Ribbon & Blues is a packaging company on Archers Rd in Wairau Valley, Auckland, with a 4.9 rating from 58 reviews. Customers single out the range of ribbons and wrapping paper, fast processing of orders, and the absence of the big minimum quantities common elsewhere. Packaging suppliers are the quiet backbone of a city's small businesses — bakeries, florists, market stalls and online sellers all run on their ribbon, paper and boxes. The thing to check before anything else is minimum order quantity: many wholesalers sell only by the carton, which shuts out small makers, so firms that break bulk into shorter runs earn fierce loyalty. It also pays to visit in person, since ribbon shades and paper weights rarely match what a screen suggests, and colour matters when the ribbon has to sit against your product. Small wonder one reviewer drove two hundred kilometres from Tauranga: this is the kind of supplier that makes Wairau Valley a destination.