So we broke down and bought 2 infrared heater at the store – just to see if it would help with the oil bill since oil has gone up again. But after using it for a few days now – it doesn’t seems to work as good as we would like it too. The store is still pretty cold after turning it on for a few hours – and it’s still running to bring the temperature up in the store. But having said that we have quite a long store – so that might be why it’s not heating up as well. Perhaps, it’s only me – we shall see – in a few more days.
We want to carry the Wacom Bamboo Capture at our store but before we do – we have to try out the gadget first and see how we can sell it right? so yes! we went ahead and bought the Bamboo Capture and will be carrying them at our store. There are lots of great artists in town apparently – or college student using it in this town.
We were up in Halifax a few weeks ago – and had gone looking for breakfast nearby the hotel. Who wants to pay $25 for breakfast right? And look what we found! the Halifax Mac store! I’ve known about it for a long time now – but never got a chance to visit and it was within walking distance of the hotel we stayed in – how nice right? So you asked did we visit the store? Nope ! no time still – I’m just curious to see the setup – since all the Mac store around the whole is so huge and you know – everything so Mac like. I’ve been to the one in New York, Japan as well as the one in Madrid – so you can understand why I wanna see what it is like in this Mac store right. Maybe next time.
Summer time in downtown Yarmouth – is quite a sense in our town – we have a 2 weeks activities around downtown and every year – we make sure – we draw business into our store by placing some wireless speakers outside our store – and blast them with fabulous music. People are drawn to the music – and if we had tourists in town – even the tourist s would come in and check out the store. I know that this worked – because when we were down on Central Street – it was what we did – to draw people to come down from Main Street. I love our wireless speakers – because I don’t need to send the boss up to the top of the building and hook it up – because he don’t quite like heights – and to just hire someone to do that – seems a little silly. So yes ! wireless speakers – don’t need wires – and I don’t have to hook it up very high and when I’m done for the day at the store – I just bring them in or move them wherever I want. Pretty cool eh.
The called it the Wharf Rat Rally – and I’m pretty proud of the people up in Digby – for organizing this event and making it more and more successful. Now if only this town will do the same – and smarten up – but of course not! But come end of August – it’s happening again and I’m going for it ! They have all sorts of bikes in this rally and ATVs – the most amazing thing about this event – is the amount of people who goes for it. I hear that last year – they had people packed along the street – 10, 000 bikers and more. I know the spouse uses Polaris Accessories for his ATV and so does his friends – so I’m assuming that a lot of vendors are going to be there too. There will be entertainment – and lots of demo – and I’m definitely sure that this year will bring lots of money to the town of Digby – congrats! Those who loves ATVs, Bikes and automobiles – you have to go see it for yourself – it’s a darn good show!
A new batch of laptop chargers just came in – for we have been asked every other day for one – this type are universal – so it can go pretty much with most laptops. But like always – we prefer that the customer/s brings their laptop in – so that we can make sure that it fits their laptop before paying for it. Compared to other stores in town – our universal charger for your laptop is way cheaper. Why? because the spouse don’t believed in ripping anyone off – yet we are called all sorts of names – go figure!
So we have been getting a batch of camcorders in our store but we don’t really want to at first – because we don’t really know much about it but after reading some camcorder reviews , we decided that some camcorders are a good buy for reselling purpose. So now when someone wants to sell their camcorders – we already know some of its features and what it can and cannot do. I’m fascinated by the pocket cameras like the Flip Ultra HD – according to what I read – and its size – I believed that it just might be a huge sell during Christmas. And for $119 – i think it could be just the perfect gift for the nieces and nephews as well.
While I’ve made many conference call while working in the hotel’s business center and then traveling for work around the world – it’s hard to make a conference call at work. Why? our store is just too busy and we are constantly swarmed with customers or the kid when she gets home from school. So if we needed to make a business conference call or even one for family back home – it’s almost impossible unless we close the store up for an hour or wait till the kid is in her bed and call from home. But we don’t have a regular phone at home – so making a conference call can be quite expensive using a cell phone plus it’s just not the same doing it on a cellphone instead of a proper conference call phone. So yes! i have to look for a cheaper and clearer solution to making those conference call at work.
When you work for a huge company – you get all sorts of benefits – from a blackberry to medical health insurance and even dental insurance – some gets travel plans depending on their designation and what their jobs entailed. The benefit of working for a huge and reputable company is definitely different when you work for a small business like us. Even though we can’t pay you as much as they do – our work is a lot easier – and we don’t demand as much as the big company does. Having said all that – I do miss working for a big firm and enjoying all the benefits – but for now – I have no choice but to stay back and help the spouse with his – and take care of our kid.
We can never keep any of our 2nd hand notebook computer for long – they sell like hotcakes. Whether they are netbooks or notebooks or laptop – customers just buys them whenever we do get any in. Usually, when we do sell them for a great price – it’s when someone brings them in – the ones we get from our suppliers are usually a lot more expensive therefore, we are not able to offer such great prices. I wished I can find a supplier that can sell us good used notebooks but I’ve yet to find a reasonably priced ones. New notebooks are cheaper online than what we can buy for it and resell – so if we can’t offer them at a good price to our customers – we redirect them to where we would get them online or offline.
So the boss just bought a new repair machine from United States – after taxes and custom – it came to about $2K for this small little machine. But it is kinda an investment and also a need in the store. We do already have another machine – a huge one that we had bought 7 months ago – when another movie store closed its door. Now had i known he was still getting this disc repair machine – I wouldn’t have let him buy the old one – after all – 7 months – didn’t really make our money back – luckily that machine was pretty cheap.
The new disc repair machine is very easy to use – and even I can do it – when the boss isn’t around. And customers don’t have to come back the next day for it – they can just wait around and I can have it fix for them within minutes – pretty cool.
The machine is also small – and don’t need a lot of space – so its pretty cool.
And all the lotion needed for the repair is just behind – no need to mess with messy gooey stuff no more – so yes ! an investment and money well spent i would say.
Many teenagers of our town – actually grew up with our store. In business for 12 years this August – we’ve seen many young boys – turned into fine young man – we can no longer call them boys anymore – for they have all grown up. One particular customer – is turning 18 this week – and he is a very special boy to us – you see – when we first met him – he was only 6 – 7 yrs old and when he was 10 yrs old – he told his mom, he wanted to work in a store like ours – so cute right? Anyhow, we are searching for an 18th birthday gift for boy to find a gift appropriate for him – after all he is in college now and coming home during March break. Not easy buying for an 18 yrs old boy eh? But i did get some ideas from a site online – what do you think? A gadget car charger for his “new” car – that his parents are gonna surprised him with. We are pretty cool shop owners eh? but yes! i think we might just get this – I bet all 18 yrs old would love this.
We used to sell cellular booster at our store but nothing like the ones you get at the store. You see – the spouse’s friend said it worked – so the spouse went to order some – but truth be told the ones we sold didn’t work that great. So when I saw some at the mall – I bought some and of course – those were far better and worked a lot better too. The reason why we had to get it – was because the father-in-law is always out in the woods during the winter – so with a cellular booster – we don’t have to be afraid that he can’t call out if he was in trouble. So yes! it makes the mother-in-law really happy too.
Yes! it’s that time of the year again – time to think of getting gifts for our customers – the loyal ones who have been with us and supported us all these years. Do all businesses do that? or is it just us? this year we are looking for a more personalized gift – for individual customer. Since we are a game store that sells hockey cards, magic cards etc – we thought some personalized footballs for their kids would be a great way to advertise our business. But I’m guessing that any personalized gift with our logo or our store’s info – would be a good investment/advertisement – what do you think?
I’ve time and again told you that this town is extremely funny ! you see they even have bylaws for signs – that means you need to get permission to put up a sign and no flashing signs too. Yes – apparently – flashing signs can cause accidents? Mannn!! this people haven’t been to Las Vegas or Japan eh – muahahah!! anyhow – we were out looking for door chime from the local hardware store when we heard a conversation between 2 customers that the sign bylaws were gonna be changed but there is going to be a big debate about it.
The town planner fears that with this new bylaws or freedom for putting up signs without getting a permit could lead to more cost – because they might be asked to remove it. *sigh* – how ridiculous right? businesses need a permit to put up signs! how is a business gonna thrive if they need a red tape on everything they are doing? Makes no sense to me ! is the concern of the town planner a real concern? I really can’t tell – but this town sure looks pretty dull in my humble opinion – even India has some awesome signs in the city. So more debate i heard soon – we didn’t continue listening as we needed our door chime and head back to work.
The man is buying everyday – sometimes i cringed at the things he buys because i put myself in a customer’s shoe and I for one don’t mind buying used things – but if the previously used item is in rough shape then – i wouldn’t wanna buy it – sometimes I have sleepless nite worrying and need the best sleeping pill to sleep at nite. Like my grandmother used to say – the appearance is more important than the inside of a person – on first contact – so the same for any items one buys.
Even though acquired cheap – if it doesn’t move – no point at all. I hate storing things – because it gets moved around and then forgotten – this is only a quarter of our store and you can see how packed things are. And no we are not moving to Starrs Road yet – coz’ of how this town is currently and Dexter ain’t doing anything for us – just because we didn’t vote for a MLA he wanted (so the rumors go). So yes ! packed and busy – really can’t complained but still don’t want to keep buying non-stop everyday.
The customer’s wife wants the best dip machine while he wants a tank notebook for his truck. Fancy stuff..?? sure.. ! but he can afford it.. so why not right..?? Yes.. ! all you have to do .. is to let us know what you need.. and the model.. and we pretty much can hunt down anything for you. This was found on ebay.. and if you’ve seen it.. you will know why i called it a tank notebook. It’s like those used in a cop car. Fancy enough for any tough guy.. and it’s built and covered that you know .. you can’t break the darn machine.
A month ago, our local security company in Halifax offered us a security package that we can’t refused. With the package of only $1 a day .. this night vision camera came with it. Now we can go for a vacation at Myrtle beach golf without worrying to much about any mishaps.
In our type of business, you really need a good security company and this company has a very special warranty too. Now if during the six months following installation they are unable to resolve any installation or service-related concern, they will refund the installation charge and/or any monitoring fees paid. Not only is it 24/7 monitoring, they also added an infra-read censor in our store – which means that once the alarm is turned on during the nite.. and they can feel any human heat or movement in the store, the censor will go off. This security company, will call for emergency back up from the local cops.. and guarantee that the cops will be informed within 3 mins of the time the alarm goes off. We opted for a silent sensor .. that way, the burglar/s will not get a chance to run off with any loot. Smart eh?
We do computer repairs as y8u all know but sometimes.. i feel the man is over working himself for a few bucks. He won’t charge enough.. and like this laptop.. that is 2nd hand and sold to the customer for a few months now. It came back.. without any light. The man had to stripped everything out.. test just about everything.. and tried to replace stuff needed.. and guess how much he charged for all that work..?? pittance..!! donch even get me started. At this rate.. i’ll never be able to retire .. and become a full time housewife.
