#CUPDATES | 2020 Luxey Wrap-Up by Sandra-Lea
Well, here we are!
At the end of December 2020 and we are all sorts of emotions. Danielle has asked me to write a few words to wrap up the year that would go down in history as one of our favourites and our greatest. I'll try to keep this shortish and hopefully won't bring up the C word. Yes, I promise not to talk about Cool Grey.
If they say growth spurts happen in your teens then I call BS. I say, our real-deal growth spurts happen when the shit really goes down. All year I couldn't help but think I was a piece of coal being compacted into what I hopefully would turn into a diamond. Come December, I am THE diamond.
In February, they said we couldn't leave our home which, look, was fine for us. Life would technically carry on as per normal since we lived in the warehouse. Next thing we knew, we had every long-lost fake friend calling asking if we'd be okay since the cafes stopped taking keep cups? And that our little business was doomed apparently. "Yeah yeah, we'll be fine" we'd say, it won't last long! (Cough Cough. At the time of writing this December 16th 2020, our cafe is still not accepting them and will be fined $1000 if the barista is caught touching a keep cup) I know, right! Imagine the stories we'll have.
Look, to be honest we didn't freak out - freak out, we just freaked out. Mainly on the inside. Aka, totally worried.
(insert here) Start thinking of a new business idea to make sure we don't starve to death in the huge warehouse we just moved into because reusable cups are extinct.
Along came May and she arrived as our biggest month to date. Four times what we'd ever done. It was nuts. Major feels of confusion, a lot of what the heck, surely this isn't what they predicted? This is a wild arse dream and just in case we don't wake up we better hire someone to help with what was turning out to be 'taming the monster that which is Luxey'.
The year continued on through a blur of preorders, zero stock and sell-out releases. Who knew one would need so many reusable cups to use in their own homes? While they self-quarantined?
We signed a lease on the warehouse next door because you could not fit another piece of silicone nor staff member into number 5 and Andy and his crazy messy desk just had to go. We put up beautiful signage and wait for it... opening hours on the door that customers might just walk through again! Just kidding. This was 2020 after all.
We birthed what we all know and love as the Staff Meeting. The only place to be at 7am for everything Luxey and SL's cyclic emotions. Who thought running a business would be so emotional and so many swear words would be required and tears would be shed just to get from Monday to Friday. You love it because you get all the feels but mostly because it really does make you feel like you have a place to go. The staff meeting is home, it's our home, it's your home and while the C word was happening around us we all were sitting around in the same room with no occupant limits.
We welcomed things like Sage and Dusty Girl, gosh, then there was our attempt as Rust and Mustard. 'The One' stole all our hearts and after 4.7 million requests, Strawberry is back in our lives. Florence will go down in history as the hardest bloody colour to photograph and Wild Child the one we most wanted to eat. Who would have thought rainbow ice cream coloured silicone would make our lives complete?
We upped our dispatch game by bringing in the biggest prettiest pink curved table you'd ever laid eyes on. Our wild crazy arse fantasy dream of dispatching 800 orders a day arrived 10 years earlier than we expected and while they are physical cups leaving the warehouse I don't feel like that's what you're really buying is it? There is only one explanation to why one person would need a collection so large of glass and silicone and that would be because it made her feel something, like she had something to be excited for and that made her feel a part of something much bigger than a cup.
We started the year posting in the Luxey Lounge but before long we moved from being contributors to mere spectators. The shares, the posts, the love, the friendships, the compassion, the gifts sent, the cup collections, the long winded answers for the new girls, the 'are you ok's?', the videos, and shit, did I say love? Lots of LOVE.
Sometimes when I lose my footing I will scroll through the Lounge and I'm reminded of why we do this. Again, this has NOTHING to do with the vessel and everything to do with the person holding it. I am constantly reminded by you to show up with an open-heart even when it's painful because by doing so you feel less alone or normal? I don't know, maybe you could answer that one.
This year we manifested not one, not two but SEVEN angels in our lives and the warehouses.
Danielle or Dan Dan, she's definitely the closest thing to meeting a real angel, for real life.
Jo Jo, her smile, her eyes and her enthusiasm for life (and Facebook ads) is intoxicating.
Aline, she is what you'd call home. She is home to me and I tell her everyday. The warehouse is lost without her in it.
Tyler, she's our very own Taylor Swift, like the real version, we could not live without her.
Tony, oh man. The boxes he has packed for you, ever so perfectly, with so much care paired with a personality to boot, again the warehouse is nothing without our Head Boxer.
Tommy or Tom. So solid, so clever and quietly doing all the epic shit that gives you all the Luxey tingles.
Megs, she completed our family this month. So competent, so pleasant.
Like I said to Andy last weekend and to them in the last team meeting "Your Mum's did a good job raising you all". Our team is what dreams are made from, a perfect Ying and Yang. I've never personally asked the team this question but I hope in my heart they love being here as much as love having them here. My only wish is Andy, myself and Luxey add value, love and strength to their lives too.
Phil, or Filo (Pastry) our local and much loved delivery guy went from driving a small beaten up old van to buying a brand-new van, double the size of his last to collect the Luxey parcels. While we'd never assume it, it's kinda nice to think that Luxey has perhaps improved his life too.
This year's harder seasons are my favourite though, I am in love with the person I am constantly pushed into being, so much of my own evolving happen this year and while I don't always love the software downloads sometimes they hurt like hell, there is no doubt they are all here, happening in perfect timing. I hope that's something that can become beautifully ingrained in your beliefs too.
2020 will go down as the richest, warmest, happiest years of our lives because of you. Because of the girls. Our Girls.
I can not wait to do another trip around the sun with each and everyone of you. I want to know you better, I want to be better for you and I want to do better.
Happy New Year Angels.
Sandra-Lea, Andy, Honor and Haven.