50 days in and the #1 question remains: how’s the store going so far?
I think it’s been going well, but with no metrics to compare myself to, it’s hard to tell. Most of our inventory for the year has been ordered, and most of that has arrived. My existential debate this week is whether it is better to run out, or better to have too much.
Ordering can get tricky in the last weeks of the year. Shipping times get delayed, and the items I’ve run out of, could be out of stock by the manufacturer too. The amount of inventory we have at the end of the year is taxed, so it’s a fine line between buying so little that inventory on December 31st is incredibly light, but buying so much that we aren’t out of essentials like puzzles, chocolate, and candles.
The 50th day party went incredibly well and the shop is now cleaner and more organized than it has ever been. This gives me more room to bring in more inventory, but now that most things have semi-permanent homes, I feel that I’m able to enjoy the space the same way the customers are able to. There’s a lot of little things that need doing, but at this point it’s nothing that can’t wait until the new year and is at least for now out of sight and mind.
