Encounter of the best and the not so good

Those past days I have been zigzaging like a bee in search of flowers with Sophie The Giraffe, Chan, Pi and Gnon in tow. Except that I was not looking for honey but for homes for Sophie & friends. I had a list of stores to go to and all were expecting me. All were quite allright on the phone too. Only a very few of them had heard of Sophie HaGirafa before.

Armed with a  friendly smile, a laptop and a huge bag I greeted every store-owner and was ready to make my speech and answer their questions.
Overall the response was good: most are willing to give Sophie a chance but with only small amounts to start with because they do not know how it will sell. Fair enough! Sophie Hagirafa is not an household name. I give all of them cute brochures to help them remember what is so special about Sophie and her 3 mushroom cousins and a poster to put in their window. This is how we concluded our meeting both sides happy ( I hope!)

But I must say that a couple of store-owners really stand out in my mind. And not to their benefit. It  reminds me of the teacher who always says he remembers the very best and the very worse of his students. Well I have not had the pleasure of meeting my "very best" customer yet but I certainly did meet the very worse so to speak.
They had a similar attitude: borderline arrogance mixed with a narrow mind. You must understand, I know some store-owners will never be interested in Sophie & co for various reasons such as costs, appeal of the toys, similar toy range etc...and that is totally legitimate and we will part our ways in very polite even friendly terms... like Mister M. who wrecked his mind to find more stores for me to visit as his was not suitable. I will always remember him fondly and one day hopefully will drop by to say hi!
But those .... well I even wondered why they wanted me to come!!!!!!!  Clearly a waste of time for them... less for me because that is part of the job.
Basically they were not interested in my presentation, they had decided from the start, as soon as I held up Sophie that I am bringing pure plastic that can be found in the shouk ( for those of you who are not sure what shouk is, I found this great description: A place of mystery and smells and spices and mess and noise and movement...maybe irritation.. BUT DONT MISS IT...and dont rush it ! Flea market, fruit market, shouk, souk, shuk..   personnally I love going to the Shouk too! It is full of life, smell, colors, shouts, it is fun!)
So they saw Sophie, they decided it is pure plastic and who am I to say otherwise and that it is not right for their customers , not to mention  it is sooooo overpriced.

Sophie overpriced?  I heard that a lot and started asking around.
How many teethers does a mother usually buy for the baby? Answer: usually 3 or 4-- or more. Anything to make Baby less fussy during teething! One is kept in the fridge, one is bought because of the shape and color, another one because baby "ruined" it , some are very cheap , some are more expensive etc.

One Sophie Teether  ----  Bisphenol A or BPA free --- costs the price of 2 "regular" teethers or two packs of Eco-Friendly Diapers. So yes the initial cost is higher. It is reality that she does not suit nor interest everyone too.
Sophie Ha Girafa is not cheap because we pay for the quality (no Baby can ruin Sophie), for the fact that she is made of natural rubber and non-toxic mineral paint (she is completely safe) and *sigh* for all the taxes to get her in the country, to have her checked and approved (how I wish we did not have to pay those all the time!).
So on one hand I feel sorry for those persons who were not able to listen and discover a new product, but on the other hand why would I want Sophie ha girafa or the cute Chan, Pie and Gnon sold among other toxic baby products and be treated as one of the common toy?
Between you and me, believe-me: she is not! *wink*

Shouk Ha Carmel

What gave you the idea to import Sophie?

Excerpt of a recurrent comment in a conversation:

...Yeah yeah, it is great! She is made of natural rubber...

Yeah yeah, I get it: no chemical and no harmful components in her...

Yeah yeah, you say she stimulates the 5 senses of a baby....

But what I want to know: What gave you the idea to import Sophie ???

This has to be the first question I have to answer whenever I start talking  and presenting Sophie Hagirafa.
And the answer is actually quite nice and simple and I think it shows that in life opportunities are everywhere.

A year ago, actually a bit more, I met with one of my friends, K.  She was a new mom of a three-month adorable baby girl who had started teething. As the old mom of teens that I am, I told her that she should get Sophie The Giraffe.
K. had never heard of her so I told her: simple! I will get you one as soon as I see it.
Except that after a couple of weeks looking here and there, I could not find any Sophie. Not a problem: my friend Alexandra had one shipped to me from France, the Land of Sophies and off I went back to K. giving her the Sophie.
K. looked at it, said that she looked very nice but really what was so special about her?
And I had no answer.
All I know is that in France: new baby = Sophie la girafe. It is a given, it is a must. No one will think twice.

My children were born in various countries and whenever I visited France, Sophie was on the shopping list without wondering why.

So now I had to find an answer for my friend and for me:  How can a 47 year-old teether survive all this time? There must be a good reason.

I found several.... and to the risks of boring you my dear faithful readers, let me repeat them for the benefit of new readers ( hopefully) to Sophie's fan club!  ^__^ Sophie The Giraffe is 100% natural made, 

Sophie the Giraffe is 100 percent natural rubber , Sophie la Girafe is Phthalates and BPA free. And she stimulates the 5 senses of the Baby.

Yep! All this!


With this precious information I went back to my friend K. who was very pleased and relieved that her daughter had such a safe and useful toy. And her baby loved her Giraffe!

On my way back home I thought it was really strange that I did not find Sophie the giraffe here in a country where there are so many Babies, so many parents looking for organic clothes and diapers and eco-friendly toys. I emailed Vulli the company that makes Sophies and to make a long story short: I became their exclusive importer of Sophie.

Of course that meant a lot of work, besides my regular work as QA in a Hi-tech company. We had to build a website, have the products tested to the norms of the country ( SII ) , pay here and there for those tests, papers, tax etc etc. But almost a year after here we are!

I have now decided to quit my job and dedicace 100% of my times for Sophie La Girafe. With her I became an importer, a seller, a promoter, a facebooker, a tweeter, a blogger in a country where we relocated in 2006 and where I can speak but barely write or read. But no panic! We will get through it one day at the time, learning along the way! Vive 2010....

Thank you Eddie