Some things for ferret people to ponder as the tragic events of last week
spread out into the world with further consequences:
 
Business in general:
Last week was a horrible week for mail order businesses in general
(except for ones that happened to sell US flags).  A lot of ferret-related
businesses (ourselves included) are very small family-owned businesses.
Many small businesses (not just ferret-related) are not prepared to
weather additional difficulties on top of the current shaky economic
conditions.  Unless Americans recover quickly and get back to their usual
purchasing routines, there will be a big shakeout coming for all sorts of
small, specialty businesses.
 
Shopping and Shipping:
We weren't able to find any big bags of litter today.  Not a big problem,
but the ferrets do seem to keep pooping whether we get litter or not.  Pet
stores and food stores all seem to be a bit short of products -- probably
because the bridges to Long Island were shut down for several days.  We
have daily UPS pickup and they didn't even bother to show up on friday --
I don't know if anything we are shipping is actually leaving Long Island.
 
Ferret Breeders:
Companies like Marshall ship a very large number of ferrets by air every
week.  I have no idea how many ferrets a week Marshall ships, but it could
easily be a few thousand.  With hardly any flights going last week, this
must be creating a huge build-up of ferret kits.  Although I know that
some of the large breeders like Path Valley do delivery via truck (at
least locally), some (especially the largest pet store suppliers) must
rely on airlines to get their ferrets around the country.  This is a
potential build up that significantly dwarfs the current problem in Utah.
I have no idea what is going on with this, and no one at Marshall has
taken any calls from me in in the last year, so I doubt they are going to
start now.  Perhaps some other folks would want to find out if this is a
problem or not?
 
- Eric
 
Modern Ferret Magazine - For ferret owners. By ferret owners.
Mary & Eric Shefferman & the Fuzzies:
Trixie, Balthazar, Cauliflower, Koosh, and Gabrielle
http://www.modernferret.com  - http://www.ferrettradingpost.com
http://www.ferretdesigns.com - http://www.ferrettelevision.com
http://www.modernferrets.com - http://www.modernferretblog.com
[Posted in FML issue 3544]