Saturday, December 10, 2011

Day 342 of 362


Late night last night, but a good one. I was flying solo and we had one of our largest FNM turnouts of the season. I am a tired puppy. On top of that, we have the huge Geiken Family Benefit today. For details of that, see a couple of posts below. It looks to be a good time. We'll be auctioning off over $2100 worth of stuff, and raffling off two (semi-generic) tickets to the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Basically, the tickets are good for any non-benefit show you wish to attend for the 2011-2012 season.

Yours truly will be playing auctioneer, and things will be kept at a rapid pace. I don't play when I sell stuff. It's very much shock-and-awe... Get in-Get out-Leave no doubt of the sale... That's how I roll... =P

Speaking of rolling, I need to get going. Things gotta get done...

-- GopherDave

Friday, December 09, 2011

Day 341 of 362


It's Friday, so that means Friday Night Magic at the store. It'll be a bit different this week, though. Skribl (my son) will not be there to help me as he will be on a weekend vacation to visit some friends up north. It'll be a bit hectic for me, to say the least.

On another note, we found out what the last snag is in regard to trying to move. Once I read the e-mail explaining it, it was all I could do not to completely lose it in terms of temper and frustration. I kept it in check, though, and no one got hurt. We're trying to schedule a face-to-face with the other parties involved in order to get to the bottom of it all. Both sides have been working through realtor-esque intermediaries, and I think that has been part of the problem. Either way, after the face-to-face, we'll know if we are moving forward or moving back to square one.

The Geiken Family Benefit for tomorrow proceeds apace. Loquacious is doing the bulk of the "heavy lifting" on this one. I will be there to help, and I am the auctioneer for the live auction we're having. If you've never seen me as an auctioneer, you're in for a treat, but don't blink. I don't play around. Stuff gets sold quick...

Speaking of quick, I need to jet. I have an errand or two to run before I hit the store.

Later...

-- GopherDave

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Geiken Family Fundraiser

Hey Folks...
I cannot remember if I've spoken about this here, and I know the notice is short, but the cause is good...

Armored Gopher Games will be holding a fundraiser for the Geiken family. The matriarch of the family was involved in a traffic accident a few months back and was hurt fairly badly. She's mending and well on the road to recovery, but that road isn't free. The Geiken's are gamers (like us) and could use our support...

Details are here...

Thanks for listening...

-- GopherDave

Day 340 of 362


Early at the store, not much is going on. Still waiting on the last round of paperwork to go through at the potential new landlords. If this fails, it's back to step one, but it's not an entire wash. We'll just use the money we've saved up for this potential move to make improvements to the current store and begin socking money away for some other potential move.

If it goes through, though... that's when the work truly begins for us. Either way, I am looking forward to it.

At the store, there's a couple of role-playing games tonight (Deathwatch and Jade Regent (Pathfinder)). I should have the boy with me, so the traffic flow of helping customers shouldn't be an issue.

Beyond that... not much else is going on. I'm taking a wait-and-see approach with the new place, but I'm not a patient person. Either poop or get of the pot folks. Give me a "yes" or "no", and let us get on with our next step...

...sigh...

-- GopherDave

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Day 339 of 362


Running behind as usual... It's "shipment day" at the store. I used quotes because based on how many distributors I placed orders to this week, it's going to be "shipment day" for the rest of the week.

Progress on "new Gopher" proceeds slowly. I believe we have finally submitted everything, and are now in wait and see mode. The ways things are looking, they "should" go through, but I'm not counting chickens until they are well and truly hatched.

Other than that, there's a ton of work at the store to catch up on. I think I'm going to be busy for the next couple of days.

-- GopherDave

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Day 338 of 362


It's order day here at the Gopher, the day where I watch a not-insubstantial sum of money fly out of the bank account in hopes of becoming a more substantial quantity of money in about a week's time.

A few years back, when we were a REALLY tiny game store and our order budget was minuscule, there was no room to take chances. We *HAD* to make a profit in order to keep going, and our order budget was so small we really could only order that which we KNEW would sell due to prior customer order/interest. It's a retail store's version of living check-to-check, and it's no fun.

As we have grown, our order budget has as well. We can now take chances on games that are new that may not sell immediately. We can order stuff for the "long haul", and we can now put money away to easily afford the big releases when they happen. We are resting easier.

With the potential move, we will be moving back to that check-to-check area for a bit. There's no way around it really. We've pretty much hit the sales ceiling here at our current location. The place where sales cannot increase much more because we cannot fit a larger quantity/variety of stuff in the store to appeal to a larger customer base. Gopher hit that with its original location in short order (with in 18 months). We hit here in about the same time (22 months). The actual space difference between original Gopher and current Gopher is only 380 square feet. With that added 54% worth of space, plus better parking and an easier-to-find location, we've tripled our sales.

The new location will increase our physical space by 463%. Do I think that it will increase our sales by a factor of 8.5? Honestly, no... We're a niche hobby, and there's only so much of that money to go around in this area. But if this moves leads us to triple our sales once again, well, the Gophers will be sitting pretty. We'll have a large enough facility where everybody truly gets to play... We'll have enough space to increase the amount of games we have on the shelf for IMMEDIATE purchase that special orders (and the wait that they entail) will be just that, SPECIAL orders... We'll be able to provide jobs to some of our unemployed Gophers, and in a down economy, this ability is worth its weight in gold.

I personally want the store to grow, because I want the gaming community of our area to not be isolated pockets of people who don't know anyone outside of their little circles. I want it to be a small gaming convention EVERY DAY, where people can come in, if they're of a mind to, meet some new people, and learn to play some cool new games. I want Armored Gopher Games to be the brightest star on the Midwest gaming horizon... the beacon that draws people in, encourages them to mingle, and helps create support networks from those new friends for when times get rough...

Because rough times are here, folks. We're all living them in one form or another, financially and/or emotionally...

It'll just be easier if we do it together...

-- GopherDave

Monday, December 05, 2011

Day 337 of 362


Monday... and busier than usual. I've a number of errands to run before the store opens and I need to be out the door as soon as I can manage without being too early as all of the places I need to go do not open until 9AM or later. Sigh...

Once this morning is done I can slow down, take a breath, and then work on OTHER stuff that's been piling up at the store lately. Beyond that, I got nothin'... that I can think of right now...

Sigh... Never done... never done... never done...

-- GopherDave

Sunday, December 04, 2011

Day 336 of 362


Ugh... the show wrestling went WAYYYYY longer than I thought it would. Got home close to 1AM. By the time I wound down, it was just after 2AM. Overall, the show was good. Some very good young talent... some talent that has no business being near a ring yet... a couple of spots where it looked like folks were legitimately hurt... In short, an indy show. The promotion is called Dreamwave. They are based in Oglesby, Illinois, and they run monthly shows in nearby LaSalle, Illinois. If you like wrasslin', and are in the area when they are running a show, you should check it out.

Today, I'm going to try to finish up all the preliminary paperwork for the move, so we can turn it in tomorrow. It needs to be done before I go to bed tonight, so it might be another late night. Once we get that done, we need to start looking into signage, flooring, and the cost for a new point-of-sale system. Things never really end...

Well, if things are going to be done, I need to get to it... Later, all...

-- GopherDave