🎉 Happy New Year 🎉

I wanted to wish all of you a Happy New Year! 2020 has been one of the most challenging years ever. With travel restrictions, breakdowns of the supply chains, stay at home orders, shifting to work from home, not being able to go out to eat, not being able to see family in some cases, and learning to live with a whole set of challenges that nobody was prepared for; saying it was a tough one doesn't really encompass it. We have customers all over the world. I know that many of you in certain cities had it worse than others. Some of you have gotten sick yourselves. Some of you may have even lost loved ones. I know many people have lost their jobs and are struggling. It was a difficult year for many people. However, I wanted to share a little good news to cap this year off. Sometimes it can be mentally exhausting looking at the bad, and we forget to look at the good. Adding a little good news in the last hours of 2020 seems like a good end to the year.

I don't often talk about this side of things too much, but we have a large team of people here at Nootropics Depot. We employ almost 80 people here at our Tempe Arizona facility. We were alerted to this virus very early on from our suppliers in Wuhan. In fact, it was over a year ago when we first heard about this new virus that was going to be a problem. It was December 2019. Because we got firsthand accounts from our contacts in Wuhan, we were able to start preparing and taking it serious early. We put a pandemic response plan in place, and had many people working from home since early in the year. I actually haven't seen some of my employees for 8 months! Many have been remote, so it has been a challenge to say the least. However, I am very proud of how my team has handled this whole year. Because of the steps we put into place, and because my team took things seriously, we have been able to prevent this pandemic from affecting operations too much. We still released many new products. We did not have too many things go out of stock. We did not have fulfillment times get slower, or have it adversely affect customer service. To customers it might have seemed like nothing different was really going on. That was our goal. Moreover, we have not had to lay anybody off, and we have had ZERO COVID-19 outbreaks or transmission at our facilities. None. Some of our neighbors in our complex had to shut down for weeks at a time because of outbreaks, but we did not. My team took things seriously, and we gave them the ability to make smart choices. If someone felt sick, they knew they needed to say home till they got multiple successive negative tests. They quarantined for 14 days if there was any question, and we paid them fully during that time. None of our employees had to make the hard choice of coming to work feeling sick because they couldn't afford a drop in their paycheck. We made sure that everyone would get their full pay even if they had to stay home. This made it easy for my people to stay vigilant and stay smart. When you don't have to worry about losing pay by staying home sick, you are more likely to take it seriously. The results of our efforts show. Not a single case of COVID-19 transmission at our facility, and none of our operations had to shut down or even slow. I am very proud of how serious my team treated things, and the effort they put in to ensuring we could keep running smoothly.

I also know that many people have been struggling this year because they had their pay cut, or lost their job completely. Some companies have even taken advantage of the pandemic to lower employee pay or cut payroll costs when they didn't have to. It's unfortunate to see how some have handled this year. I know many of you buy from Nootropics Depot because of our quality and service, but I also want people to know what else they are supporting when they buy from us. The type of company behind things matters to a lot of you, too. I am very proud to say that all of my employees are better off at the end of 2020 than at the start. We gave raises across the board. I significantly increased everyone's Christmas bonuses this year. We also added 401Ks with company matching as well. This has been a big year for us giving back to our employees, because they make all of this possible. They are the reason you can get orders quickly and get helpful responses when you send support emails. It would not happen without all of them. I feel very lucky to be able to do this during a trying year such as 2020, and it's because of all of you that I am able to. I would not be able to do all these things for them without your support, so I want to thank you as well. Thank you for your continued support of us and what we are trying to do! When you buy from us, you really are supporting something good. I am trying to build something that can be a positive force for change in the supplement industry; not just on the analytical chemistry or product quality side of things, but also one that treats its employees well. I really do think that the team I have built over these years is our biggest strength. They are all fully onboard with my larger mission, and that feels really good! There is nothing they are not capable of tackling with me.

So I feel a bit strange "bragging" a bit on that side of things, but I really wanted to end the year on a happy note. Often times you have no idea who is behind the scenes in the companies you buy from. It's a mystery most of the time. You certainly don't often get to hear how the employees are being treated. I wanted you all to realize that your support is directly leading to the advancement of almost 80 people's careers. They had a stable and successful year because of you. While I can't fix all the struggles going on this year for many people, I can be damn sure that the people that work for me are taken care of. The only reason I can do that is because of the support I get from you guys. So again, thank you all for making this all possible! I hope that each and every one of you has a safe and Happy New Year! Here's to a better 2021 for everyone!