In A Hurry...

...But Still Rockin'...

Loq, Skrible, and HiSign all made me ditch FNM last night to go see a local rock show with some of our semi-regular customers. It was a good time. Much thanks to the three of them for holding down the fort while I let my hair down...

Watched local act Scathe first... veteran rockers still trying to find their sound after a band implosion and reconstruction. There's talent on the stage though..

Next came a band from Mt. Vernon called Lori's Puppets. These kids barely looked old enough to drink (and some of them weren't), but they tore the place up. Very good at this early stage, and they're only going to get better.

Finally, we had the headliner of the show, 30Aut6. Another band from the southern part of the state (Carbondale area), and they showed why they are the ones starting to get a regional buzz. These cats are a solid unit. Just straight-ahead rock, with stuff that could easily go on the radio right now.

Like I said, I had a good time. Thanks to BigMan and RnRC for inviting this old varmint...

-- GopherDave

Turning A Corner... Facing A Hill...

In a literal sense... I've entered in enough stuff in the new system that I can now turn the corner around the front of the counter and begin working my way forward up the new wall of merchandise. Looking at it all, most of it will go relatively quickly. I'll hit a slow down in the RPG section, but I expect that. Left to my own devices, this may well get finished by the time of the convention at the end of the month. Given what's currently on my plate, that's about a week too late as there is a whole raft of other stuff that's gotta be done as well.

The hill we're facing is the hiring of HiSign. Paperwork and such is all going swimmingly, and general things are going well. No, the hill we're looking at is integrating him into the schedule at times we need him, and my personal hill of letting go. I don't let go of things easily. Makes me a great employee, but a lousy manager-type.

I've love to type more, but there is a mound of stuff to do and it won't do itself...

-- GpherDave

I Love (HATE) Technology...

Okay... I began entering items into the new POS system last night. At the rate I'm going, I'll be done sometime in mid-February. Let this be a lesson to everyone in business-land... if you decide to upgrade a major system like a point-of-sale system, make certain at least ONE of the POS-systems involved (old or new) can speak to the outside world in an easily transferable language.

We've got the old POS system that's proprietary and won't talk to our current printer any longer. The new one is SQL-based, but doesn't make transferring things easy because it won't tell us which info needs to be in which columns of the CSV file to make everything fall into place.

So, we're reduced to entering items into the new system by hand. We have over 4000 different items in stock at any given time. Yeah, time-consuming doesn't even cover it...

Well, off to the (data-entry) salt mines... =P

-- GopherDave

Busy...

I arrived at the store at thirty minutes before open. After playing with one of our two orders a small bit. I opened the doors at usual time. I'm just now starting to blog... ...six and a half hours later.

It's been a day... customers... phone calls... shipments... finding time for lunch... Things that would normally be done by 1:00PM were finished around 3:30PM. Things usually done within 15 minutes of open got done around 2:00PM.

I would probably have more to say if I had the time, but I currently do not.

I will say that KnighterrantJR's DC Adventures game last night was hellafun!!!

-- GopherDave

Redundancy Is Redundant...

 

Not much is happening. I'm off to do orders. HiSign worked his third offical day at the store, but under Loq's tutelage, so I have no idea what she taught him. Skribl is sick, so I will probably be flying solo for a bit tonight. Overall, it won't be a bad night as inbetween customers, I get to play Marathon, my uber-cynical telekinetic...

With Phase 1 of the store pretty much done, we're on to Phase 2. This will be done one of two ways...

1) I will take time out each night to place some of the item codes in the new system, since we cannot make the two Point-of-sale systems talk to each other. This will be more tedious, but will have the advantage of not making us close for an inordinate length of time.

- or -

2) We will be closed the four days after Winter War to place all of the stuff in the system. I hate being closed that long, but I may not be able to make the first way viable...

Ehhh... who knows...

Settling In...

The new look of the store is starting to settle in on me. We'll be doing a bit more work tonight, but it's mostly of the clean-up variety. One of our main goals is to arrange things so I can set up the new POS system so I can enter stuff on it as I have time. If we can do that, then we might not have to close for for four days after the convention at the end of the month to do inventory and get things into the system. On that one, stay tuned.

As of this point setting up said point-of-sale system is phase two of this project. Once phase two is complete, we move onto phase three, which is putting up more slatwall in the front area and moving the POS station there. The look will change greatly in time, but it will look ten times better than before... I just gotta get used to it...

-- GopherDave

The Day After...

It's another Sunday... I have to catch up with financials and what not. Many of us are tired and sore from yesterday. It was worth it... the store looks great. Now, I have to go figure new table arrangements for the time being.

I wish I had more to say, but I just don't have the energy at the moment.

I will, however, reiterate my thanks to all the Gophers who helped yesterday. You are all champions in my book, and we'll do whatever we can for you... You've more than earned it...

-- GopherDave