An Intriguing Tale Of Being An Owner

Teenagers and young adults love coogi clothing and I fully understand it – it’s the “in” thing in this town  – but unless you are working in a casual environment or a sport store, shoes store – then you probably should leave those clothing and shoes when you are going out for the night with the girlfriend or boy’s night out.   If you were working at our store – for sure coogi clothing would be a great match – because we are on a casual environment type -  we ourselves wear jeans and sneakers to work – so we won’t expect our employees to be putting on a tie and suit to work.  But if you are working for a law firm or an accounting  firm – then probably  not.  So yes – you want to be dressing appropriately for work – and if you are not sure – ask ! and I’m sure someone will let you know.  Good luck all!

So we have a truck that we use for the store – and the car insurance was very reasonable – which makes us want to get another bigger truck in the near future.  We are watching places like Kijiji – and the local yardsale – that was where we bought our present truck – for some good deals.  Contrary to what most people think – we do not sleep on money – and whenever we do buy anything for the store or ourselves – we always buy what is the cheapest or the best price.  We don’t splurge on anything – we are thrifty and we always pay our bills on time.   So yes, whether we are getting another company’s car or a truck – insurance for the car need to be very good price too.  What about you ?  do you just go out and buy a car without doing some calculations?  I had a customer told me that they had to stop using their car because they got charged for services – I know that cannot be true – because we’ve had our car new too at one point and we were never charge for any nonsense  – except for the usual up keeping.   I figured they didn’t do their math well.

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.

I love my Wii Fit and we do sell them at the store – but some people think that the Wii fit and the board can do miracles – and I hate to burst their bubbles – because even though it does help with losing weight – you have to work at it – 5 times a week – 30 mins a day – and eat proper.   If you don’t eat proper – even the the best weight loss pills cannot help you.  Whenever I sell the Wii Fit  & the board – i remind the buyer to make sure that they take the right supplement to burn their fats and if they are using weight loss pills – they should see results quicker – but to remember to eat proper and stop drinking pop ( pepsi, coke & orange)

Ever since I became a diabetic – I not only learned how to read labels for the sugar content – I also learn to read labels for how many calories are there in the things we eat.   The problem with being diabetic is – when the calories is high – some food does not have sugar.  But those with low calories have more sugar – how ironic isn’t it.   So if you are buying a Wii Fit and the Board – trying to lose weight – yes it can help for sure – but make sure you eat proper  – fish 3 times a week – baked or steam and never fried would be the best.   Definitely make you lose some weight there – easy on the potatoes please.

I wished we had some kind of contract with our local hospital here – because it certainly looks like they are spending a lot of money not only on equipments but stuff like  exam tables , office chairs and computers every now and then.  I know so – because they throw out completely perfect furniture and computer monitors all the time.  A friend who works in the local hospital told us that he had gotten a doctor’s chair when it was in the trash at the hospital – and according to him you can get all sorts of things from the lounge as well. I bet – I probably can get one of those old blood pressure machine from my doctor – if it was the right timing eh.

Tomorrow is the official boxing day sale and I can`t wait to pick up a few things from the mall.  I saw some mattress sales as well and can`t wait to get to the mall before we open shop on Monday.  If you haven`t been to any Boxing Day sale before – it`s time to start – not only you get cookies and goodies to bring home – you also can get really good bargains on a lot of stuff.  You just have to check online constantly for any deals coming your way.  I love a good sale and as mattresses can be really expensive any savings is great!

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.

Winter is definitely here – and every winter I’m afraid – afraid of losing power because it gets very cold here quick and winter is very harsh here for us.  In fact, I think the last few winter had been really nasty – so yes !  year after year we can only pray for no power outages and the other thing to do is to get a back up generator that way – we know we would be left in the cold till we find somewhere to go – or get dig out from the snow.

Places like the old folks home has several honda generators for days like that – and we’ve always joked that we could always hop over to the old folks home if we do lose power and we don’t have a generator. But it is definitely a lot easier to have a back up generator ourselves – and one at the store – plus it is not so expensive to get one these days.  So if you are like us – have a store and have kids – a back up generator is definitely a good investment.  Staying warm is so important especially if you have kids.

This town is pretty self sufficient when it comes to shopping but even with so much to offer, there are some things that I can’t get in this town.  When I can get them – I get them in the city – so shopping in the city once every few months is a must for us.  But you all know that owning your own business, one can’t up and go as and when we want – so when we do get a chance to go – I have to get my best acne treatment and all my skin products that I can’t get here.  Shopping in the city is fun – I get to see and buy all the things I can’t get here in this town – I spend a lot too.  But when it comes to my skin – I know there is just no saving on it – because it’s very important to get rid of the acne and pimples.  Many asked me why I can’t use a brand here from Shopper’s Drug Mart – but I guess it’s because I’m confident with the brand I’m using and am quite use to it – so although it’s troublesome – I still get my skin products in the city.

The store’s basement is almost cleaned up by our friend Gary – who came over to help us.  Thank God for him – we’ve been in this store for the last 4 yrs and we haven’t really cleaned the basement till this year.   Gary suggested using some stainless steel barrels to store some stuff that needed to be moist free and i agree with him totally.   You see we have so much stock left over – from the last 11 yrs.  Some sells at certain times and some doesn’t at certain time of the year.  If we could get the barrels and label them properly, we can store them up without worrying that the winter will destroy them or make them turn green.  I am going to talk to the spouse about it.

A customer was in today looking for the hair shop that was opposite ours – you see I had not noticed that they moved away!  So this customer said to me – that there should be a store in downtown selling beauty products like acne treatments without having to go to a beauty spa.  Yes!  i fully agree and if I weren’t already so busy with our own business – I know it definitely could be a success in this town.  Going for a facial is $80 – going to highlight your hair here is another $80 – to do special face treatment – it’s more money – and with this economy – not everyone can afford it.   Skin care specialist over the counter – is a great idea – now to find good help for that idea.

So the witch hunt begins – to promote downtown shopping -  by looking for 13 witches in the various stores of downtown.   This is planned in hope that people would come shop downtown and to know what these stores carry.  But I noticed not much is being advertised by the people planning the event.  But for those who are aware of this event – happy witch hunting and I hope you win.  I heard that one  can find lots of  good buys during these witch hunt and get some discount office furniture as well.  I can’t wait to find time do some witch hunting with my kid and maybe I can get lucky and buy some discounted goods as well.  Good luck everyone!

It’s fashion week downtown this week – the picture above – is from the neighbor’s store – now had i known they sold handbags – i would definitely have gone over before they closed today – and took a look at it.  You see I have been looking out for a nice handbag – but couldn’t find any for the longest time.  In fact, I went to Etsy – and had one handmade last week.  Now these bags are only $35 – so I would have definitely jumped over or flew over to at least take a look.    Yes! downtown shops should have a place to advertise themselves – the local yardsale has more members than the downtown group.

For those who thinks that we opened at 11am – is kinda late – I’ll have to tell you – that our day starts as early as 7.30am – and doesn’t end till at leat 1.30am.   Owning your own business – doesn’t even give us much time to do any kind of shopping – so after sending the kid to school – we have our breakfast – cook lunch for her – send it back to school for her lunch and then quickly go shopping for stuff we absolutely need – like a washer and dryer this morning and some cabin beds for the nephews and nieces who are coming over for the Christmas break.  Then we have to rush back to work – and we stay till at least 8.30pm – go home – put the kid to bed – do our housework and then do more work for the business before retiring to bed.  Now if only we can find some cabin beds online – that would be perfect – there isn’t any cabin beds in town.  And why cabin beds?  because during the winter – the static around the house – is just too back for the kids – so a log bed or a wooden one – is the only way to go.  We have been eyeing on a log bunk bed for a long time now – so yes!  shopping before work – and a very quick one is a must – especially when you spend so much time at work like we do.

We are open everyday for 6 days a week and since we are always in the store – it’s hard to make home cooked meals – so we just eat anything we can get a hold of and the spouse – the boss – well – lets just say he loves his junk food a lot!   But who doesn’t right?  If I could I would be eating tidbits everyday or fried food – so I came up with this ingenuous idea – to get some appétit control – that way – maybe we could stop munching on junk food.   Plus it’s so easy to do it – because we are always sitting down and facing the computer.  Well, any desk jobs has this problem – and if you own your own business – you get to do anything you want – eat all the time – if you want to.   So let me check out which appetite suppressant work for us – and I’ll let you know – don’t want to be overweight or obese right?

A customer came in looking for some steiner binoculars for her outdoorsy boss – who loves to go bird watching and hunting of ducks.  And since duck season is just round the corner – she wonder if we had any to sell – or could order some for her.    No, we don’t carry any – but we found some good binoculars for her to choose from and steered her to the right direction and this place does price matching with no tax and free shipping – not bad at all.  Another happy customer – sure we didn’t make any money – but we aim to please whenever we can.

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?

Although we didn’t have much tourists come thru’ this town during this summer because of the lost of ferry – we sure had a few that came by to ask if we had an internet cafe.   We used to have a little room that we used – for tourist/s and their internet needs last year – but this year – we didn’t do anything – because we didn’t think we would have any request for it.  But with the little space we have in our store – next year – it would make more business sense to have an outdoor internet cafe  with some  patio chairs and patio tables.  Afterall getting patio chairs are not expensive and it would be nice to have some to sit on – when watching the kid play outside instead of insisting she stay in the store during summer.   Our set up will be simple – just a computer and a monitor and some patio chairs and tables right in front of our store – how’s that for you – for being creative and innovative?

For the longest time – we have been saving money on advertising on the papers or radio about our store  – but chose to give  personalized gifts during Christmases and the store’s anniversary.   But ever since the competitions closed its door – next week – we are playing a prominent ad on the local trading post – which will cost us a bit of money.  But i think it is time too – and for this year’s 11th year anniversary of the store  – we will continue to give out gifts to loyal customers and special ones.  As for the new customers – we have to think of something special to remind them about us.  For example – the ladies can get a tote with our logo on it and the men a baseball cap?  Worth thinking about something special this year since we are really the last rental place left in this town.  While there are convenience store still renting some movies – we are basically the ones – who will have all the newest and biggest selection.

We do like most of our customer/s – of course there are few whereby you know – you can never pleased them even if you gave them freebies to show them you are value their business.  But it never harm to try to get your customers to like you too – plus gifts like that are also for long – time customers.  But when you are a customer that never bought the computer or game or even consoles from us – do you really think you should come to us for tech support?

I can never fathom why people would buy something from another store and then come and ask us how to get it working or when they have trouble with it – how to reset a password.  Isn’t it common courtesy not to rub it in our face that you bought something from somewhere else instead of giving us the business?  Yes ! we like our customers and would buy Christmas gifts for special customers – but really – some folks really gotta give us a break too eh.