By David Post

The Empire State Building.

Trade war.

WhatsApp.

Stay at home.

Guangzhou, China.

COVID-19 masks.

Swiggle Sweets.

Those seven dots connect.

The Empire State Building took 13 months to build. Mike Miller and I are opening Swiggle Sweets on Main Street. That will take longer, actual construction time taking only a month but acquiring the property, performing environmental testing, making repairs, preparing plans and obtaining government approvals taking almost a year. 

COVID-19 is adding a few more months. And we’ve experienced doing business with China during the outbreak.

We found some terrific fixtures at Dylan’s Candy Bar, an upscale chain. The U.S. manufacturer quoted $11,500 each. Ouch, we need six. Another U.S. company offered a $2,400 option, but told us that manufacturing and delivery would take three months because they were manufactured in China. 

Thus began the adventure.

Mike suggested Alibaba, which is a business-to-business site rather than China’s Amazon. I floated photos of the fixtures we want and, suddenly, manufacturers appeared in my Alibaba account: Margaret, Lois, Frank, Alvin, Troy and a dozen more, mostly from one of China’s largest cities, Guangzhou. Formerly named Canton, it has more than 15 million people, is a manufacturing hub and China’s largest port. 

Margaret and Lois called me “Dear,” “Love” and “Honey.” The guys call me “Sir.” Because the Alibaba communication platform is clunky, we communicated via WhatsApp, usually at midnight.

One company showed me the $11,500 Dylan’s fixture, with a quote of $2,200. Another quoted the $2,400 fixture for $800 plus shipping and taxes.

Not only were Chinese manufacturing cost substantially less than the U.S., but manufacturing here isn’t manufacturing here. It was paying a U.S. company to broker manufacturing in China and mark it up four times. Frankly, dealing with the Chinese was easier. Their engineers could modify the plans as we requested. The U.S. company could not modify its design. 

So, we cut a deal with one company. It offered to generate an alternative, “reduced price” invoice for the shipping documents to offset the trade war tariffs. No thanks, I said. Turns out we pay the tariffs, not the Chinese.

Then came COVID-19. It slowed manufacturing about a week in China. COVID-19 also has slowed the process at U.S. ports, especially for Chinese imports. And, of course, now is not an optimal time to open a retail food business in the U.S.

During our midnight WhatsApp chats, I asked Margaret and Lois (different companies) about their lives under COVID-19. Theoretically, beyond COVID-19, China is reporting few new infections and no more deaths. I question those reports, but China did contain this pandemic significantly better than the U.S. did.

When Margaret and Lois arrive at work, they said they are given a new mask and their temperature is taken. If they have a temperature, they are sent home. Both wear their mask all day at work. Their temperature is taken if they move from one department to another (sales, engineering, manufacturing and inspection). Any sign of a temperature sends them home.  

They wear the day’s mask home and back to work the next day — when they are given a new one. They were required to wear their masks all times outside their homes. From late January through mid-March, they could not leave their homes except to go to work, grocery or pharmacy. Being on the street for any other reason or not wearing a mask meant being arrested. They and the entire country were effectively locked in their homes and off the streets.  

Even now, they wear masks everyday everywhere. Similar laws in the U.S. would be challenged on constitutional grounds. Our government took dramatic action during the world wars, but not in this pandemic war.

China admittedly made mistakes. It learned that something was amiss last November or December and didn’t tell the world until January, denied a problem for a couple weeks and then acted immediately. The U.S. government ignored the implications for over three months. With one-quarter of China’s population, as of this writing, the U.S. has more than three times the number of infections and double the deaths. We’re told that 100,000 deaths is a good outcome.

China made its own supplies, controlled distribution, controlled the opening and closing of businesses and controlled the movement of people. Even if China is not telling the truth about its numbers, its suffering is markedly less than the U.S.

Now, my new Chinese friends are offering to sell me masks and other protective medical supplies for good prices and in large quantities. But like toilet paper, it would take a couple months to get here and navigate customs, unless the Carolina Panthers loan me their airplane.

Swiggle Sweets taught me a lot about China. If only we learn as much about a sweets shop.

David Post is a businessman and a member of the Salisbury City Council.