Ancient Wisdom Avis 

Réponse de Ancient Wisdom

9 mars 2022

Dear George,



First of all I would like to thank you for taking the time to write to us and give us your feedback; also thank you for bringing your points to our attention. You highlighted some important matters. Thank you also for giving us the opportunity to address these.



We greatly appreciate your custom and your on-going support. Our business continues to exist and develop thanks to businesses like your own.

I understand how frustrating it is when you build your business up, find suppliers that provide you with products you feel passionate about and put your heart and soul into stocking and running your shop and then someone comes along and copies your ideas - it is disheartening, especially if it is in such a close proximity.



For a long time we were one of the very few suppliers within our field but as time went on more and more came along copying our business model and in our case, as most were selling online as we are, we all found ourselves just a click away from each other. This forced us to search further and offer more to our customers; customers like yourself.



We’ve always tried to be as fair as possible and as approachable and helpful as we can in terms of providing a variety of stock and managing our customers’ expectations. For these reasons we treat all our customers with respect and help them as much as we can regardless of how much and how often they order from us – we do not see their spending habits as an indication of how we should treat them – everyone gets the same amount of respect and time from us. One of our company values is generosity of spirit and not to be mean with our time, ideas, energy or kindness and we all subscribe to this.



Therefore, I’d like to address the concerns you raised in your letter to us.



We’ve never offered exclusivity on supply and this is for many reasons. The main one would be managing and policing this, as well as trying to be objective in deciding who would get to supply what items and in what area.

This would not be as simple as googling the distance between businesses that register with us and especially with the development of online selling where businesses list their billing address as their home and then tend to ship items all over the country. We supply all sorts of customers: from pop-ups, market stall holders, online sellers through to shops and larger stores.



Some businesses will list their home address as their billing/ delivery address and then take the goods to market stalls or an event or to their shop that we might not even have the address for as they prefer to sort their orders out at home.

Some customers will start off small ordering for home and then they will get business premises and not mention it to us – just order and take the goods to their new shop.

They also change what they sell depending on the demand in their area or in their online store so this is another point we would not be in a position to influence or question as this would be restricting our customers’ freedom to run their business in the way they see fit.



We do not wish to restrict anyone’s potential or creativity in terms of them developing their business and taking it in different directions; neither would we want to do this to yourself – we are not the ones to limit our customers – quite the opposite – we encourage business development and new ideas and we share ours in our weekly newsletters and in the business update emails we send each week as sharing our ideas brings in variety and development into our sector – by ‘our’ I mean yours and ours.

I understand that this approach can have its disadvantages in a way that some sellers will use the ideas of others in their stores and I am afraid this is not something we are able to influence as it is dependent on the individual’s business ethics.



What we can say here and what we can be proud of is that we would not restrict anyone and limit them in their creativity and approach and we would not want this happening to us. I would like to assure you we strive to be supportive and fair to all our customers and I hope you can appreciate our business approach in this matter.



Kindest Regards,

Urszula Baka-Wyse

AW Operations Manager