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.
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.
I don’t know about other working moms – but I know how hard it is for me to help out at the store – do my own work yet gotta go home and cook and clean the house. Some people I know don’t really care what they feed their kids nor if their home is clean but I on the other hand being brought up different – is quite OCD about cleanliness. When in Asia – it’s easy to hire a maid from Philippines to help you clean and cook while you are out working but in the West – they don’t practice having a maid. I wished we had residential maid service durham nc here – so that I can get some help with cleaning my home – that way I don’t have to do it on the weekends when I actually want to spend time with my kid and spouse. Plus truth be told, I don’t really think I clean so well either – so I do envy those who can get maid service at a reasonable price and who does a great job.
I’ve tried hiring people to clean my house – but they either don’t clean well – or need specific instructions to what I need them to clean. I don’t have good luck with part time cleaners because they are not trained – and they don’t even come with their own cleaning products. Why I won’t hire a non-professional anymore is because the last one I hired used one cloth to clean just about everywhere in the house, from the kitchen to my dining table and the other rooms of the house. And no that cannot be hygienic, so I won’t hire anyone who don’t have a reference have is qualified to clean my home. When you pay someone to clean your home, you want to make sure they really clean it – and not leave halfway.
It’s that time of the year again – our oil man just came with his big tanker and industrial rubber hose to fill up our oil tank – before the cold hits us bad. I like to be prepared because we’ve had a number of very cold days already, in fact this year to save cost on heat bill – we are planning to get 2 infrared portable heater for the store. We’ve heard good thing about the heater and even though we love our oil man with his rubber hose – we love our money more. Plus, who doesn’t love some savings right in this economy – and no ferry coming our way next year. But the kid loves to watch our oil man fill up the oil tank because he explains to her all about how everything works – from the hose he is using till how his tank works.
We have many talented people in this town – and one of them is Kelly and her daughter – a customer of our store and a very good looking one too. She sings very well and plays several instrument – I loved her voice a lot – so when someone asked if we have any talent in Yarmouth, I think of Kelly all the time. And if I were Kelly, I would put out a CD and get someone to do her cd duplication service and start selling her cds. We’ve been asked many a times if we would do the cd duplication for our local talent here – but we don’t have the time nor the equipment to do it – but with a voice like Kelly’s, it would really be a pity if she didn’t put her voice on a cd and start to get some recognition for them. You check out the music yourself and let me know what you think.
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.
Now that we have Gary who is reliable to help us with the store – we can go for a cheap vacation anytime we want – and we’ve found some really great prices on vacation home we can rent for the long weekend if we plan to go somewhere warmer. I love that we now can look for vacation rentals by owner because they are definitely a great place to stay when you are traveling with kids and older folks like your in-laws.
Sometime soon – we are heading back to Asia for a visit – and guess what we are going to do with our home – we are also going to rent out our home – to vacationers – like ourselves while we are away – for 3 months long. What better way than to make money with our home – while we travel Asia – that certainly will cut our cost down when we are on vacation – that way we don’t have to worry about extra accommodation cost. It’s like breaking even – smart eh!
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.
The boss decided to buy some guitars from people who came into the store to sell them not too long ago and as you all know – I’m not very keen on getting stuff that we are not familiar with. I don’t know how to tell a good guitar from a broken one – or the make and brand of it. Anyhow after the first one showed up at our store – we are getting more people who wants to bring in their guitar for sale. But of course, since the first one haven’t sold yet – I don’t think he was willing to buy anymore. Someone came in and asked if we were also giving guitar lessons here since we have the guitars at our store now – funny right! now if we had someone who knows how to play the guitar or even tune it – I wouldn’t mind buying more guitars for the store to resell – but as it is – no matter how funky looking any guitar might be – I just wouldn’t know how to price them up.
So I rather – he keeps buying the console guitars for Guitar Heroes and such – and even though we have a lot of those – I know we will sell them eventually. As I am writing this – another customer just walked in and asked if we give guitar lessons – hahhaha!!! I kid you not. So I’m figuring people do want to take lessons but don’t have anywhere to go to in this town.
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.
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 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?
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.
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.
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.
