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Global supply chain shortages continue to affect both car brands and customers, as many of the former can’t keep up with orders from the latter. Faced with supply chain shortages that are drastically delaying customers’ orders, Mini announced last week that it has a plan. To help alleviate customers’ frustrations waiting, Mini will send some customers puzzles—some of which are life-sized—to assemble while they wait for their order.
Mini is calling these puzzles “THE WE’RE-WORKING-HARD-TO-GET-YOU-YOUR-CAR, WAITING-IS-THE-WORST, IN-THE-MEANTIME-HAPPY-PUZZLING, MINI PUZZLE.” Or just “NOT SO MINI” puzzle. (That wasn’t a joke, that’s actually the name.)
Mini isn’t saying how many puzzles they’ll send, or who will receive the puzzles. Not all customers will receive a life-sized puzzle either, a regular-sized puzzle will be shipped too. (We’ll update this post if we hear back on those specifics.)
It would be cool if each customer received a puzzle of the car they ordered, so customers could create a reminder of the car that’s not yet parked in their garage. Plus, once they finally get their car, the puzzle would become a nice little collector’s item to go along with it.
“People buy a MINI because of its cheeky and fun-to-drive spirit, so we wanted to give owners something fun to do while they wait to get behind the wheel of their new MINI,” Mini spokesperson Rah Mahtani said in a statement.
At first, this seemed to me like a hilariously pathetic way to deal with supply chain shortages and order delays. After thinking about it, though, it’s actually a fun little way to show that Mini hasn’t forgotten its customers. Mini could do like many brands and just ghost its customers who are looking for updates on their cars but instead it’s chosen to send them a small gift. So as silly as a puzzle might seem, Mini could be sending its customers nothing instead.
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