Well, it's just after 5am on Thursday, March 17th, St. Patrick's Day. Today is going to be my last "normal" day at the bookshop, before we close on Saturday. I am on with Courtney, our manager, and I am expecting that we will have yet another hectic day of selling off our stock - everything is half-price now, so the volume of sales has gone through the roof - on Monday, the Reorder screen crashed, due to the sheer number of items on it - that is the screen on which sales appear, it's linked to the till, and every time we scan an item we're selling, when the scanner beeps, it goes onto that screen. If we were selling stuff at the normal price, our profits would be very healthy, it's so galling that we are having to do this. But actually, we would rather see everything go, I think, especially to our regular, loyal customers. On Monday next, we will be packing any remaining stock into boxes, and two guys will come up from our owner's warehouse and take it all back there to be redistributed amongst the few shops that he is keeping. Then that really will be the end for us.
Anyway, as regards my new venture, things are moving along there too. I've signed the agreement with the shopping centre, so I have my licence to trade, I've arranged Public Liability Insurance, I've got quite a lot of stock ready, AND.....yesterday I went and collected our stamp that I had made up, so that we can stamp receipts, etc! It's got our trading name, Red Kite Books, and address and phone number, in lovely bold black letters, and it makes me feel like a real trader, that a week from tomorrow Robin and I will be setting up our stall and (hopefully) selling books!
But first I have to get through the closure of the shop.......
You're nearly there Mum! Just these next few days to get through, which you will, and then it's all systems go! I know it will be hard packing up the shop but it's time to move on to new, exciting things xxx
ReplyDelete