An Intriguing Tale Of Being An Owner

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.

We keep a pretty low profile around town where our business is concern and many people who don’t know this – would never think that we had thought of closing our store some 5 years ago – when business took a downturn.  So what made us stay open and turn the business around and now making money to live comfortably with all our bills paid and no owing any credit cards company.  It’s not a mystery to be honest – but we did what most people wouldn’t do but to tighten our belts and cut down on all the not necessities and lived frugally.

While many businesses would opt to close down and declare bankruptcy, I’m pleased to say that we didn’t and we are really glad.  In 4 short years – we were able to pay the bank, pay the credit cards and managed to pay the in-laws the first 10% of our mortgage and now we are debt free and have some to do whatever we liked. We didn’t take the easy way out – and I’m proud of it – sure we made some bad decisions in our 12 yrs in business – mostly with employees – but you’ve gotta make mistakes to learn right?  so yes – no more employees for us for a long, long time.

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.

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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.

Some parents/grandparents need a good knocking on their head.  Why the hell would you let your kid stand on someone’s shelving to look for games or even movies?  you are not only destroying someone’s property – but the kid might hurt himself.  How stupid can those ppl get – and I just saw one today – the grandmother carried the kid onto a shelf – just so he can look at some games *slap forehead*.   I think it’s time to make some of the above sign and put them around the store – since ppl don’t have common sense.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Someone sent me a picture of this conversation between and ex-employee and a customer at our store.  We’ve done nothing to her except be kind to her – and no one would have hired her with all her tattoos and piercing but we gave her a chance.  All the boss did was called her Ms Selfish – and that was all – and she hate us till this bad?  God !  I feel sorry for this kid and her boyfriend – who must be just as stupid and so insecure till today.   But after so many years – and still so stupid.  Well, like they say stupidity has no cure.  I definitely regret hiring her – she is by far the worst employee we’ve ever had.

PS :  Sorry to disappoint you – Freak – we will never starve – in fact we are doing so much better after you left – no more drama – sicko!

Yes! that’s me when it comes to managing the store – so that the spouse will always take the lead in the business front – and i never go against him in front of customers.  But lately, I have been feeling like he is taking it for granted.  Why? because he cares nothing about how everyone else’s feel when there is customers and friends except himself and how he feels.  Sometimes I feel like smacking him or shouting back – but I’ve kept my cool thus far – because in business – you want to keep a united front right?  you don’t want others to see that you are fighting but this has to stop – if he doesn’t respect me – he can do it on his own.

Need I say more?

We’ve brought in some Dungeons and Dragons toys for the game – and they are very cool!  I loved it ! and hope they will sell at our store.   I don’t know how much the boss will be selling it for yet – because it hasn’t been priced yet – but I got a box just for myself and the kid.

So if you are looking for some cool gifts for the boyfriend or husband who plays D & D – you know where to find us.

Why can’t people understand that we won’t do anything illegal at the store?  we don’t want to get into trouble with the law and if everyone starts burning movies and music cd – where would we be for our business? Today a guy walks into the store and asked if we burnt music CDs – the boss said no.  He asked if we know any internet cafe where he can download music and then burn them off – we said we don’t.  He asked where can he get on the internet – we told him the library perhaps – he then continued to ask if the library does burning of CDs – we said we doubt.   He then asked if we know where he can download music – we said we don’t know – he was then quite upset – and we explained to him – downloading music and burning it or movies is illegal – so we don’t touch it with a yard stick or go anywhere near it.  We don’t want to be going against the law right?  some people just don’t get it.

For the longest time – we never really left the store in someone’s hand without worrying about various thing – this trip up to the city – we are leaving our store in good hands.  I can say that I’m really happy to leave the store in this person’s hand – because I know he is honest and wouldn’t rip us off while we are out doing our stuff in the city.  Now to only convince him to help us permanently.  muahahah!!!  Good part time people are hard to keep and we just love this one – because he is honesttttt!!!  So yes – we are leaving town today and only coming back on Tuesday – see yer all on Tuesday.

A few years ago – we’ve heard about a mystery shopper in town from Microsoft and that was how the other computer stores got shut down because they were selling pirated software and that Microsoft had sued them for like half a million bucks.  Little did we know that we too were paid a visit by this mystery shopper from Microsoft till we received this letter today.  Woohoo!!!  Microsoft just certified that we DO sell only legitimate copies of Microsoft software – and you see it certainly pays to be honest and truthful  – we’ve never sold anything illegal and I’m so glad we don’t !

Mother’s Day is just round the corner and if you haven’t send out a gift for your mother who lives in another town or city like myself – it’s not too late.  Plus with Shari’s berries guaranteed coupon you can’t go wrong with it – coz’ the coupons give you so many choices for discount and savings.  I’m not sending anything to my own mom but my godmother lives in United States in New York – so I’m sending her a basket of cookies and i save 14% with the coupons I see online.   I know she will appreciate the thought – and Mother’s day gift need not be only for your mom eh – it can be for someone you care about – the mother-in-law?  sister? godma? yes – it’s nice to send and receive caring gifts – I’m one who loves all the attention – hehe!

I never have to do my own taxes ! thank God!  the boss does it for me – but that doesn’t mean that I’m not worried about it – because he procrastinate till the last minute.  At times I wished I could do mine and the store’s but when it comes to money matters – it seems that he has a better head than I do.  So I leave it to him everyday – yes! i’m terrible this way.  For those in business I think you have till the end of the month to do it.  Before when we did have employees – I liked to give it to them by the end of January.  Yes!  i’m super efficient – now that we don’t have an employee – i became pretty relaxxxx!!