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.

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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Or we will have your car towed.  We have given fair warning to the store beside us to stop parking at our spot – but nope – she just either don’t know how to read – or she is just ignoring us.  So the boss called the landlord up – and asked him to speak with her instead.  So now if she parks at our spot and inconvenient us – we will have her cars towed!

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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.

So this morning I read on Chronicle Herald that our dear Premier Dexter said that those who had gotten ripped off by SWSDA can apply for a bridge loan?  even though they called it a small business loan program ?  and this is to restructure the debt load?  Ello!!????  so they are getting into further debt because SWSDA ripped them and cannot get paid ?  shouldn’t this ppl be able to get their money back from SWSDA?   It certainly don’t make any business sense to me at all. Admist all this mess created solely by the board of SWSDA and no one is still be charged for fraud – or anything for that matter – does that seems fair?  millions and millions of dollars are missing here and no one is responsible?    Sure does not seems fair to me.

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.

Well, we thought we were getting Hurricane Irene for a visit – but it was downgraded to a tropical storm – what a disappointment – for we canceled our trip to the city because of her.  Oh well – at least nothing got torn nor did we lose any power – so I’m happy despite the fact that we didn’t get to go anywhere. I wasn’t going to risk it at all.

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Now that’s so nice to hear from a customer right?  and yes! we do hear that a lot from our customers – especially the new ones – while other store may not want to help them or go the extra mile – we would.  Today a customer called and asked for help about an iPad – while she called the entire town’s computer store – we were the only one who was willing to help her out with her iPad.  She was so impressed – that she said she was going to be recommending everyone to us.

People come into the store and asked us for a lot of things – from information for a restaurant to health club in this town and also where to get fat burners – yes – you heard right and it’s no harm telling them what you know.  Especially if you know of a good place to recommend them – and  we always give recommendations.

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.

Unfortunately, for most of customers – it is good to know that we don’t give a lifetime warranty for the things you buy in our store.  I don’t know of any store that give a lifetime warranty either – so why get mad with us – when you buy something from us – and it break down after 3 months?  We sell used stuff and we’ve always used – used stuff at home – be it a xbox 360 console or a PS3 – we never buy new consoles – and we never have as much trouble as we do – like some of our customers.

When we sell something at our store – we tested it and it works and we sell it with good faith that it will continue working for our customers – but if it breaks down – like most electronic things do – you cannot blame us for it.  Plus if you already had it for 3 months and we only warranty used stuff for 30 days – moreso, you cannot call and complain about it.

And of course, we have those very smart customer – who insist they only bought it like a month ago – and it shouldn’t break down when in fact it’s almost 3 months.  And then they would go on to say that it already started having problems the first week they got it home and they didn’t think of calling us and telling us about it ?  till 3 months later?  all these doesn’t make sense at all – if you get my drift.

So we offered to take a look at it – and you want it fix immediately on the same day *roll eyes* – yah! right!  Okkkkk..! good luck buddy!

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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.

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.