Merrow Edge hem from Lew Magram

a quick shot of the skirt

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Merrow edged Pashima shawl

for sale on etsy, a Merrow Edged shawl

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Curiosity

As we roll into another 12/25, a quick reminder of the enthusiastic curiosity of one Dr. Feynman

merrow (plantable) shirt from Etsy

i posted this, and then did a double take.

this shirt can be planted. it will then grow. into something.

yup. after it was posted Robyn read the description out loud .... i quote:

Our hangtag includes an insert that can be planted into the ground to grow beautiful flowers.

mark this -- the first piece of clothing i've ever seen that can be worn, washed, and grown into something beautiful. will wonders never cease.

....



courtesy of etsy -- a merrow edged shirt

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Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

the smart stitch

Apparently we've missed the best thing to happen to sewing machines in years. However, feeling an obligation to reward success when it's warranted, we've decided to re-publish the essay describing this newest of innovations in our field.

Congratulations Mahmood Inc., hat's off. Wish we'd been there first....


New Portable Sewing Machine Lets Sweatshop Employees Work On The Go

blog with Merrow machines

today i was emailed a blog that discusses the merrow pearl stitch machine

jump to the joys of industrial machines here

merrow stitch tee-shirt

we're a couple weeks from showcasing the new offices. in the mean time here's a bit of merrow stitched goodness from Stewart+Brown

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the move

What a day!

we've moved. and what a place we've moved to....


A long time ago Fall River, MA was the epicenter of fabric production. Out of our new south facing windows we look at the Durfee Buffington building; once the largest textile mill in the world.


Today we are residents of 502 Bedford St., and take up the top floor of a 132 year old Mill Building. Merrow is spread across 30,000 sq. feet with terrific views of a half dozen other mills, and most of Fall River.


It will take us another six to eight weeks to finish the renovation. But as of right now, we've got new digs. And it feels great.

the off season Merrow Stitched bathing suit

 for todays eye-catching Merrow Stitched wonderwork we've chosen something that will keep the cold at bay --- well, kind of.


jump to the suit here: http://www.newport-news.com/

A Dolce Coat with Merrow Pearl Stitching

It's been a busy week -- we keep building things.

While i'll remain coy about the latest project, it's high time for a Merrow Stitched Product update. And we've found a great one today.

Here is a Dolce & Gabbana coat available at the Fashion Boudoir

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a close up of the coat:

Merrow edged napkins from Wasserstrom

For a long time a napkin edge was our domain. A delicate edge on a napkin is hard to do and adds a bit of the je ne sais quois. Today most napkins are mass produced and work towards the cheap...

so when someone goes ahead and makes something of quality we're primed, ready and willing to endorse said thing of quality -- here is your napkin of the day:

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Evilness

buy some evil stitching

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latest merrowed edge find...

the peter nyguård collection posts this:

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Another Great Museum

Harry Berzack has a great sewing machine museum. It's really, really, good.



If you want to see a great history of the sewing machine, harry's soldiers are lined up quietly in a small office in Charlotte NC.

IFAI wrap up

here are some pictures-- i should have time to label them later. included are david zwicker, lonnie schwartz (both from superior sewing). Jason from Dunlap Sunbrand (talking with dave). A heroic shot of murray feit from consew and some bad pics of the party afterwards and the show through a window. Not the best photography (grimacing...) but should give a feel for what was what.

and did i mention,
it's over.

From IFAI show 10/22/08

Day one wrap up ifai

Not bad.

The show is not well attended but there were some good customers here.
And this was time well spent.

The trade show itself is archaic...the concept that is. Companies that
spend this kind of money should be interacting more.. And most of the
time most of the people are just standing around

On to dinner in charlotte ..

merrow.com

Germany

The Germans are here.

Ifai update

The picture is harry berzak in front of a merrow display.

So far the show seems slow. It doesn't help that there is no wifi or
cell signal in the hall.

I've met with 4 merrow customers. More on this later...

Merrow stitch @ ifai

a list of the world's oldest companies

Merrow is an old company....how old?

to put a fine point on it, it appears that Merrow is the 1356 oldest company still in business in the modern world. This is tracked back to 587 AD !

ok -- before i doubt on the data -- out of all of the companies that have ever existed... AND made it to today, there are only one thousand three hundred and fifty odd older than Merrow. wooohooo!

this according to the NationMaster encyclopedia

sometimes you don't want to be reminded of your age -- at 170 we're kinda past that. And, as I was emailed a link yesterday to a list of the world's oldest companies, i couldn't really help posting...

This list of the oldest companies includes brands and companies excluding associations, educational, government or religious organizations. To be listed; a Brand, Family Business or Company name must remain, either whole or in part, since inception. If the original name has since changed due to acquisitions or renaming, this must be verifiable on their website.

If you didn't click above, here is the list.

Ok. no one here is taking this seriously (not sure what about it would be serious anyway...) I mean who has business records back to 587AD. And what happened to the poor smithy who put out a shingle in 586? Big questions, little answers. In the mean time we should have shirts made up.... ;)

Stewart Brown, great design and Merrow Stitching...

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We've been looking through the Stewart+Brown catalog, and I've got to tell you -- it's worth another look. Fantastic designs, a great ethic

Stewart+Brown believes in optimizing their designs and lives to attain the highest standards of quality and functional style while extracting the bare minimum from Earth's precious capital.

and lots of Merrow stitched clothing. Beautiful stuff.

Merrowed Ribbon

we've had some cool ribbon samples in the building or a while. sewn ribbon.... the merrow edged ribbon often has wire fed into the stitch. The effect is pliable and i'm going to guess, long lasting ribbon. The ribbon bizaar sells it here

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Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

overlock needles (the merrow brand)

quickly: Merrow needles are overlock sewing needles -- for those inclined to wonder?..? and as the top selling item here at the new merrow i've rewritten the pages to include the configurator, stitch samples and other niceness.

take a look. let me know what you think

note the merrow kooltorr needles -- black and heat proof. enjoy.

Dolce Gabbana with Merrow Stitching

the folks at Dolce Gabbana have designed a dress with Merrow purl (pearl) stitching... and it's a trip...

wow! (for a cool $2,650)

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the windham textile museum

On saturday I drove to Willimantic CT to the Windham Textile Museum.

We have loaned 6 Merrow Machines to the museum for their terrific sewing machine retrospective. Among them are: the oldest Merrow Machine known to us, one of the most interesting, and a couple that did a great deal of the heavy lifting in the industry for much of the 20th century.

Thank you Michelle et al. for the opportunity to participate. I would encourage anyone who is interested to take time this fall to visit.

If you're feeling reluctant give me a call, i'll talk you into it... ;)

anticipating a line of merrow refurbished machines

Ever wonder who builds sewing machines? This is a two minute video where we interview Spencer Barros and Justin Monteiro about the new line of refurbished machines built by Merrow


Merrow building Program for refurbished machines from Merrow SMC on Vimeo.

We expect to have limited stock of Merrow refurbished machines available on 11/1/08

Merrow on display at the Windham Textile Museum

Our history, which dates back to 1838, is being partially profiled in CT through December 28th.

We're still working on what machines to display, but it's possible that the rare 'Fascinator' and one of the worlds first overlock sewing machines could make an appearance.

For more information contact

Michele Palmer
Curator
Windham Textile & History Museum
www.millmuseum.org

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Update to the support pages

We toyed around with some lightweight javascript to make it easier to view the technical drawings for the machines.

This is what we've come up with -- you get here by clicking on 'support' and then on 'parts book' and then on a specific model of machine

or just click on the picture....

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the community

Merrow has been around a long time -- but in the industrial markets. As we begin the process of reaching out beyond the mills and production plants, we feel a little out of our element (but not much... ;)

So when someone takes the time to make us feel at home -- we thank you.

And after reading through the sewingwithstyle website i'd direct anyones attention

here -- history of cotton fabrics

or here-- some sewing insight

the soft launch.... update

so the soft launch (of the new merrow website) on the 19th of sept. has been a success -- to the degree that most everything is working and we're uncovering problems as helpful people browse the site and find errors. (send them to me, charlie at merrow dotcom)

So far this is what we expected would happen. Sort of.

In order to get the site up we're holding back a couple of cool features -- these we'll bake until ready hopefully around the new year. In the mean time we expected most people to be excited about things like the stitch viewer, which has at our last count a lot more examples of stitching than you can find most places....

and the video section. Seriously, i'd thought that this would be just, well, beyond.

but no. apparently not.

people love the store, the support pages (which still need to be fixed...working on that today...) and

--the merrow community now merrowing.com--

(which is, admittedly really cool) -- but not the Videos?!? or the Stitch Samples?!?

---
there is a lot to love -- and the point of the soft launch was to see what works and what doesn't.

we'll tune, repair and rework things to make it resonate on 11/1.

Which is the launch date.
--

Send us your feedback. Tell me what you like and don't. We'll do everything make merrow.com work for you

the blog rolls

We're now checking blogs... turns out there are a number of people with Merrow issues that don't know we're here to help --



there is also some interesting information we've found....
here's a great synopsis of the evolution of the serger and Merrow's role in it (also happens to be a good overview of our history)

Product Availability

Different parts of the new site are attracting attention -- interestingly the Ziggurat on both Amazon and Merrow has been a strong performer.

On Amazon you can find it here

and on Merrow it's here --

I'd like to think that it's because of the new colors.... ;)

Website updates

Additions through wednesday:

We've added a revised HD stitch viewing section. It is available here.

Here's a screen shot of the new stitch viewer

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We've adjusted the coordinates for 65 agents to better describe their locations.

We've added several videos, threading a MG-3DW-2 and a MG-3Q-3 (they're available on the HD video viewer



__

art imitating life.... or just really funny?

...and so much for an apolitical corporate blog

remote post...

Setting up the mobile blogging app... All running well.

Merrowing Advert

Merrowing Advert
Originally uploaded by merrowmachine

This weekend I was using the Google Book search and came across an old Merrowing advert. Pretty cool...

You can find it here


if you're interested.

MDCCCXXXVIII

Merrow was established in 1838. One Hundred and Seventy Years Ago...

Today we publish a little esoterica from the year MDCCCXXXVIII...

In 1838 Sam Houston was president of Texas.

The Pastry War got Santa Anna out of his rocker

and the Man with the Freakiest Wink died with an oddly ironic name and a nickname that aged as poorly (Bunyan of Wales)

--
for more on 1838

read on

---

we just launched....

no one knows -- ***looking over shoulder*** --

soft launch

well -- we've rolled the site out internally. we should be testing all week and readying a soft launch on friday. (that is a launch without the party....)

Labor Day

for us September is the beginning of the season. Europe comes off holiday and everyone begins preparing production for the Christmas season.

....and we're now days away from launching the website. all told, it should be a great season for Merrow.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

movies

there may be no oscar in our future... but today and this weekend the video pages get done and the video processed.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Product Pages.... almost done

the product pages -- what we make, what it does, why it matters....

are // almost // done

sneak peak of the zigg pages

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Blogged with the Flock Browser

surprises all around

holy cow!

Needle Configurator

I can't get tired of saying ' i just built a needle configurator'

Sounds a little Dr. Who? It isn't.

It is infact all Merrow. In an effort to make our products easy to undestand we've built a tool using MIT exhibit technology that organizes and cross references our needles.

It is ... well, awesome.

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Blogged with the Flock Browser

t minus ....

the origin of T minus Fritz Lang's 1929 film Frau im Mond

how about the website

today we built the agent stores. why is this cool? because the merrow store is getting better every day and now anyone selling our products can have their own branded store...

that's right -- we've built stores for hundreds of agents. custom stores...custom content, custom everything...

it started off as a novel idea-- how can our website help people sell.

Most everything we've done with the website is try to help people understand what we do. So on a lark we tried building a store for an agent... and that's when the *ah-ha* thing happened.... we can do this for everyone. or everyone who it would matter to.

So now as long as the agent signs up and agrees to customize the content we'll release a custom storefront for them.

How's that for innovative...

And the blank stare says 'when are we gonna see it.... ' . Right.

on its way....

Blogged with the Flock Browser

3 month rest

for three months we've been readying our new website. 3 months inside with fluorescent light and very little else.

This blog has suffered -- as I resolved to not post until the new website was released on ...cough,cough.. june 4.

so that didn't turn out so well. now it's august 9th and we're almost there.

this is exciting stuff. we've invested thousands of hours into this project with the modest goal of releasing the best site in the industry.

----
the new blogeresolution will be to post bits about the site until it goes live --

While you wait check out some of our stitches on flickr

the second shot on flickr

[365]154 - 4.20.2007
Originally uploaded by vintagestitches

the second of the aforementioned pictures

Merrow pics of Flickr

4.20.2007
Originally uploaded by vintagestitches

We put up some pictures of our machines on flickr and a quick search found two cool shots of old Merrows....

MG2DNR1

MG2DNR1
Originally uploaded by merrowmachine

A picture of our Pearl Stitch machine (or purl stitch...??).

This machine will be available from Merrow in the fall of 2008. Handbuilt in the USA.

Stitch samples are available upon request

70-1D-7-CNP

70-1D-7-CNP, originally uploaded by merrowmachine.

the Merrow Butt Seamer for knits in wet environment. Hand-built in the USA.

Adding machine pictures to Flickr

Here are some machine glamour shots loaded to flickr for public use

Buying Travel

Sometimes as i'm hunting for tickets I run across great sites and kick myself for not having known earlier.

Here are a couple

for hotels
a great google map mashup called mapchannels

I read about it here. For an overview take a look-- but I bet that you end up using it so long as the business model of providing great information free (thank you click through advertising) holds.

for airfare
another aggregator or meta search called momondo

After a long trip I think it's important to make sure everyone is clear --

the thank you cards are in the mail .

Firenze travel pics

Como travel pics

Merrow

The purpose of this blog is to keep anyone interested, updated about Merrow. In this case it will be just a bit reflective

This post is a short excerpt from a letter drafted for the Management at Merrow.

__________

After traveling for close to two full months i've learned a lot about our business.

On the train several days ago I met a lebanese businessman and his son. They were curious about Merrow and we talked easily about our challenges and theirs. After a time the fat one asked if we had considered partnering with a company in the textile business who needed distribution worldwide and brand credibility (we haven't).

He went on to clarify his point, that these are things that cost millions to develop and more valuably take years and years to do. Operating in a global environment is one of the most expensive and challenging elements of the modern business.

Most companies who are not global simply cannot afford to build or operate the sales structure that Merrow has.

He had correctly seized on two of Merrow's major assets. There are others. A list of six:


1. management (our team is talented & ambitious)
2. brand recognition (151 countries visited Merrow.com in the last year)
3. product design (high quality, diverse range)
4. customer base (our customer list reads like a whose who in textiles)
5. global distribution (trained distribution in every major market in the world)
6. history (170 years in business)


I could as easily list sixteen things that Merrow needs to work on. In fact I think we spend most of our time (as we should) focused on the areas needing improvement.

Which is why I took the time to write this. I encourage everyone to take a step back, enjoy the things we do well as a company.

______
Over the next two months we will explore on this blog some of the things that make Merrow unique. As much to echo what i've heard over the past two months as to introduce new ideas. Again, perspective is important and I think our customers, our company and our distributors will benefit in the process.

from Firenze

decaf cafe american.
that is UHMEHRIH-CAN KAWFY

I don’t do this often but sitting next to a table of 7 americans ordering desert in a lovely little spot in florence at 10 odd PM is amusing and i pulled my laptop out.

Whereas the chinese tourist orders in a confused way, the uhmehrihcan orders as though the waiter is both retarded and deaf

why?
I don't know.

Couple of suggestions:

1. sometimes ordering from a menu in a foreign language is difficult. If you don’t like a type of food, learn the word for this in the local language. Unfortunately if english isn’t spoken well at said restaurant, when you loudly and with much hand waving try telling the waiter that if he serves you nuts you’ll die, he may simply think you’re nuts and probably serve you pistachios.

2. Also, unless someone tells you otherwise, or your eating at the new cooking school for veterans of heavy artillery, the waiters don’t have a busted tympani, they speak EYETALYIN. You took the time to buy a ticket, pack and travel to a new place. Why insist that it is the olive garden?

________
A guilty footnote. I only speak english. And while a trained monkey would be more impressive speaking Italian than I, I’d like to think that the waiters don’t feel like circus animals themselves after I order. Then again I utilize a repertoire of six italian words like it was the OED (OID?). Maybe this is worse.

Who knows -- i’m actually looking around right now to see if anyone is writing a blog entry about the foolish american who is writing about americans.....

no text, just a few pics

Italian Tubes

a system of clogged tubes.

The Italians, I maintain, are terrific people. Not the nicest, not the most outgoing.... but terrific.

I don’t like midwest nice. Never have. The Italians don’t suffer from the Indiana Accommodation Anxiety. IAA. Defined in degraded centers of learning as a relentless drive to please. This is not an Italian gene.

Now why bother with cheap psychology? Because I still can’t get online and I need to Explain this somehow.

I really think the Italians don’t care out of the generosity of their own culture. Italians have a lot more to do than check email. And if you’re here (which incidentally doesn’t really concern them either), then the internet isn’t what you should be looking at....

Or. And this is just as plausible. Ted Stevens was the consultant hired to develop their IT backbone:




It is much more entertaining to watch it set to music once you understand how absurd this is

italy

I woke up in italy.

This is a sliver of what i saw in turkey

Istanbul

don't have much time -- have taken hundreds of pictures (unfortunately i think there is likely to be a blog post sometime in the not to distant future with the backlog of pics).

i leave for milan today

couple of quick thoughts on istanbul

1. the flag is spectacular. was on the bosporus by boat the other night and over the hagia sophia there was a 1/4 moon -- within the frame of the camera there was also a monster sized, hilltop perched and brightly lit up deep red turkish flag (which is a crescent & start).

2. could attaturk possibly be offered in more curious poses? Every picture of the man ever taken regardless of circumstance (he was standing in line at the post office...) is posted throughout this city -- they adore this man -- the most sincere adoration as well. His bust is everywhere, his head is everywhere, and these strange pictures of his every public move are 2X3 and 4X5 (feet) framed and hanging

3. the history of the city will make your head explode. a lightening tour of a museum could cause serious medical issues

4. traffic is horrible

5. the city is more modern than i imagined. it's like a european san francisco in places (and in others like sprawling LA apartment blocks

6. there is stagflation

7. we can do a lot of business here

8. i'm sorry to have to leave

Merhaba

It is saturday. I am working and this is terrific.

One of the differences between travel & working and the alternative (which would be work) is the subtle time shift. The workday becomes something unrecognizable.

For instance there is no defacto day-off. If one wants a break one must force it.

And the hours of operation are always odd. Some days, as I did yesterday, the traveling starts at 6AM and ends at 5:30PM. In between are three hours where I wrote 30 odd email. At the end (the 5:30 side) I met with our Turkish distributor and spent the next 6 hours with them at the office and then eating.

Once back I tried to spend time on the phone with the office wrapping the day up around midnight.

In turkey Saturday is not a day off (in the Arabic world it is Sunday that people work taking friday off) so my workday will follow the pattern of behaviour here with the grand exception that afterwards I'm sure i'll spend the evening eating and drinking our good friends and business partners. If one doesn't consider this work they haven't done it....

Perhaps this isn't an appropriate place to illustrate the type of schedule is kept while traveling. But on the other hand I'm not sure what works on this blog and what doesn't.

What is important to note is that as a result of the effort the improvement of our relationships to the distributors in Europe is marked.

local SIM cards are for crazy people

The problem with a mobile phone.

Or there isn't a problem at all i guess if you don't care about what it costs. I do, and consequently researched phones and local rates before this trip.

My strategy: buy a SIM card in each country i visited. In this case egypt, poland, turkey and italy. I looked at the local rates etc. and set off to assimilate seamlessly into each locale by adopting a local number and benefiting cleverly from low costs.

The whole thing was/is a bad idea

Aside from my phone only working when i'm in the country with the SIM card (eg. not in any airport en route somewhere else), my number changing every 3 days, and the absurd prepay situation, THE ABSOLUTE WORST are the directions in Polish. Arghhh.... the hours i spent trying to figure out what Witamy Cie w swiecle SIMPLUS! DZIEKUJEMY ze dolaczyles do NAS. meant.

The mobile phone instructions are all in english, but the SIM card is all in polish. A friendly Pole wouldn't be able to make heads or tales of the phone and obviously I wasn't doing well with the polish.

To get voicemail i would push a 'messages' button. This was the last station for english all stops ahead were polish. I'd hear a menu, guess a number (though i was never sure if the announcement was offering a choice) listen to polish techno music and end up in another menu with a patient but cryptic sounding polish woman who may or may not be offering to play me voicemail messages. I'd offer a '3' and perhaps be rewarded with familiar sounding voice wondering why i wasn't returning my calls. More likely I wouldn't, so I apologize if you have called me and i've not called back.

How did end up here, without any distinctive advantage to my clever strategy?

I'm not sure. But please don't try calling me to discuss, my phone doesn't work in prague.

that nomadic feeling

the last 12 hrs. are lost (aren't they always i guess). In this case i snapped some pictures.

the breakfast at the below mentioned hotel this morning was unordinary for two reasons. 1. it was awesome. 2. it was free. rarely do the two lines intersect :



i write from the prague airport:

to walk away from a hotel

stay away from the Hotel in poland.
a caveat for the literal, sleeping outside of the hotel, this is not advised. it is cold in warsaw in march.

but if you want a taxi, walk two blocks from the hotel at least, before ordering, or pay 2 times the price. If you want to eat walk 10 feet from the hotel and pay 50% less. walk 500 feet and pay 65% less. Should shopping or internet or laundry services require your attention run don’t walk from the hotel to save a nickel.

the hypocrites letter. how else am i going to do laundry. at 10:30 at night with 15degrees out side can I really walk the streets hunting for a taxi (in newyork sure, in warsaw it doesn't work). when breakfast is an 18 second elevator ride can I refuse. no of course not.

if the rule is always leave the hotel to eat (except for breakfast because hotel espresso is usually much better unless you’re lucky enough to be in italy...) then you Try to find other places to eat.

i don't write about hotels generally as it begs unwelcome judgement. tonight though i'm staying at the airport hotel okecie, and for the money i will happily recommend this place. it costs 1/3 less than the marriot and is just as nice.

A last thought. Ordering water with gas never gets old. Even at the hotel.

Do widzenia

polish toilets

A polish bathroom starts with a door labeled for everyone but aliens. Only one door however, and despite the excess of options on this one door it is not marked well from a distance.

The splitting of handicapped and sex happens once inside after entering a small antechamber. Through this door is a second antechamber, small with sinks. Taking a hard 90 degree turn, invariably it's not straight on, through another door this time unmarked and you arrive at the desired place. Presumably you've chosen wisely and there aren't wildebeest or something else that surprises you there. Regardless of how hasty your retreat is prepare for the worst. Because when you decide to leave the chances are good, not great but good, that you will make a mistake on the way out and end up in the utility closet.

rare birds

Poznan is a simple smallish show. It is not well attended by customers (end users) but full up with exhbitors.

If asked 'how is the show' the standard reply would be 'shite, but we must be here and we had a good Presence this year don't you agree?' or 'it's good, good, the show is very good don't you agree?.'

In my opinion the show is neither. There are certainly some people buying things but it is an exhibitors show. Lot's of peacocks preening. And not enough oggling.

Was it worth the trip? Sure.

Despite this, the Poznan show may go the way of the dodo. I'm not sure how long a show like this can be justified for just the peacocks.

poland pics

panhandling in Prague

the travel industry doles out humility as a good barman might beer.

This time it was a muck up with the transmission or something with the plane in egypt. So a delay. But the look on the woman's face in Prague when I asked that instead of waiting 24hrs. for the next flight to Berlin i take a plane to Warsaw (it’s the same distance).... i swear she took a long deep breath ‘did he really ask me THAT?’

A great bit of shuffling around to offices behind the Travel Adjustment Desk and I was sorted. But not before I was reduced to begging.

The kid rollerblading around the terminal with maintenance people chasing her has cheered me up.

my day in Egypt

600 pictures. the 1/2 day off on saturday was my egyptian trip.

i’m at the airport, it’s monday morning 2AM -- i’ll be boarding a flight at 3AM to prague and then berlin. From Poland where I arrive tomorrow night i’ll post more.

Today was great for business. We met with 4 large egyptian and one syrian customer. Good business, good orders, and great fun.

...enjoy the pics of the pyramids. I'll spare everyone pictures of sewing machines and finishing plants ;)

egpyt fair...

The industry shifts -- geographically as it has restlessly done for the last 50 years.

It is the rule that whole factories close down overnight and reappear in more affordable places. And people in the industry are dulled to this, almost tired, tolerating decades of uncertainty.

Turks move to Egypt. Pakistan grows, India shrinks, Vietnam is booming, bangladesh not so much. Russia, lots of money. Estonia slow.

But the net is a ridiculously cosmopolitan group, our businesses depend on governments, economies, trends and culture. Talking with any of the manufactures is to speak of a myriad of countries and political situations. People have been--- everywhere.

We get on airplanes, land in strange cities and follow the business. It's really kind of wild, exciting, challenging.... and almost no one agrees with me.

Visiting Cairo is work -- it's 1AM. This is an exhausting day. But what a day it was...

Here are some pictures from the drive in, the show etc...

trade show

after 1/2 day a the tradeshow a couple of observations:

1. should have brought business cards from past shows.... lots of familiar faces
2. it's overrun by turks and chinese
3. there are NO high-end sewing machines... and no butt-seam machines on display (there should be....)

The collection of equipment and vendors is impressive enough to warrant the trip -- the customers here are good customers. But the real value of Egypt for Merrow are Factory visits. Tomorrow and the day after we'll see another 5 or so.

And no upstream data to speak of-- so no pictures for the time being.
---

to the Desert!

I just don’t have enough information. To write anything about Egypt or Cairo that would be reasonable should take longer than a days' observation. It has intimidating depth, this city.

So-- gross generalizations out the window -- a little travelogue with some color:

On the first full day in Cairo we began a trip out to the Desert rd. on our way to Sadat City. Cairo is a city of 17 million (unofficially) with 7 Million commuting into the city (unofficially). Lot’s of traffic. The process of getting to the Desert rd. was slow, and 1/5 of the distance we were intending to travel took 1/2 the trip. On the way out there are things that remind you that Cairo isn't kansas....



















The Desert Rd. was aptly named. I had never seen the desert, and this Rd. to Alexandria (which is 200km north) took us into into it. The abruptness of ‘City’ turns into of all things ‘Green Farm Land’ with labor and oxen, turning again in the span of 50 feet into endless gigantic golden desert... where there is nothing.

















Or apparently nothing. As we drove past an inconspicuous if not wide sand dune I was told it housed the Egyptian airforce (and it is the inconspicuous sand dune in the actual picture to the left...) Yep. After Israel annihilated their airforce in one day in 1968, the Egyptians moved the planes under the sand and I was told they come squirting out of gates (which I saw) with wings folded and in one motion unfold the wings and fly... reminded me of larva turning into mosquitos.











I met some Turks...


















and we ate well. No lunch -- but kebobs and pigeon for dinner.


















One thing that I think I can generalize about; Cairenes enjoy relaxing. There was a pace in that coffee bar, laughter and backgammon and water pipes, that seemed essential to Cairo. There isn’t alcohol to speak of, and the apartments are too hot in the evening. These open breezy coffee bars (where they serve juice and water pipes largely), seem designed to slow the pace down and give people a chance to wait out the heat until it’s cool enough to return home comfortably.

I enjoy Cairo even though I don't understand it... but this is probably ok.

5,000 years later i arrive

CAIRO

this city that revels in the joys of noise
-----
in the hotel after a day traveling and dinner with our Egyptian agent. I am here

that is the Nile. In the morning the pyramids should be visible....

I am in Cairo.

Next Trip

On February 26th I leave for Cairo.

On March 3rd I'll be in Berlin.

On March 4th I'll be in Poznan

__________










_____

I grabbed tickets yesterday using Kayak, and ultimately paying cheaptickets.com. To prepare for this leg, which should be 11 days or so I went back to my journal and found a packing entry I drafted in Shanghai. Here it is...

things I should have packed....

1. a good GSM phone with address book synced to macbook
3. extra video camera/cell phone batteries
4. luggage locks
5. toilet paper
7. one camera/video bag 8. a satchel for the gobs of power cords and adapters
9. more gifts for my hosts
10. two pairs (not one) of jeans
11. lens cloth or cotton swabs
12. a good black long sleeve heavy shirt
13. more socks
14. one pair dress pants (not two)
15. one dress shirt (not three)
16. gloves/hat/scarf
19. extra pair of glasses
20. pocket calculator

you've noticed the layout changed...

Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |


With an odd hundred or so visits a day it's time for a new layout.

After visiting several sites to determine the most efficient and ruthlessly effective information distribution layout.... we're going to test this one out a bit and see how she feels...

Obviously if the posts aren't interesting the layout is moot-- so i'm done with this one. On to new adventures!

Eating

I like to eat strange things in strange places.

So does Anthony Bourdain. I don't care whether you like him or not. He eats singapore and it's worth reading.

Jump to the new york times article HERE

British Air -- the saga continues

British Air sent me a letter.

On their website it costs 120,000 'miles' to get a ticket to Shanghai. They offered me 10,000. No other perks.

If they screw up 4 more times in the next year I'll be able to fly to England on BA. (England costs 50,000 'miles'.)

They suck.FIRST OFF.... the 'inconvenience b/c of snow' wasn't the major problem. Read my posts to get up to speed. They really crapped up the crowd management thing and made the delay awful rather than a pain in the tuchas.

SECOND OFF....they should have been more generous regardless of whether they wanted to admit their mistakes. (OR is corporate even aware of the mistakes...)

THIRD OFF... there are other blogs out there that are doing the same thing-- I think we'll start making a list

I'll keep posting all written correspondence from BA.

This could be so easy for them. Here is what the Merrow Sewing Machine Co. would do if we were in the position they are.

1st. Ask the customer what they want.... Mea Culpa, it's our fault, we want you and your family and your grandkids to fly MSMC (BA...) so what do we need to do?
-----now the customer might MIGHT offer something outrageous... but chances are they'll say something like 'a ticket or two somewhere to replace the one you fouled up and upgrade my 'status' with BA for the next year so I can check in first class and be upgraded if seats are available.' ------

2nd. Give them a little more than they asked for. This is rule number 2. If you're in the business of damage control offering more makes you pretty impervious to criticism.

3rd. Ask that they schedule future trips on MSMC to allow MSMC to make it all back up to them.

Think of the future money BA can make.

For instance. I am flying to Shanghai on March 4th, then again on April 4th, and then Again of May 15th or so.

If I were the CEO of BA i'd want my business. I'd work hard to get it. I'd offer me all sorts of incentives to get back on those BA airplanes.... and stop blogging about how horrible the customer service at BA is.....

GIVE A LITTLE, GET A LOT.

Travel Scheduling

Over the past several weeks we've been traveling and consequently researching travel a bunch. Along the way I've found some terrific resources for planning these trips

Sub1. Luggage (not planning but EXECUTING on the plan....)
At the recommendation of onebag.com I bought a redoxx bag. I can almost fit the weimaraner in it.... awesome bag for carry on.

1. flying
1a. don't fly british air....
BUT do use Kayak.com. Kayak is a new-age meta site that looks at orbitz etc... to find the best deal among the websites providing the best deals...

Other than this the wiki travel sections on flying are ok -- and the frequent flyer pages are ok

But the seatguru is exceptional. Want to find the choice seats on the '7 triple 7' before you fly -- chk. out the green seats on seatguru

2. hotels
I've used expedia and hotels.com .... but the place I end up finding the hotels is yahoo travel. Yeah. I don't use yahoo! for much-- but i've found that the reviews section is a great way to get pointed to a good hotel

3. getting around
I use wiki travel. If anyone has a better suggestion let me know. I live online-- and jwire is valuable to stay online anywhere as a hotspot finder

4.eating
In the US and Europe I use Eating around the world and Zagats. Everywhere else I depend on a local recommendation.

There are more... I'll filter through the bookmarks and see what else has been useful.

NOTE: the emblem on the redoxx bag is a Merrow edged emblem.

Economy....

While we're sorting out our next move -- and looking at the global economy to determine where to compete -- I ran across this

One week -- Two things

1st. British Air has not returned my email
2nd. the 'flu' alluded to below was infact a week on the disabled list

I'm back.

With the lions share of the responsibilities of the trip behind me, our focus now is to follow up with people met and projects begun.

I'll keep this current as we map out the next trip, and this time include the blog in the plotting process.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

this morning something caught up to me.

last night, actually. I took our distributor from the UK to dinner. It was great fun. But I felt this thing creeping up ---

and this morning I woke in a sepulcher.

I don't think there's anything mysterious about this, the pace and lack of sleep finally did me in. I got the flu. Time to go home.

London

This is intended to be a much longer review of the highlights over the past 24 hrs. -- be patient, i'll repost this in a couple of days with links and text

in the mean time here's the bolts

hotel London Elizabeth: Good spot on Hyde park, reasonable rates (75 pound a night). Terrible beds, really small rooms.

importance of being earnest: pleasant, mediocre cast. great theatre (vaudeville).

national gallery: the mobile walking tour headset things are out-of-site. Obviously there are some great paintings -- the headset describing the paintings, artists and themes made the 2hr.s there outstanding.

dali exhibit: good. not great. but good.

picasso exhibit: bad. stuff they found in his garage maybe?

italin restaurant Assiago: was terrific until the Milanese veal arrived. a fried slab of veal about 15 inches by 12 inches (bigger than the plate). I'd thought that only the Germans considered this food....


-------------

A walk with luggage

Instead of taking a taxi I walked a couple of miles to get some exersise and a enjoy terrific weather.




Arrived at the hotel London Elizabeth (of which i'll have more to say later) and scheduled a meeting with our UK distributor for tomorrow 3PM, London.

So I have 16 hr. to see what I can make of things before working again (of course most of these come in the middle of the night....)

We'll see.

updated pics

I hadn't had a chance to upload the snow pics or the airport shots until london

here they be (this jumps to the blog entries below-- if you feel lazy just scroll down)

airport

snow

English Breakfast

I just enjoy an english breakfast... sausage, fried tomatoes, fruits, baked beans, fried bread, croissant, tea & grapefruit juice.

A downside is inevitably the English Breakfast stomach ache -- but who cares, toss caution to the wind around such things. The only good question is: am I ready to eat breakfast?

As I have no time. None. My watch has 8:27AM and 10:27PM on it. I can't say that I feel one way or the other about it. I turned in at 3:30AM (or 5:30PM?) and got up at 6:AM (8PM?). No matter what timezone that's only 3 hr. sleep. HOWEVER it is buttressed with an ambiguous middle of the day/night nap taken on the airplane here 12 hrs ago or so.

I bounced up this morning raring to go.

now the jumping up out of bed happened after
1. thinking 'it's 6:14AM here.... 1:14AM in Boston...11:30PM Arizona ARGHH....
2. English Breakfast!!

So I ate and read the Daily Telegraph. Now I need to find another hotel, a rental car and i'm ready to drive to Leicester to hopefully meet up with Merrow UK.

Though they don't know i'm here yet. Will sort out the details on the way.... :)

Supercup. Manning wins the Brits are confused.

In London there are no adverts for the superbowl.

Each timeout or whatever they cut to some young brit (YB) interviewing Ron Woodson about....well i'm not really sure about anything actually --- the YB kept grimacing when it was called it football, and especially when someone or other argued it 'was the most technical game on earth'...

So it's 3:30AM in the UK and I'll turn the tube off having watched one of the most disastrous contests in all of recorded history.

If we were a more sophisticated culture there might have been sacrifices after this game. Real ones. Heads rolling. King Kraft raising or lowering his thumb to the frenzied roar of the crowd as his team lines up in disgrace...

We're not, so i'm going to bed. I think i'll block ESPN.com from the company's computers for the next 10 months....

British Air

In light of the crushing travel issues in China, and the absolute poverty and suffering I saw in India there should be little margin for a post about the 48 hrs. it took get from Shanghai to London on BA.

and for full disclosure I'm staying in a hotel that is being paid for by BA (second night in a hotel paid for by BA)

But this isn't going to address the inconvenience of travel. Travel is often a pain in the ass.

British Air doesn't respect their passengers and mismanaged 200 people to the point that it could have been dangerous. This is the issue. It should be addressed by their customer service people, by the passengers and by their competitors.

Long queues with no communication. Long delays without any explanation. Little Children and babies waiting in the back of these lines with no attention or priority. People rescheduled on a first come basis without anybody even asking if there were urgent needs.

And no one was apparently in charge. Let me repeat this, no one was apparently in charge.

Whether one presumes the flight grounded by weather or BAs ineptitude (see below) is irrelevant. And for anyone from BA reading this please be clear -- the travel time doesn't matter.
They could have paid ONE person to just make sure that everyone knew exactly what was going on and to move people that needed more help to front of lines.

Obviously they didn't. But the simple solution has an asymmetrical relationship to the size of the problem. There was a crowd of 200 odd people who were tossed around for 2 days without anyone managing the situation. This is awful. People were wildly upset for things that hours later turned out were rumor.

200 odd people is a mob if they get upset. 200 people is a mess if it's not organized. And BA allowed this very preventable situation from devolving into relative chaos. And even then I think the crowd was really really well behaved.

And in great contrast to the relative restraint shown by the passengers -- 40hrs. into this process the CAPTAIN (in his one and only appearance) had the balls to announce to that if anyone was rude to the staff they could walk to london.

He seriously said this. Come on.

Managing people in airplanes and airports is the business of British Air. Blaming weather for the issues is misdirection. The management of their customers when things went wrong is their responsibility.

Let me put it a different way. How could that same flight crew manage a real crisis if they couldn't even manage to keep people in a line in Shanghai?

Makes you wonder if the certainty with which they cross-check and handle tray tables is all just an elaborate ruse.


For my money I'll wait to hear from BA -- to see if they give a toss about whether I ever fly on their airline again. The cost to me was significant and I haven't focused on this b/c it really isn't the pt. (but would it have killed you BA to not have been complete assholes when asked if I could get an upgrade for the flight to Boston... apparently everyone was told no as well...)

I bet that if BA had simply respected the passengers and shown a little backbone in Shanghai most of us would just shrug it off...

But they didn't, and I Blog and people talk. Thousands of people now read this Blog (i'm just as surprised as you) -- To point out the obvious it's 2008 and you can't get away being horrible at your business without people taking note and talking about it

You want to know how bad it is at Heathrow -- even the CUSTOMS agent was upset about BA... the customs agent!

So what are you going to do BA? What are your customers worth to you?

I'll be more than happy to post your response.

Regards,
Charlie Merrow

Dirty airplane underbelly

Three dozen 747s -- they all look the same from the ground as they take off.

My unique perspective has been sponsored by British Air. A day at the PuDong airport! Next we'll spend time in the Parking Lot!

What frustrates me is not that i'm here. Here is ok as described below. BUT it appears that the 17:30 Flight has been delayed or canceled.

I would have rather spent a day enjoying Shanghai (hell i'd rather have spent a day in the hotel if push comes to shove) and come in tomorrow or tuesday when they were reasonably sure we'd fly.

BA hauled us out of bed at 5AM, made us wait in a queue for 3hrs. to get EXACTLY the same ticket we had yesterday (it's even dated feb.2!). And then sit in an airport that isn't a treat to sit in for 9hrs. AND -- AND they haven't bothered to offer any information today, so that our treat of treats was seeing our evening flight float up on the leaderboard with delayed// then canceled// then delayed flash next to it.

as i heard a Brit on the flight mutter 'bollocks'

I'm not saying i'll never fly BA again. But i'll make an earnest effort to find any means of transportation besides BA the next time I come to shanghai.

is BA cut out for China

This morning I can SEE this plane, but it will not be cleared for departure until 17:35 (11 hrs. from when we arrived today).

While I thank them for the hotel, British Air was really quite awful managing the delay. Almost no communication from BA-- the staff look beleaguered and I feel for them some, but the passengers look worse.

The conjecture is that the very thin BA staff (8 people? ).... has zippo yank in Shanghai. The Brits seem to be put last in line for just about everything. Including De-Icing which was the final nail in the coffin yesterday.

200 some people have put up with a lot of waiting and almost no communication. There wasn't a BA person to be found when questions came up. Think of the 50 odd pissed off first and business class travelers who pay huge money to ride up front. By the looks of it many won’t fly BA again, or at least not without trying to book someone else.

Im fine with handling delays and all that-- travel is often bumpy and inconvenient-- but in the semi-final anaysis (we're still not leaving) this crowd is getting angrier and angrier and no one from BA seems aware... BA should learn how to do business in Shanghai, or they should close down the meager operation they offer.

Live from Shanghai

Weather has quickly stopped being the story. the story is people.

stranded people.
I'm with tens of thousands now trying to find aircraft to leave china.


There are 170 million trying to find a train/car/bus etc. to get home. The systems that usually manage this have been swamped.

Moreover it seems like this is acceptable. No public accountability i've seen. TV news doesn't even show the mess, I read about it from the new york times.

But I can see it in living color now. This morning the commute to the airport was 2 -1/2 hrs. We were stuck in monster traffic jams as people inched towards home or the airport or the train station.

The airport is jammed with people. (and PuDong is a pretty crap airport in the grand scheme....)

This said, and despite the length of the trip ahead, i've got it easy compared to most everyone else trying to get from pt. A to B today.

Snow in Shanghai

Millions are put out. Millions saved for months to afford a train ticket home for new year, and have been left at the station.

I took some pleasant pictures before I heard of the horror show that is the transportation system (though I can't upload pictures -- for some reason. )

My flight was canceled.
Now i'm one of the Millions.

But at least i'm in an airport and reasonably sure that if I wait long enough i'll be able to get home.

China's been undone by a bit of snow, go figure.

Leaving

I’ve actually had time to think about leaving, it hasn’t just whacked me in the forehead as I scrambled off to another airport.

my thoughts: I really enjoy Shanghai, and this China leg feels unresolved.

The list of things i haven’t done eclipses those i have -- and the short list of accomplishments isn’t satisfying considering what needs to be done.

Yet the trip itself is a watershed. I feel comfortable coming to Shanghai, to China -- the mistakes i’ve made we can remedy on the next trip.

and -- and this is a big And -- this week is among my favorites in the past 30 years.

Not the least of which is the result of Merrow’s past, present and future all crashing together -- or Personally the food, people and newness of China being thrilling.

Why was it unresolved? Because I didn’t do enough. I didn’t find closure with some big issues for the company, I didn’t meet enough people, I didn’t eat enough, I didn’t learn enough Chinese. I didn’t do anything touristy. Despite not resolving business issues I worked the whole time I was here.

Nonetheless as I prepare to leave Shanghai, I feel settled, not exhausted-- a big difference from India and certainly from Massachusetts.

I’m much more confident in what Merrow can do, what I can do-- even if the big challenges lie ahead. And more importantly, I’ve had a lot of fun working on the process.

We’ll be back in Shanghai. I miss it already.