Rule of Thumb...

If you buy an item to replace an item with a missing part, that part shall reveal itself in a relatively short order of time. I'm pretty certain this is to be case in point, today I bought a new (cheap) digital camera to use for blog pictures since I cannot find the charge cable for the one I had been using. Thus, when I go home tonight, the cable will miraculously reveal itself after being missing for the better part of two months.

That all said, I have a new camera. =P

We finally had the city inspectors out today, and it was far less of a hassle than I thought it would be. The two things we have to correct are moving a refrigerator to grant three feet of access space to our electrical breakers, and having the electrical work we had done inspected by an electrician that is licensed by the city to actually do the work. Never mind that the guy we had do the original work is union, a (very distant) relative, and been doing electrical work in the area for close to ten years. Nope, since he does not hold a license with A PARTICULAR CITY WHICH OUR BUSINESS IS SITUATED, his work is not good enough to pass without inspection by someone else. Oddly, this same municipality wonders why it has long-standing problems attracting businesses to set up shop within its confines. I'm not a politician, but this doesn't seem to be rocket science, folks...

Overall, though, those are minor nitpicks, and easy ones to fix.

Onward, into the hopefully-soon-to-be-regular-once-again breach...

-- GopherDave 

One Month In...

Well... I still haven't found the camera charger. I may just have to suck it up and buy a new camera. Nothing fancy. Just something that is made to be just a camera. Not a multi-purpose phone-camera-MP3 player-random gadget. I *LIKE* discrete machines. That's one of the reasons why we have a printer, a scanner, and (eventually) a fax machine. Discrete machines tend to do their jobs better than all-in-one units, and if one breaks, I replace it and I am not down the other two functions.

Anyway... we are a month into the new space and I have come to realize something... Be *VERY* careful what you wish for, because you may just get it.

Case in point, with the new store, it's a large enough space that when it gets even moderately busy, we need two people on the floor. Unlike our previous, smaller space, one person cannot manage everything well unless it's really slow. As in, slow enough to actually be worried about lack of sales. That hasn't happened too much yet, but as the Notorious BIG once stated, "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems".

Currently, sales are such that we are doing a fraction more than we were at the old space, but we are placing more work and labor into attaining those sales. That being said, if we can get things and new systems into place, we could actually begin catching up to the curve.

As for upkeep? Yeah, we need to do the floors... badly. Trouble is, our main employee who would do most of the janitorial got a 40-hour a week gig that pays twice what we could with benefits. He still works for us, but it is very much part time and around the schedule of his new job. Don't get me wrong. I have no anger at his taking the new job. Hell, if it had been offered to me (I did not apply), I might have taken it as well. It's that good of a spot in the working world.

That being said, things need to settle down a bit so I can look at them clearly, and not through a lens of chaos. We will figure it all out, it's just going to take time, a bit money, and a *LOT* of work...

-- GopherDave

Updates on Gopher V3.0...

Okay... It's been a bit so I thought I'd give folks some updates on how things are looking in the new space. I will throw out the caveat that I cannot find the charger, so I've been taking pictures with my phone and hating every minute of it.

I *HAVE* been trying to get back to the uniform. This is what I wore yesterday.

The front of the new location in day light.

The Gophers are back on the front door in their rightful places...

A shot of the store from the front as you walk in...

A shot of new expansive play space. GAWDS, it's an undecorated white box... =P

A shot of the playspace from the back of the room...

Our playspace in use with Malifaux, Pathfinder, and Only War...

What I wore today...

In general, things are moving along. There are still snags here and there, and things have to be picked up in places, but it's all coming together slowly. It will all come together in time, but we're pretty proud of where we're at for only having been in the space seventeen days.

Now, if we can only get the back room in order then we'll be ahead of the curve...

-- GopherDave

Been Busy...

Yep...

Been gone for a few days, I know, and I will probably be gone for a few more.

The move is mostly complete and we are open for business. There are some nagging details to take care of to make things more final (chief among them, cleaning up the "old" space).

As it goes, as the store grows, I find myself moving away from regular counter duties and into of more of a managerial role. I'm not entirely certain I am enjoying where that particular road is headed. One of the biggest thrills for me in this business is connecting people with a game I know that they will enjoy and get a kick out of, or a Magic the Gathering card that they've been searching for forever. With my store role shifting, I am noticing how much I miss that aspect of what we do here at Armored Gopher Games.

Overall, though, things are different, and I am slowly getting used to them.

I will post some pictures of the new place when things get more put together later on this month, but I will leave you with this...

 
It's blurry, but it's a picture of our new sign for the lightbox at the new spot... We like it...  =)

-- GopherDave

T-Minus 11 Days...

Today was a receiving day here at the store, and combined, the two orders ended up being a *TON* of stuff...

Among the new items were the new edition of Pandemic (*finally*), the new Data Pack for the Netrunner LCG, and a deluxe version of Unexploded Cow. All of these are good things. Trust me.

For dinner tonight, I was feeling nostalgic, so I ventured over to Garcia's Pizza In A Pan. Now? Now, I am feeling nauseous. I would post a link to their web site, but they don't seem to have one.

Things are moving along as distributors send me what I need to get accounts moved over. I am currently filing things away until next week as I don't want them to ship anything to the new place until we are actually open.

Thursday, I begin looking at additional slatwall panels and other fixtures that will be needed. We also have to make certain we have enough capital set aside to gather together more tables and chairs.

Yay! More work...  =P

...But it will all be worth it in the end...

-- GopherDave

T-Minus 12 Days...

Things move slowly with the... uhhh, move.

There are a number of things we cannot do until after the actual move, including inspections for building occupancy limits and fire stuff.

There are some things I am trying to line up in terms of ducks and rows, like getting whatever requisite "change of address" forms from distributors. I do find it odd that while some places make it as simple as a phone call, others want you to "re-apply" for an account. That seems backward and is more than a touch frustrating. It is, however, the cost of doing business.

Today, I have busied myself at the store with placing orders and trying to sort a chunk of the MtG cards that have come in over the last week or so. Later on, I will be scanning some fixture sites to see if I can time the arrival of some slatwall panels to coincide with a time I will be prepping the new space and will have the help to unload the shipment when it shows up. Last time I paid for "driver assist" not knowing that all that means is they will move it from the front of the trailer to the back of the trailer. One then has to unload it from the trailer into the store one's own self. With my spine, that ain't happening anytime soon.

Not much is going on beyond that, but I do need to get back to work... ciao.

-- GopherDave

T-Minus 14 Days...

As of Monday, we have two weeks to get our stuff together and get the new place up and running. We think we can do it, though I will admit I didn't think things through entirely.

April Fools' Day as an opening day is not a joke, despite what some people thought. No... What I didn't think about was March 31st being Easter frickin' Sunday. Now, I will be the first to admit that I love God, but I *HATE* church. That fact combined with being quite focused on our business means that most religious-oriented holidays outside of Christmas fall *COMPLETELY* out of my notice zone.

Thus, while help is coming for the "hard move", it probably will not be as abundant as I first thought. That is entirely my bad. However, we will do what we can to make the original date a reality.

Not much else beyond that... Back to work...

-- GopherDave