CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) - A Chula Vista business specializing in hand-woven bags faced a logistics mess due to overtaxed delivery systems during the pandemic.
Daisy Romero founded El Cholo's Bag back in 2008. It's a completely online business and in 2020 sales skyrocketed,
"The e-commerce side just blew up," she said.
The business is rooted in Mexican tradition, which is how she describes her bags, "very traditional Mexican bag, they’re made from recycled plastic. They’re the kind of bag our grandmothers used to use for the market."
Many like the fact the bag is pandemic friendly.
"You can wash them, Lysol it, wipe it down with a Clorox wipe, it’s easy," she said.
But, her small business hit a big shipping problem.
"At one point I just had dozens of lost packages, throughout the system and it didn’t matter if it was UPS or USPS, it didn’t matter. Everything was just so strained," says Romero.
The shipping issue strained Romero's bottom line as well.
"It is a struggle, you know sometimes you’re in the negative because you had to refund three packages and you haven’t sold anything that day," she said solemnly.
She learned from the challenges, insuring her business so the next time a package gets lost, she doesn't get burned.
She's also working around the system, driving to San Diego customers.
"It’s easier to make sure your local customers get their product and it’s not going to be stuck in some distribution center even though it’s five miles away in Chula Vista," Romero said.
As for her dreams, the pandemic put them on pause.
"My biggest goal for this year was to break into the European market and go to Paris and do all these things. 2020 was like, 'not today,'" she said.
She hopes to bring her artisans' work to the world and share a bit of tradition.
