Happy Holidays from PooPail

A message from Sandy Stinson, Creator/Founder of PooPail:

Launching PooPail has been so exciting. My two dogs left me so much poop to pick-up in the backyard, I thought there must be a better way to deal with the mess and came up with the concept of the PooPail. It’s the first two-in-one solution to both pick-up and store pet waste.  Naïve to manufacturing, I thought it’s just a covered pail and a scoop. How hard could it possibly be to manufacture and bring this to market? How little I knew.

Conception:

I worked with a few engineers before finding one who understood what I was trying to accomplish. This engineer had worked with a manufacturer in China and suggested we go to them to make the molds and manufacture PooPails. The design was sent. The molds were made. An initial order of 10 pails was sent by the Chinese manufacturer for approval. Even though they were a bit clunky, they worked well.

Crowdfunding:

The campaign launched in March and ran 30 days. The manufacturer said production time would be 30 days and that shipping would be another 15 days. When I estimated that PooPails would ship in June this seemed like a reasonable target.

With the Crowdfunding campaign we sent a questionnaire to all backers, and we discovered that you wanted an even taller version, color choices, and wheels. They were great ideas, and I want to deliver a product that everyone will enjoy using.

With the addition of the taller pail, we could no longer ship PooPails fully assembled. The shipping costs are based on size, not just weight. Within a week my engineer came up with snap-together arms that’ll work for both the medium and tall PooPails along with a new wheel assembly.

Chinese Manufacturer:

The Chinese manufacturer said the mold changes would take a month, but it took them five! It was during this time that the supply chain issues started surfacing and I searched for a US manufacturer.

Every time I asked the Chinese manufacturer how long some phase of production would take - the answer was always 30 days. I just didn’t trust them anymore.  Rather than wait the “30 days” for PooPails to be manufactured and shipped from China, I had the molds flown to a new manufacturer in Erie, PA.

U.S. Manufacturer:

The U.S. Manufacturer was ready to start production right away so I could ship all of the Crowdfunding orders and start selling PooPails to the public before Christmas. But when the U.S. manufacturer received the molds mid-October they were a mess. Not only were some parts missing, but two new molds had to be made. Setting up the molds on new machines requires a lot of time and tweaking. None of the schematics were included, so it has been time-consuming.

Recent Update:

The U.S. manufacturer has completed the process of manufacturing every one of the 25 parts that make up a PooPail, and I have plans to meet with the manufacturer on Monday. My engineer and I will examine and must approve each component before the manufacturing will be completed and your PooPail will ship to you.

I am so sorry for the continued delays.

Once every Crowdfunding order has been fulfilled, we will start selling PooPails to the public through our website. No one wants to ship you a PooPail more than me! Please check our website for updates on production at PooPail.Com.

I wish you the happiest of holidays. 

Thank You,

Sandy