Mr. & Mrs. Salt get COVID [email sent 11-20-20]

The Salt Co. Diaries
If this is your first Salt Co. diary.. You'll want to read this before you go any further...
If you missed my last email about the vibrator box of salt products we shipped across the country, you might want to read that one, too. 
[Britni] Turns out TikTok wasn't the only thing that recently went viral for the little Salt Company......


Here is how shit went down this week:
Phase one: Get notification while at work that Casey was exposed to a COVID positive person 3 days prior.
Phase two: Tell everyone at Salt Co. immediately. Transparency is always the best policy. Test pending. Begin quarantine/isolation with our children immediately. Implement strict policies at Salt Co. Only one person working in a room at a time, and all the other hand wash-y, social distance-y, disinfect-y stuff. Notify others we were in contact with (luckily, very few).
Phase three: receive the phone call that Casey's test for COVID was, in fact, positive. Shut down Salt Co. Inform staff they can return to work once they have a negative COVID test..
It has been a long, stressful week. To say the least.
You'll NEVER guess how we were exposed.. No, we haven't been perfect COVID quarantine-ers since March.. It has been an interesting year living in rural Alaska where we have had very, very low numbers of COVID cases (even a 40 day streak this summer without any cases at all)..

BUT with recent rising numbers we have been taking things more seriously. We made our small circles smaller, had just canceled Thanksgiving plans with our relatives in Anchorage and pretty much just work 24-7 anyway.. Not a lot of time for socializing, eating out or attending raves.

Anyway..

Casey has had a long standing agreement with a buddy that if either of them kill a moose during the hunting season, that the other would help process it and that both families would share the meat. What do you know, our friend murdered a moose this year and Casey showed up to help slaughter it all up into bite sized pieces.. then..

BAM. COVID.

Yep, helped a friend chop-chop a moose in the middle-of-nowhere-Alaska aaaannnnd.... caught a case of the COVID.. fuck. FUCK!!!

THE MOST ALASKAN FUCKING WAY TO GET THIS BULLSHIT SICKNESS EVER!!
Not amoosed is putting it lightly.

FREAKING THE FUCK OUT is a little more on point.

1st thing to freak out about: my children and my husband have been exposed to this virus that we don't know much about. Snuggling my sweet baby daughter last night, I felt scared for the first time. Yes, most people recover just fine. We will most likely be just fine. But if you're a mom, holding your kids who have COVID and you aren't a little scared for them.. well good on ya. That's not me though. We thought for a second that one of our kids had a fever today and I almost puked from stress.. turns out it was a false read, had 10 normal reads after that and confirmation from a second thermometer.. my point is.. as a mom, this is scary. It is NOT like a cold, that we know our kids will be fine from.. It's COVID.. it's new and it's the juiciest topic in generations, something that has felt so far away from me in my little safe haven of small town Alaska, that is suddenly inside my home.. No longer a thrilling rumor but a stark reality that has stunk up my home and business.

2nd thing to freak out about: Casey and I went to work for 1.5 days between the exposure and knowing we were exposed.. SHIT! Salt Co. staff, the orders. The sales. The Salt. Payroll. OMG. Staff health and safety are number 1 prio always, obviously, but a big part of how we decide to move forward HAS to include how to protect the jobs of our staff. We cannot simply shut down, then continue to pay our staff - it's not that simple, we are a TINY company and we don't have hefty reserves of money for a rainy day.. We are building a business from the ground up...
There are SO many things to consider here. We are shut down at the moment, but our gears are turning for the safest way to resume operations. Currently waiting for staff test results.. 

3rd thing to freak out about: Our customers. Obviously, if you have an order in with us right now, it's gonna be a minute. and I am sincerely sorry. We were already backed up from the Tiktok burst.. but after this kick in the balls from COVID it's going to take us a minute to get up on our feet. 
As I write this, no one in my home has any symptom other than a stuffy nose. For this, I am so incredibly grateful. I hope like hell it stays this way. I know our business management problems are puny compared to those who are losing or who have lost family members to this horrific virus. 

I am simply sharing my experience in all of this madness. The experience that is unique to me but likely relatable to many of you. Things could always be worse, I know this. It doesn't change the fact that Casey and I have some seriously grown-up decisions to make, and fucking quickly. It's not easy and I don't take any one of these decisions lightly. 
We are coming up on the most important week for online businesses..

Black Friday. Small Business Saturday. Cyber Monday.

We had REALLY FUCKING COOL PLANS FOR THIS WEEK. [insert white girl sobbing emoji]. 

fuck. fuck. fuck. fuck. FUCK COVID.

Which reminds me.. I've been saying "Fuck COVID" a lot recently. Turns out COVID was like:

"Fuck me? Girl... FUCK YOU!"
 
Which, I imagine it will continue to do, without mercy, for the next several weeks. 
 
So. Here we are diary. I'm freaking out. Trying to make reasonable, safe decisions for my family and staff. I want to keep everyone safe, not lay off any staff, and get everyone their salt in a timely manor. A lofty fucking goal at this point. 

If you're wondering about reserves we might have as a result of our new "TikTok Burst", well, we pulled the trigger on some new salting equipment before we knew about all this.. Which was supposed to be some exciting news to break to all y'all. 

I want to go to work.. and my mind is spinning with: transmission from surfaces is unlikely.. If I go in alone and pack orders, then let the orders sit a couple days before someone takes them to the Post Office, is that bad? Am I putting anyone at risk of being infected? Scientifically, no. Casey and I alone could keep Salt Co. running in a big way.. if no one else is there.. are we putting anyone at risk of being exposed? We don't know what the fuck to do. So, for tonight, I'm writing in my weird email diary that goes to over 18k people, admitting I don't know what to do because, I don't know what else to do. [insert dear diary emoji]

We WILL get through this.. in every single way... Our family will be ok, our staff will be ok and our business will be ok, too. We just have to roll with the punches.. and honestly, writing this email is kind of how I process a lot of it. 

Guarantee you this.. I should have some interesting material in the coming days. 
This, I promise, is not a marketing email. It's a fucking Salt Co. diary - as promised. A real time account of our actual experience..... I am here to keep you informed...

However, I have the following things to say about our sales because I know there will be questions:

1. If you don't ask for a refund on your current order because it is taking us *forever to fulfill it, that would be a heroic move in my opinion. A job saving move, actually.

2. If you put in an order today, well, I have no fucking idea when we can get it to you but I promise you we will get it to you as soon as we possibly can. We've been working around the clock for you guys and this *quarantine is absolutely fucking killing me. Again, a job saving move on your part.

3. If you were already planning to give the gift of salt for Christmas this year, I'd go ahead and put that order in right meow. I will not guarantee it will be delivered in time at this point, because who the fuck knows anything about *anything, but I give you my word we will do everything within our ethical power to make it happen. We are making to order at this point, so the sooner we know what all we need to make, the more efficiently we can make it all happen. 

4. If you are still reading this sob-festival, thank you for hanging in there. 

* FUCK YOU COVID
I am a little lost in all of this but one thing is for sure. ALL WEEK one of my main thoughts was "wtf are we going to say in the email"... because I sincerely love you guys. You've kept our business, in business, and we work for you. I'm keeping things transparent and straight forward, per usual because I know no other way.

So here it is.. the "we have fucking COVID" email.. One I never wanted to have to send... But would never keep secret because I tell all in this strange email diary... 

I love you guys. Stay safe out there. Stay healthy. and God-Dammit... take your vitamins.

Sincerely [and sniffly],
Britni (the salt lady)
No. I didn't forget your discount code.. But I feel bad even putting this here because it is NOT a marketing email.. it's an honesty moment.. But, at the same time, I'd feel bad if someone bought something for the Holidays and didn't have a discount code, so I am putting it here, safely at the bottom for those who need/want it. 

Get 15% off of your next order (that will come who-the-fuck-knows-when), with discount code:

VIRALMOOSE

Offer ends 11-25-20 at 11:59 pm AK time..

click this link if you're too lazy to type "VIRALMOOSE" in, like I would be:

https://alaskasaltco.com/discount/VIRALMOOSE
Signing off at 12:58 am ALASKA TIME.. and going to get some sleep. Not setting an alarm.. resting my body for the days to come. 

Night Y'all.
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