In the remote, jagged edges of the Rocky Mountains, somewhere along the border between British Columbia and Alberta, lies a scattered shipment of about 4,000 dolls that won’t find a home this holiday season — or ever.
Samantha Ong, the founder and CEO of Joeydolls, which makes culturally inclusive dolls, says her Toronto-bound shipment containing orders she had anticipated for the peak holiday season was lost in a Canadian National Railway derailment in early November.
Ong and her family have since been on a mission to bring in as many dolls as possible from the U.S., where she has extra stock, in the hopes of making up for the uninsured cargo that she says retails for more than $200,000.
Ong says she first learned something was wrong on Nov. 10 after receiving an email from Canadian National’s (CN) co-loader SM Line, a Korean logistics co-ordinator that combines smaller shipments from different companies into single containers. The email said that the container holding Ong’s product was “on a bad CN railcar” but would be back on track after repairs were completed.
It wasn’t until Nov. 19, she says, that she was informed of the train accident that happened on Nov. 5, making the transportation of her container that had sustained “significant damage” impossible.
“This loss is completely devastating and such a blow to the holidays,” said a tearful Ong via Instagram. “I’m still processing the reality of it all.”
This is a busy season for Joeydolls, with both Lunar New Year and Christmas looming, and the shipment contained all preordered dolls for the season, and then some.
She was anticipating a boost in sales after filming an episode of “Dragon’s Den,” a show where entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to a panel of Canadian business moguls. The episode featuring Joeydolls is expected to air in the new year, providing the kind of national exposure Ong was sure would translate into more sales.
Ong says she didn’t purchase cargo insurance for her shipment that originated in China at the advice of her freight forwarder, another intermediary that handles shipping logistics, who told her the risk of losing a shipment is very low.
“I had no idea that train derailment was such a frequent thing,” says Ong. “I think more people should know that.”
Ong’s business is still new.
She came up with the idea for Joeydolls in 2020 when she was struggling as a wedding photographer with no weddings to shoot during the pandemic. As anti-Asian racism rose during this time, Ong says she noticed a gap in a market that was still dominated by “stereotypical” dolls.
Her company offers plush representations, handmade in China, from seven Asian cultures — Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indian, Filipino and Cambodian — as well as a Mexican doll.
“I wanted the dolls to really be authentic so that children can connect to their culture at an early age,” she says.
Despite the setback, Ong is determined to get those dolls into children’s hands this season.
She recently drove across the border to retrieve as many dolls as possible from a warehouse in Buffalo, New York, to fulfil holiday orders.
Ong says she was rejected trying to re-enter Canada at the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls, only to turn around and be rejected trying to re-enter the U.S.
“My kids were terrified,” says Ong of the tense interactions at the border during the two-day rescue mission.
After two-and-a-half hours of pleading with U.S. border officials, Ong says she and her family were permitted to travel to the Lewiston Bridge, about 10 kilometres from the border crossing at the Rainbow Bridge, and re-entered Canada, dolls in tow.
The loss has cost her close to $50,000, yet she feels fortunate for the community rallying around her, offering guidance and helping to contact customers.
“Knowing this response from the community, we can’t give up,” says Ong. “We have to keep going and make sure that we continue to provide that representation that people are so grateful for.”
