An Intriguing Tale Of Being An Owner

Winter isn’t here yet – but the weather is getting cold fast – and in preparation for winter in the store – I’ve decided to invest in a little electric mattress pad for my kid when she is at the store – sick.   You see when she is sick from school – she comes to work with us – she has a little sofa bed behind the store – right beside my desk – and there she stays to rest and get well.  Every winter – she seems to have it harder – she gets a lot of cold and sometimes comes down with a fever.  And when she is at the store – she doesn’t seems to be warm enough and it’s hard on her when we have an electric heater blown directly at her.  So this year – since we are doing so much better – I’ve decided to splurge on the essentials – to be prepared.   We worked so hard to keep our family healthy and safe right?  so this is an investment – the spouse and I thinks it’s absolutely necessary.   The kid is thrilled because she likes to get comfy on her sofa couch – she said she won’t mind lying down to watch a movie if she had a electric mattress pad to warm her up in the winter.

Guess it’s job hunting season around this town again – we’ve been receiving numerous application for a job in the store.  I can’t really blame them – since the boat isn’t coming next year – and one of the hotels in town had announced this week that they needed to close its door permanently due to molding problems, so the jobs there are redundant.  Food Service Jobs are available but most people in the food industry or the hotel industry are probably in the same job for years and to open a few more positions for those who’ve lost their jobs recently is probably not feasible.  So in the next few months – you will see a lot of young people leaving town to seek for food service jobs in restaurants, hotels and cafes out of town.  Luckily, in the city – there are lots of eateries and the hospitality industry continues to do well – but not in this town.  I wish those going out of town good luck and fully understand why you would take this step.

Movie rentals has finally picked up this week – and even though it’s not like when we started 12 years ago – it’s a good sign for us – just as long – no one decides that we are making so much money and wants a piece of the pie.  For in this area – you cannot support more than 1 movie rental place.   I hope the rental continues to be good – but I think we are doing better with games.

A few months ago – we had an opportunity to move to Starrs Road and this week we have an opportunity to move to a bigger store but right on Main.  Of course, rent is going to be more – about 50% more and to me – there are the pros and cons but with this economy and the landlord that we are going to stay with – may not be the best idea to move.   But the spouse is thinking about it seriously and wants to see what the landlord is going to do about the renovation first before he decides.  I’m still adamant that if we do move – it has to be Starrs road or not but this is not my store – so I cannot make the final decision.

So we have a Pet Valu in town, we just drove by the store and saw their sign up – so can this town support a franchise as huge as Pet valu?  and the rent they need to pay at Starrs Road.   We won’t know how they would do – since we don’t own our own pet – but like all franchise here – I can’t see it doing “that” well – but one can be hopeful eh.

Nope ! not at all and I learned my lesson well – even though I’m just the owner by association – I found out that I need to know what is going on – else you will be in a shocked at your financial situation. That’s not fun at all!  so make sure you know what the boss is doing. We are darn lucky – we are able to turn things around – if not – we would be in deep trouble.

The local Y was renovated and it had a re- grand opening last week – on the weekend, unfortunately, we were not in town but it doesn’t mean that we would have gone either.  Usually events like this are for the town councilors and MPs  – so the boss and I rarely attend these things as he is not always into small chats.  He cannot be bothered usually and just wants to go back to the store to make money and work hard.  Lucky for me – he is not a man of many words but a man who does work – muahahah!!

So around our building we try to plant flowers and plants to beautify the store – but we don’t seems to be getting the right fertilizer because the flowers just don’t grow the way we want them to.  A customer told us about a composter that she used to grow her vegetables as well as her garlic and stuff – one day she even brought me some.   I don’t know if I would be successful growing my own flower plot and garden at the back of the store or not – but I could definitely use a composter at home for the spouse’s father had always wanted me to grow raspberries and other things and I loved growing my own herbs and cucumbers and peas.  So this compost bins are pretty easy to use I heard – and we are definitely checking it out.  If we can make the earth a better place to live in and eat healthy – why not right?

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More new toys for the magic players of this town.  The boss found another supplier for the magic stuff – so of course he had to bring some in to please his customers and himself – since he is a player himself.

There were a good 10 – 12 players every Friday night for the game nite – so we are pretty stoke.

Bags to carry the dice.

Maps.

More colored dice.

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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.

More magic stock came thru’ the store today – and of course there was the shit load of it from another store – down the other end of the province.  You see someone came to unload their inventory to us – and even though it was cheaper – to buy it from him – there is a lot of money involved and stagnant – which I’m not too impressed about.  But it will sell eventually I know – but the store is just not huge enough to hold so many things.   So come on people – come in and clear my magic stock.

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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!

We are having real success with the night vision camera that we bought for the store – and it is penning out pretty well – so we are going to be carrying this stuff at the store and recommend it to our customers.  Just today – an old customer who had bought some security cameras from us a long time ago was in – so we recommended them to her – I hope she does get it – it is only $100 a piece – definitely well worth it – if you want to protect your business.

Many years ago – this kind of camera cost a fortune – but now that it cost so little we are thinking of changing all our outdoors ones to this too.  So if you are looking for one to secure your home or your shed and businesses – you know who to call.

I used to travel a lot for work – and one of the best company I worked for was a foreign company in Spain.  Ours was a representative office in Asia – in charge of the Asia – Pacific region – and Australia – and with so much traveling done – not only by myself – but all the other people in our office – from Sales Managers to Engineers – a good  medical air evacuation plan was necessary for the entire staff – well except the office staff.   So when my ex-boss called this week and asked if I would like to join him in another office – he is now with an American firm – I asked him to send over the terms & contract.  I’m really tempted – because the terms were great – and I did see a medical air evacuation plan – so this company must be a good one.   But I know I can’t go – having a kid and a store – so I passed on another name for the position.  Maybe – in the future – I might get another good offer eh.

No – we are nowhere near Gilligan’s island – but we could use a better location – but better location doesn’t necessary means better business – because you never know.  We saw a location open up on Starrs Road and had been thinking about it.  Sure we had to move – sure we hate to loose that foot traffic – but Starrs Road is the happening area – especially during the holidays – be it Christmas or public holidays – I think moving to Starrs Road with the right price – is where we are heading.  The boss had been asking for more space and a lot of times of late – so lets hope we can get a better location and increase its business.

So last Sunday morning – we received a call from the security company informing us – that our security alarmed had gone off multiple times.  I told her to go ahead and call the cops – but apparently – they did but the cops would not response because it was only a single zone alarm  – *slapped forehead*.  By the time we arrived – the burglar was long gone.   Nothing was stolen – because the basement door was double barred.   We haven’t had a break in – since we moved up to Main Street – so it was kinda surprising.  But we were darn lucky – because the stupid burglar didn’t go any further than the back door.  I guess it had to be the alarm going off that frightened him/her/them.

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!

Movies had been steadily picking up ever since the closed down of a competition – and I’m happy about it.  But we also see some assholes who refused to return our movies – and who gives us fake contact numbers. As much as I love renting movies – it will come one day – where we decide it’s not worth the hassle no more.  But for now we will still continue because there are more customers now – and because we are the only 2 places renting movies in town.

Yes ! these are the people who’ve ripped us off – in the recent 12 months – and we’ve been in business for 12 years this August – so you can imagine – how much money we’ve lost in the last 12 years.  And yes we do use  debt collectors to try and recoup our losses but not very much luck.  Now we really need a good debt collector – that can really get some of our money back but we can’t really blame the old ones for not trying because most of the people on my ripped off list – are probably jerks and have no credit at all – what to do right?  But that doesn’t mean that we are going to stop trying get our money back – we will keep looking for a debt collector who has a trick or two that hasn’t been used yet.

I missed working for big companies that take care of you and your entire family.  I used to have health insurance not only for myself but for my entire family – so when I first arrived in Canada – I too had asked the boss about health insurance and life insurance for the employees.  Alas, being a small business  – we can’t afford to do all those for our employees but that doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped looking for feasible insurance for not only ourselves, our business and employees.  Checking out  Trustedquote.com life insurance , I get an idea about the kind of premium one have to pay for life insurance and like any business owner by association – I want to keep informed about our options and hope that one day we can grow big enough to give our employees all these benefits.  Being a good employer means that you have good employees too.