An Intriguing Tale Of Being An Owner

Богородица

I walked passed the Chinese restaurant today and the garbage bin was full of garbage – and I bet there were lots of compost in the garbage bin because that’s what people do out of convenience.  The town had just invested thousands of dollars on getting poop bags for the people who has dogs and let their dogs poop around town without picking up the poop – so I say – to get some composters and have them around town as well.  Now that would be a great investment – I would certainly throw my compost in these composters just to go green and do the eco way.   I would truly love to see the town do something that make sense to me – and to me if they were to take our taxpayers’ money and invest in these compost bins – it would certainly make me happy because at least they are doing something right for once.

Inspired by a local reporter in this town – I’ve decided that I will also invest on a good beach cruiser with a basket like the one above and some suv bike racks – so that I can ride my bike to work everyday – and then when we pick the kid up from school I can ride home myself for some form of exercise.   On weekends this year, we shall all go to the beach and go biking and keep healthy.  Now the weather is too call but I think I might get some sort of deal if I shop now.

I really do love biking – and I’ve always wanted a cruiser bike but had been too el cheapo to buy a good one – so no more stinging on myself and giving out money this year but first to take care of myself.  I can’t wait to order my cruiser bike from Manser the bike person and of course, need to check out on those bike racks.

While everyone was worried about the stock market ending up lower – my investment banker outperformed others and made me some money.  When the index when up 0.14%  I was quite sure they would go down again – but nope, my investment banker told me to keep it for a little longer last Tuesday.  So trading ending about 0.32% higher, so for the first time in a long time – I made some money.  So I’m sending him instead of a thank you note – I ordered some cookie bouquets for the entire department = after all, they do deserve something special and I don’t want to give them something ordinary right?   The Thanks a buzzillian cookie bouquet definitely fits the bill.

Everyone must love the boxing day sale – but you would love it more if you could save more with the boxing day sale and if you looked closely at any online store as I’ve found.   Nice to buy things online that is already on discount – yet get an extra discount with the likes of flower coupon codes – pretty awesome right?   We do have a boxing day sale today – and there were quite a number of customers coming in and I think only the independent store like ours are the ones who are opened for business – because we are the only hardworking ones that depends on every penny that comes in.  But that doesn’t meant that we want all the money to ourselves – we just want to make enough money to pay our bills, have money for food and save some for the kid’s college fund.  Not too much to ask for if you ask me right?  So come on in for a fabulous savings at our store.

So I’ve been asked by other business owners what I had thought about the downtown promotion – you see they didn’t participate nor supported giving the anything to promote it because they were the ones who had said nothing would come out of it.  We did support the downtown promotion by giving a $50 gift voucher for the draw and also a buy 2 get the 3 game free coupon for the directory.  We had thought it was a coupon book to every household before Christmas – to encourage people to shop downtown with those coupon savings.

i do like the directory and we do appreciate the work done by the 2 employees but I think we might have expected something different – but this is the first time doing it – so I guess we all had different ideas since we didn’t attend the meetings for planning it since we were busy and don’t have any other employees except for Gary who comes and help us as a friend.  I think maybe next year – they should invite the residents to sit in for the meetings as well – because hearing the consumer/s is very important too.

You would think that with birth rate so high in this town – someone would try to bring a  Gynecologist Center into this town.  But nope we haven’t seen anything like that in this town – and we certainly could use one – for I remembered when I had my kid – there was no gynecologist in town except for one.  I was indeed worried and I wished that each time I had to see a doctor – they would have at least the  fetal doppler to check on my baby  even though they didn’t have the ultrasound machine in the pre-natal clinic.  It was really a time when I was so frantic about the health of my baby especially when I came from a country who is so advanced medically.  Back home 3D ultra-sounds were already introduced.

While it was just announced that the provincial government is giving a million dollars to the hotel for upgrades and keeping jobs because of the lost of the ferry.  I think if they would spend it on giving us a well equipped gynecologist center – for the woman/girls here – it would definitely be a plus.  Keeping the jobs is important – but the health of these women having babies and having women problems need to be address too.  I vote for a new Gynecologist center anytime – or an upgrade in equipments like a 3D ultra sound machine and many fetal doppler for the pre-natal clinic.  This Christmas – my wish for this town is a better gynecologist center for this town.

Yes, we went out to pick up more Christmas decor for the store this week – because they are now all on sale – at about 40% discount at the mall.  I can’t wait to get some more Christmas stuff for both the store and home.  This year – we’ve spent more on decor than other years, I think it’s because we are debt free – from credit cards and everything else – so I can spend money on things that I like to pretty up the store.  I loved Christmas and have always wanted the store to look nice and Christmasy – this year – I have to say we are the happiest – with no employees to worry about – and a great help from Gary – who comes in to relieve us when we need to go home for supper.   We really should have done this a long time ago.

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.

Once upon a time – I loved to go to cosmetic counters and try new cosmetics and skin care products all because of the fashionistas @ the cosmetic counters.  But after coming to this little town – I don’t really look forward to going to any cosmetic counters – because most of the girls there are – lets just say – don’t speak for the product.  I guess now I know why in Asia – they want the young and pretty plus sexy ones on their cosmetic counters – because beauty and slim looking girls sells stuff.  They give you confident – to promote the product.  Which made me think of the way I dressed up our store many years ago   – let me explain – if I had wanted to tell people that eyelash growth products here are the best  – then I have to have the longest eyelash right?  or put on fake ones – if necessary.   But if I have a store full of computer parts – how am I going to promote eyelash growth products to anyone at all.  Likewise, I dressed up the store in such a girly manner – with flowers and ponds – now how were people gonna take our store seriously as a computer and game store?   So yes  – coming back to the fashionistas at the cosmetic counters here – you can now understand why I don’t play dress up no more right?  especially seeing a 200 pound woman wearing a tube in this town – I figured I won’t need to compete a lot with anyone  – just as long as I don’t put on any tubes.

This was the location that we were eyeing for – for the longest time – but of course – Pet Valu a chain store has it – but that’s ok – one of our regular customer – is the manager here – so I’m happy and so is the boss.

As much as I don’t like chain store – I’ll have to say that Pet Valu does look nice inside – and lots of products to offer pet lovers and owners.

Lets hope that Pet Valu doesn’t affect another customer’s pet store also in Starrs Road too much – since theirs is like ours a local small business owner.

Lots of pet food.

The store as you can see is well renovated too! we can afford the renovation – for this place – but just didn’t wanna fork out $10K for it.  We are that el cheapo – when it comes to renting.

Frozen food for pets will be available soon – wished they had fish though – but they do have fish food.

I’m sure Pet Valu will do well – because it is after all a chain store – deep pockets.

We’ve watched many kids grow up at our store – for the last 12 years being in business and when we first met them – they always tell their parents what a cool store we have.  Most of them would say they want to work here at the store when they grow up – they are just so cute.  We have lot of little boys come thru’ our store more than girls because we have more toys for boys than girls I guess – and you can imagine how many of them we’ve left an impression on.  For when they come home from college and drop in to say hello – they always remind us of how we used to threaten them to be good or else they can’t get any games at our store.  This year for Christmas – we are looking at Personal Creations boys gifts for all these little loyal customers of ours – who’ve made our store a success – because without them – we wouldn’t be here.   At the moment, we have a few boys who comes into our store on a daily basis – so we want to reward them with something special that they can carry with them everyday to school and show off to their friends that they got this little duffel bag from our store – with their name on it.  We have a few choices  that we can choose from – from t-shirts to pencil cases – and they are at reasonable prices – plus I can also get some of these personalize gift for my friend’s kids as well – while I am at it.  So yes!  this year – we have some surprises for our loyal lil’ customers.

We started dressing up the store for Halloween – even though we haven’t dressed up the store during Halloween last year.  But I guess this year is different – because things at the store and our personal life is just going so well and smooth.  So we have taken time to go shop for some Halloween decor for the store.  Say hello to my new sitting partner at the store – there he sits quietly as I type away and yak with the customers.  I haven’t given it a name yet – you have any ideas?

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.

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.

So it was a gaming day on one afternoon – because of the Annual Magic meet – and lots of players showed up – I think an all time high number of people for this gaming session and on a Saturday too.  It was nice to see so many players so up for the Magic Game and yes – they did spend a lot of money that day at our store and it was pretty fun – with the suppliers giving out free cards and gifts.  And even though we had plans to go shopping for a citizen watch that Saturday – because we didn’t think so many of them to show up – we had to wait till the next weekend to do it.  Love the business – but sometimes when you need to run some errands – it has to wait – after all making the money is more important than spending it right?

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.

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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We are sort of a electronic store – but really we don’t sell everything.   A long time customer who turned into a friend came in to see if we have some trucking gps system for sale – alas, we don’t have them – so we re-directed  him to the Source at the mall.  Making money is great and who doesn’t want to make extra money – but like I tell everyone – we never dabble with stuff we are not familiar with – so I rather leave the GPS system thing to the experts.  I loved sending ppl to the Source because I’m biased and wants to keep our money in Canada and not to big chains from the States.  So folks ! if you are looking for any kind of GPS – check out the Source at the mall – they are a friendly group of ppl there.

The rumor has it that since Zellers had been bought over by Target USA – they are not going to convert this Zellers into a Target store – so the mall will need a new anchor tenant.  I’m hoping that we get another Kmart – because years ago – the boss told me they had a Kmart and they had all sort of deal at the Kmart.  A lot of people loved Kmart – and we could use kmart coupons for shopping.  Unlike the current store locally – we don’t get coupons – so we can’t save as much as we would like.   Therefore, I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping against all hope that we get another Kmart as anchor tenant.   I asked the mall manager about it the other day – but she was quite secretive about it – but she didn’t set me straight – so I’m very hopeful.