A new day dawns

Once again far too much time has passed since my last entry. I've been busy in my defense though.

First off, car sales is but a memory. Interestingly, the sales component still really shines through on me, when I get a customer asking me where something is there is nothing more than me wanting to upsell and cross sell and every other thing. The very first day we were opened when the store was freshly stocked I took some guy from 4 items to 11. I do miss that sale part, but, this is much more satisfying. I feel a sense of ownership, and frankly, for the first time ever in a job I'm concerned about the pennies. Squeezeing the nickel to get the beavershit out. well, maybe not that far, but I like the saying. When I was with those nameless big companies I really didn't get a rats ass about "their" money. It always made me laugh on the performance reviews "treats company money like own" they'd always mark yes. Growing up in business, I always thought that man, these guys have no clue.

I of course won't discuss numbers, but we are doing fairly well in my opinion. Things are only going to get better once we get our shit together (so to speak). At present I'm doing lots and lots of stocking. Don't get that statement wrong, I like doing it, recognize that it'll always be a part of the job however, I had hoped that we'd have enough staff that I wouldn't have to constantly be sprinting to get more stock onto the shelves. A victim of our own success, so to speak. The good news is that it's only what, 10 days in and lots is to be fixed and amended.

Ball hockey continues to roll, I've passed some sort of physical barrier, I'm not sure what it is, but I'm much more effective now. I feel faster, feel less fatigued during games and after games. Could be my energy shake with akai, and l-glutamine in it. Now if only I'd get more offense happening. I feel like I can run down those little guys, feel that I can contribute all over the place. Best of all, I'm having tons of fun. Want to know something scary? I'm the leading point getter from the blueline. 5 Assists in 7 games. SCARY because I ain't that good.

I'm basically a geek when it comes to learning. The vast majority of people prefer to just do it and figure it out as they go. I learn that way too, but, I also love to dig in to a book to gain more of a theoretical knowledge, maybe read someone elses ideas on how things should be done, and gain tidbit's that way. Basically, I think that it doubles up your experience and you learn more and faster. To that end, the merchandising, the "how to get people to buy more" part of me is learning by both doing and reading. At present I've got a extremely good book "Why we Buy, The Science of Shopping also have 1001 Ideas to Create Retail Excitement. I'll let you know how much I apply, and what works in the store. Dollars dollars dollars.

Things I think I think:
- I think that having Sundays as my day off is excellent, NFL sunday's baby!!!!
- I think that Flutie could play another 10 years as a NFL backup, but he probably made the right choice retiring now
- Does everyone treat stores like crap, and just rip it apart forcing the staff to be constantly cleaning up after them?
- I'm trying to buy a beater some 1000 buck or so machine. Some high KM ready to fall apart beast. I want to learn something about mechanic's and want something that I can tinker with and not feel guilty if I bugger up trying to change the timing belt or something like that.
- My GF said to that idea "now when will you have the time to do that" touche.
- Moving one item from the middle of the hardware row to a "clip strip" on the end has resulted in 50% of the product moving on one sunday. That is pretty damn interesting and more experiments with these sorts of things will continue.
- I haven't been video gaming lately, for a whole long while. Makes me sort of sad.
- My best friend is now a Doctor.
- I don't care how stupid it looks, I want to go on a driving segway scooter tour in Chicago. Way to look like a tourist though eh?
- I saw the Kentucky derby, nice looking horse, but as I'm busy this year, I haven't really been paying that close of attention.
- No, we don't have oilers flags at the dollar store, the friggin things cost 17.99 at the mall, as if we'd get them for less than a buck.