258 Million People on the Move during Chinese New Year but No USB Sticks
The Chinese New Year National Holiday (The Year of the Horse) is almost upon us. Unlike our own New Year holidays where people typically take a day or two off in China it’s their big annual holiday and most workers take at least two weeks off work.
This extended break gives millions of workers from the cities the chance to travel home and be with their families in the provinces. The number of people on the move during the holiday is staggering (estimated by the BBC at 285 million) but what even more mind boggling is the distances they travel and the time it takes to complete their journeys – take a look at this photo blog post from the BBC – it helps put the occasional travel challenges we have in the UK into perspective!
The knock on impact of the extended holidays and factory and office closures is that pretty much nothing gets manufactured or shipped for a 2 – 3 week period. Our partner factory in Shenzhen closes this week-end and won’t start manufacturing USB memory sticks again for 2 weeks. It’s the same for most of our competitors as well because whoever they are the likelihood is that their partner factory will also be In Shenzhen, China and as a result it will also close.
What this means is that after today it will become increasingly difficult to get an order for USB memory sticks delivered much before mid-February! Forget the usual promise of 6 to 10 days because no one will be at the factory to produce and print them and even if they were none of the freight forwarding companies are working so they wouldn’t get shipped anywhere!
If you need printed or engraved USB memory sticks in a hurry your only option for the next couple of weeks is to find a local supplier that holds them in stock and is able to personalise them locally as well. There are a few companies that will hold the Black Twister (Capless) model in a range of different memory sizes but that’s about all.
At USB2U we’ve lived through the challenges of Chinese New Year lots of times so we now always ensure we carry lots of stock in the UK whilst it’s on. At the moment we are unique in being able to offer 24 different styles and designs of USB stick in a wide range of memory size. Most of these can be supplied in 24hrs on our rush service but do check because out print schedule can get full pretty quickly!
If you can’t find what you want it’s not the end of the world – at least you’re not on a 33 hour trip home just to be able to spend precious time with your family.
