An Intriguing Tale Of Being An Owner

We had just received a newsletter for an organization that helps run the down town merchant organization, requesting that we decorate our display windows for Easter. On top of it.. suggest that we give promotional items out for the occasion.

For years, we have been trying to get into the festive mood.. and be gung-ho about becoming part of the community but at the end of it… what do we get..?? Not really much.. and a town that doesn’t wanna help the downtown business .. and making bad decisions.. and worst of all.. ex-employees who blamed us for mental anguish caused by putting them in charge of the decoration.

So after the ex-employee resigned and complained to unemployment that we had stressed her out because of putting her in charge of decorating the window when she had no proper training for it, we’ve decided that it is just not worth all the hassle. We will do what is necessary and that’s really about it… and whatever pleases us, not the town.. not the employees.. or the customers. Just us..! afterall, if we are doing it because of someone or something else.. it defeats the purpose of being your own boss eh.

Is it a good idea and a practice.. i asked myself often..?? I’m pretty sure anyone who owns their own business.. or free-lancing.. or making money on their own.. have had bad experiences like us. From bad cheques to customers ripping us off… and worst .. turning around.. and calling us the crooks.

We had customers coming in to ask us for a loan.. and others would buy stuff from you today.. and then wants to sell it back to you .. after a week.. because they don’t have a cent on them. Or worst.. those gets pissy with us.. if we do not want to buy the things they have to sell to us. Sometimes.. i think it might be better to keep the distance..?? but how to..?? what do you think..??

I am seriously wondering if we are really having better “feng shui” in this shop..?? Comparing with the bigger store that we had 2 doors away.. we seems to be doing alot better here with customers constantly in the store.. and we seems to be making better customers too. I really hope this means better and bigger things for us too.

Hopefully with the finalization of our new hours, things will be much better for us too. We just met a writer at our store today.. and he is awesome..!! so humble .. and so down to earth. It’s awesome..!!

Alot of the people that we’ve had hired in the past would resign just to go back to school and upgrade themselves to get a “better job”. Ok.. we admit .. working in retail for the rest of your life is not as lucrative as it sounds but it is afterall a job.

But quitting to upgrade oneself just doesn’t seems feasible especially when you need money to get by daily right..?? Online Learning is what i recommend to these people because they can still continue to work, yet get the degree they need, that way, their don’t need to depend on their family to support them through school.

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I often wonder how people can lived without any back up money in this town. It is quite sad.. because at least half the population here .. is on welfare of some sorts. Donch get me wrong.. i have nothing against those who really needs assistance .. but for those that are doing it just because they can exploit the system, that is where i get really upset.. because we pay alot in taxes.. for these “parasites”. I seriously think the system is flawed big time here.

One of the reason why we moved the store was because just outside our store is a public garbage can, and ppl in our town gather around that bin .. and smoke. There is absolutely nothing we can do about it, even though they are not allowed to loiter in front of our store. But we are not the ones getting it worst. The folks at Tim Hortons and the music store are actually suffering big time because of it. So much so, the owner is thinking of moving his store outta town.

Apparently, his customers had complained that they are afraid to come to his store because of the crowd outside his store .. permanently and constantly. I can’t say i blame the customer/s because i would be quite deterred too. And nope.. the town does not wanna do anything about it.. the cop can’t seems to do anything.. nor does the landlord. So we are back to square one.. left at our own devices.. even though there is a bylaw for loitering.

It is absolutely sad when you know of someone who had put themselves through years and years of college and university and cannot find their ideal job. We all know that it gets very draggy when it is something we settle for second best.

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I think it must be a Canadian thing. I called a supplier today.. specifically asking for a model of something.. and telling him the urgency of it. At 4.45pm i called again.. and he hasn’t even looked it up for me…plus no apologies.

Never mind that.. when i was on hold.. on the phone.. waiting for him to check it out.. still.. he doesn’t seems to wanna entertain me.. as a customer..?? maybe it is because the man had been dealing with him.. and therefore he wouldn’t deal with me…?? whatever the reason.. the supplier suxs.. and you can be sure.. i’m not giving him alot of business no more.

A customer was in today .. as soon as we opened shop. He bought a PS2 machine for 80 bucks, a used one of course. We love the business, donch get me wrong.. but what is the man doing with his PS2s…????

He comes in to buy one every month..!!!! yup..!!! you heard right..! like i said.. i wasn’t not gonna not sell it to him.. but every month.. he comes in to buy one. He smashed up the old one..?? can’t see him reselling it..since we are downtown.. and anyone wanting them.. could get them as easily from us. Mystery.. muahahhaa!!

If you have never owned a business before, you wouldn’t know how time consuming it is. Everything you do, you have to put the business first. There is really no extra time and even for grocery shopping, we can only do it very quickly after work for a few minutes before we have to rush home to relieve our babysitter. So shopping for books, clothings, shoes, accessories or anything fanciful have to be put on hold all the time. I try to buy anything and everything I can online and by doing it this way, I really get to choose the things that i want with no stress.

The new municipality building that they are building from scratch to house 8 members to work in, is costing an estimate of about $6 million to-date but like the justice building that had financial planning of about $9 million is now saying that they needed to pump in more money .. and the end bill for the Justice building will be about $16 million in total. Citing various reasons for the delay and the increase in prices, i wonder if it had anything to do with the Phase I environmental assessment..?? Or did they even comply to that at all. One has got to wonder how these huge difference can come about. But of course, we will never know about it.. because it is all “hushed, hushed”.

This is the latest we’ve heard so far today.. that it was both Walmart and Staples that put the other computer stores outta business.. by reporting them for software piracy .. to Microsoft. How true it is.. i really donch know. Doesn’t make sense that such big companies would wanna put such small businesses outta work..?? Is it true that Walmart and Staples wants the whole pie to themselves..?? how come we can’t co-exist.. harmoniously..??

A prominent lawyer of this town .. who happened to be the town councilor of this town had a search warrant for his office by the local cops sometime last year after his daughter who worked for him was arrested for possession of drugs with intend of trafficking.

The daughter of this lawyer/town councilor is a 44 yrs old woman.. so by no means was she young and naive and was mislead by some friends. This town needs to acknowledge the real problem. I don’t know of any addiction treatment program or places where people can go to in this town for help.  I really think it is high time, the town help positively and not think of themselves all the time.

Sometimes we have to wonder what these ex-employees of ours get in telling those stories they do about us.. when they are fired or they quit..?? I feel really pitiful for them, even though at first .. i am upset, that they would say ridiculous stuff. Almost kindergarten-ish stuff. The latest we heard from someone about an ex-employee whom we had fired was he didn’t get his last pay check from us. *sigh*

Here we go again..! a almost 30 yrs old man.. who told his friend.. that his mother had to come to our store.. to get his pay check. So he can’t fight his own case if it was true..?? And seriously .. i can’t remember ever seeing his mother come down for it. Just for everyone’s info, last paychecks come with ROE (record of employment) and that takes sometimes up to 10 days… and everytime someone resigns or get fired, we tell them specifically that. But they love to churn out stories that even an idiot would laugh at them, yet they do. Pity..!

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A customer was in last nite.. trying to set up an account to rent movies from our store. I recognized him from long ago, he and his then g/f had some of our games.. and didn’t returned it. But he insisted that he was incarcerated since 2002 ..?? or something like that.. and couldn’t have been him.. but he kept saying.. “i was incarcerated.. i was incarcerated..” .. as if it was something he should be proud of or what..??

If i was in prison.. i wouldn’t say it so loud..!! OMG ..!! what are these ppl thinking..?? so darn proud.. of being charged and being put in jail..!!!! Big words or not.. it still means the same..!!! *shake head* ! you tell me lah..!! if you were “incarcerated” .. would you be telling the video store’s owner that..?? *slap forehead*

If for every shocking and bizarre messages that we received for the store.. we could make some money outta it, we would be millionaires now. Just the other day.. PB received a call from a “customer”. She had left a message on our answering machine.. because we weren’t opened till noon. This was what she said nastily.. “i had a computer for you to fix, but i BROUGHT IT TO STAPLES ALREADY!”

In which we should have called her back.. and said.. “OOOOOOOOOOK .. !! good luck.. to you . . and the exorbitant price you have to pay.. and donch know when you will get your computer back..!” She can’t wait till we opened..?? and had to leave this nasty message..?? Nice..!! JOY..!! the joys of owning your own business..!

This small town of ours needs a magazine for its people just like what Denver Magazine is doing for the people in Denver. I bet everyone is Denver has already subscribe to it but if you haven’t, let me just highlight a few good stuff in its magazine and you will understand why i said we need such a magazine in our town.

The magazine is newly launched and already you can see they are all professionally layout and thought through in each article. Covering hotel, recipes, a holiday getaway, a skin care products review, businesses, cultural buzz and some political awareness and focusing what is important to the folks and investors of Denver. Yes.. a magazine like Denver Magazine can definitely make a difference in your view towards the place you’ve called home.

While it was busy last weekend.. and we couldn’t leave the store.. till almost 7.30pm.. this weekend.. was so quiet. We left at around 6pm.. and had Kate work till closing. The flexibility of either having Kate work or babysit helps alot, plus she is very flexible. . and donch mind doing what has gotta be done. We did get a winner here.

We are just about moved everything to the new store and in the midst of unpacking and getting things organized. Moving from a bigger store to a small one, makes it alot harder to keep everything you have organized, so a few more cabinets are necessary. The man bought some cabinet pulls to go with the store decor and although i prefer the more feminine ones, i guess it is only practical to use a standard ones for the store. Afterall, we don’t want the male customers to feel that we are going girly on them.