests for delivery by mail to anyone who wants bigger boxes... hopefully that will allow us to capture anyone who wants more...
I went through telephone training on how to use the phone authorization system for accepting credit cards. Now I'm all set... though a little lighter on inventory than I had hoped.
It's a disaster, but fortunately, I don't have to be completely embarrassed... Had nothing cleared by today, I would have walked into the show with pretty banners and no products. Now I can comfortably go to the festival without feeling stupid.