Where Have We Been?

Where did the last two weeks go?!?! Apologies to those who have been panting for an update. I will try to keep this relatively short, but give you lots of info of what has been happening. When we last left you, the visual merchandisers were busy setting up product and receiving new stuff daily. That process continued for another week, just more of the same stuff. Race stopped by to see how things were going and to give the forklift a test drive.

By Monday, March 2 - Downtown Ace was looking like a real hardware store. Over 80% of the merchandise was in place with the two biggest holes being the Fastener aisles and the BenMoore paint which still had not arrived. The merchandising crew would spend the next week tidying up and adjusting displays.

Pam and I left on Tuesday for the Ace Convention in Vegas. Yippee - a shopping spree. The show opened on Tuesday afternoon, but only the Trim-A-Tree / Gift section - it was AmeriChristmas deja vu. Fake trees, lights, silly villages and hideous outdoor decor. As Pam said, there is something wrong with buying product that we are encourage to have a mark-down plan for in advance of receiving it. Plus, who wants to order Xmas stuff in March???

So here we are at our third Ace Convention and we can finally buy stuff - there will be cool tools, paint goodies, houseware gadgets and more - what do you think our first purchase was??? A container of Chinese tools? Truck loads of WD-40? It was HOLIDAY GIFT WRAP!

We did buy some other stuff too including Monkey Butt Powder, Udder Lotion, Fresh Wave odor remover -- we are opening a hardware store, right?? Seems more like Bed, Bath & Beyond. We didn't buy any tools or nails or pipes or outlets. Maybe a few bulbs. Oh, and a $9,000 paint matching computer. That would be my purchase. And we saw our $20,000 worth of automated paint tinters that will arrive this week.

When we returned from convention the visual merchandisers were done. Except for BenMoore and a few other non-Ace vendors that we have purchased from, it is all ready to go.

While we are at convention, our "friends" from Activant installed our Point of Sale and inventory management computer system. It doesn't look like $40,000 of stuff to me. This week we have Nick from Activant training us on how to use all of the features. Someone please shoot me - I can't stand anymore training. Just give us the password, leave the store and let us figure it out. We'll be fine.

Tuesday of this week our first group of employees started. 9 happily employed Ace team members. The main task for this week is what is referred to as "bin tagging". Basically it is putting up the price tags. Doesn't seem like that big of a deal until you realize that we have over 16,000 items in our store. And everyone of them needs this little price tag. Apparently there is a big fine from the Department of Weights & Measures if we don't have tags or they are wrong so everyone from Ace is always harping about having them right. By the way, is it Duck Tape or Duct Tape? We seem to sell both.

In addition to bin tagging, we have employees doing fun projects like wiring up displays, cleaning fixtures we bought from Circuit City, hanging bulletin boards and paper towel dispensers, and putting up shelves in the storage room.

Here is Brooke putting away the Atlas cabinet knobs and pulls.

And here are Alyssa and Kayla doing bin tags.

The BenMoore rep has been here for three days putting paint cans away. He is sooo sloooow. The Ace Paint guy did his in half a day. Oh well, at least he's not on our time clock. As it is we have $3,000 in payroll this week - and no revenue! We need to get those doors open.

My friend JayJae Park was at the store yesterday to finish the security camera system. Here's the coolest thing - we can be at the office or at home and dial into the security system and see what is going on in the store. I can't wait until the first time I can call the store and ask someone why they aren't wearing their name badge. Hopefully they'll be standing in front of a camera so I can see them whip around and try to find me.

Thanks for listening - we'll try to keep the updates coming.