OPEN!

Sorry you haven't heard from us. 15-18 hours a day in the store for both of us has left little time for blogging. Harry left for work on Tuesday and told the kids he would see them on Friday evening. They thought maybe he was going on a trip - nope just Downtown 10 minutes away from home.

On Tuesday, March 24th, we stopped turning people away and invited them in with our happy, friendly, sleepy smiles. Here is the first person that entered the store - a woman. I just love the fact that the first person to enter a hardware store was a woman!

We told the staff on Monday evening before they all left that they shouldn't be nervous (even though Harry and I were nervous as hell about getting the store ready and couldn't sleep) and that we expected the first day to be extremely slow since no one even knows we are open. Told them that we would be very happy if we had 30 people. To all of our surprise, we had exactly 100 transactions on Tuesday. Once we have been open for a while our goal is to average 350 transactions a day so not bad on the first day. Staff did a great job talking to the "browsers" who walked around for 20-30 minutes and left with nothing - we'll have to change that habit. But they were also great at assisting customers with projects so our sales were higher than we anticipated for the day. Harry and I are feeling pretty good about the staff we have selected. We have several on the team that have great all around product knowledge.

We had visits on the first day from several family and friends. Thank for the money plant Lewis. Let's hope it brings good kharma. Thanks for the very crisp $1 bill Kathy. To tell you the truth I don't care if they are crispy or dirty, as long as we get a lot of them.

So of course we had to take a picture of our first "official" paying customer. Wouldn't you know it, the guy is in town for a trade show. Has a booth at the Convention Center and needed someway to reach up to the top of his booth to dust it off. I guess we will never escape trade shows completely. I sold him a light bulb changing device. Hey it extended 11'; who cares if it didn't have a duster on the end. Sold him a dusting item to attach to the end. That's Ms. McGyver to you!

We didn't have our paint matching software system when we opened Tuesday so we couldn't sell paint Tuesday. Luckily it came in on Tuesday afternoon and we were good to go for Wednesday when we got our first paint customer. Too bad he only bought a quart. It's going to take a lot of quarts to pay for the $32,000 invested in paint tinters, shaker and paint matching software.

We've been averaging 85-105 transactions a day since we opened, until yesterday. Yesterday was a light day but at least it gave us time to get caught up on some projects. It will probably take 6-9 months for us to really determine our traffic flow and then we can adjust staff schedules accordingly.

Next week Harry and I start splitting the days so that we can get more office time in. Our Assistant Manager is catching on quickly so I think we'll be able to have him be there alone sooner than we had anticipated. Since we are only 4 blocks away, Harry will be able to run over there if there is a problem.

I'm sure there are a lot of funny stories to tell you but the 4-5 hours of sleep a night aren't enough to keep my brain cells in order. We'll try to update the blog a little more often now. The Grand Opening is just around the corner (May 1-3) and that brings the blog to an end so we have to get the fun stories in now.

Thanks for checking in.

One Day Until Opening

Friday we had more training - 4 hours of Benjamin Moore product training and 2 hours of learning to use the key making machine. At the same time, the automatic paint tinters were installed.





Friday night Pam stayed late to get some stuff done - it's a good thing she did. Around 8pm she discovered one of the pipes from the upstairs condos was leaking in our store. Unfortunately, this is not the first time this has happened. So, she broke out the leaky pipe tarps that we have for just such an emergency along with some shipping totes to catch the water. Notice the water pouring off the light fixture in the picture below.


She eventually was able to get hold of the building maintenance person who came to try and fix the problem. Unfortunately, the problem "spilled over" to Saturday when they had to bring in a professional plumber who spent most of the day fixing the leaky pipes. Apparently they had to break open a wall in one of the units to make the repair. Sadly, this will probably not be the last leaky pipe episode.











The excitement continued on Sunday - Pam, Race and I were at the store when the building's fire alarm began to sound. Race was quite disturbed by this, but I assured him that it was just a false alarm. Meanwhile, the building residents were filing out the emergency exits to the front of the building and store, standing in the rain saying, "It's a real fire".


When the six fire trucks showed up, I explained to Race that even if it is a false alarm, the firemen will still come. When they started carrying hoses, axes and oxygen into the building I explained that it was just a precaution, but it was really just a false alarm. About that time, he called bull-shit and insisted we leave the store - so we sat in Pam's car which was parked in front of the store. That made him feel safe. Before he would come out of the car he made me ask a fireman if the fire was out. I asked Race if he wanted to call Mommy and tell her about the excitement. He said yes, but that he didn't think it was that exciting. Poor guy was really scared.








After the fire episode, we had window cleaners and janitorial staff doing a thorough cleaning in preparation for Tuesday's soft opening. On Monday we will have Ace Paint product knowledge training, do some more store spiff-up, and get everyone ready to start collecting CASH!

Five Days to Opening

Benjamin Moore update - four days in and the rep still hadn't finished the display. One of our new employees had to finish it up this week. But...it looks good!

All last week and into Monday of this week the staff worked on bin tags. Our assistant manager, Kevin, who moved out from Chicago arrived on Monday and jumped right into the fray. He has 9 years experience with Home Depot and looks to be a great addition to our team. We hope that he will eventually become the store manager.

While the staff was bin-tagging, Pam was busy ordering product to fill the holes they were finding. She probably spent another $10,000 over the past week on stuff from Simple Human, Umbra and Ace.

Finally, at the end of the day Monday it looks like every section of the store has been tagged. Pam walked the entire store and made a list of items that were missing tags or inventory and by the end of this week we will fill in new tags or order missing merchandise. Here's the store floor plan that the staff was using to keep track of what sections were finished. All colored in nicely! Wait! I think I see three sections that are not highlighted!

Other areas of the store are also shaping up. Employee lockers arrived this week. We got the office cleaned up into a usable space. More storage fixtures came and were assembled. End caps started to come together.

Now that tagging is done, the primary objective for this week is training. One of our favorite Ace employees, Deb Lenhausen, who is the Ace of the Ace Training Dept is in San Diego to give our staff an intense three day course in Ace Customer Service, Selling and Product Knowledge. Pam and I both have been through training classes with her in Chicago and are fortunate to have her helping us with our staff. She'll be back to help us with the Grand Opening as well. (That's on her own time - and we're thankful).

A few more employees joined us this week - the aforementioned Kevin from Chicago, Carlos, John C and Juana. We got stiffed by one guy who was a no-show for his first day of work. Too bad - we thought he would be one of our stars. So, we'll be starting with lucky 13 staff members.

Tuesday thru Thursday this week they are in class with Deb. On Friday we will have training with Benjamin Moore and learn how to use the key cutting machine. On Monday we will have training with the Ace Paint rep and do our final clean-up before opening.

On the subject of tagging - we got hit with our first graffiti last night. Pam wants to review our security camera tapes until we find the bastard. Add it to the "To Do" list. Um, that will be item number 147. Should get to that in June, just about the time the kids will see me again.

We've been trying to buy lots of used stuff and have found great deals on eBay - telephone system, Motorola radios - but, we couldn't find a safe. So we had to pay retail - the $900 safe arrived today.

And, on the subject of cash - here's more cash going out of our pocket... One thing we didn't think about during all the euphoria of getting this great space - our store front faces west and man does that sun blaze in thru those two story windows in the afternoon. So, we are having to spend $6,000 that wasn't budgeted to have window film and roller shades installed. The window film guys came today to do the top windows and doors. The roller shades for the balance of the windows will come in about two weeks.

Just five more days and then we open the doors. We have been getting 10 - 15 people each day trying to come in the store while we have been working. We just need those people and 240 of their friends to come see us each day next week and everything will be just perfect.

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.

Ace is the Place!

Work continues on product placement - about 70% of the merchandise is now in the store. By mid next week we should be up to 95% with the balance to come from purchases we will make at next week's Ace Trade Show in Las Vegas. Ace has two shows per year - Spring and Fall. The Spring show is focused on Trim-A-Tree and the Fall Show is for Lawn & Garden. Of course, they have all the regular vendors at both shows. They also have lots of training opportunities. We are so burnt out on training - we are not going to take advantage of any of the offerings.

Benjamin Moore delivered their color chip rack today along with some other decor. The BenMoore paint shipment has been delayed due to some paperwork issues, but it should arrive in about 10 days.

We are having an issue with product arriving dusty - apparently from sitting in the warehouse for too long. What does that mean? Have we picked the wrong product???? A lot of the stuff is high-end like this Dyson vacuum that came in need of a good DustBuster.

We visit the store three of four times each day to review progress with the visual merchandisers and to address any concerns they have. Here's Pam trying to help Bill figure out the Westinghouse lighting display. What an ugly piece of...

We started making offers to employees today. We'll have 5 cashiers and 10 sales associates to start. So far Brooke, Alyssa K, Alissa R, Nikki, John W, Matthew, Juana, and Sarah are all on board. We should hear back from the others tomorrow and we have three second interviews scheduled for Saturday.

First Employee Hired

We hired our first employee today - Kevin Fink - who will be our Assistant Manager. Kevin currently works for Home Depot in Chicago where he is the Kitchen Design / Appliance department supervisor. He has been with Home Depot for 7 years and has worked in most of the departments and was also at an Expo store for awhile. He has been planning to move to San Diego and saw our ad on Craig's List when he was searching for job opportunities. Good timing for both of us.

Another Ace truck arrived this morning and the store is full of green totes of merchandise. Two more visual merchandisers came on board today and they are quickly putting up the new merchandise. Our most nostalgic department - automotive - is now set. It's only 8' of display - I guess that is actually a section, not a department.

Check out the glove section - first of all, why do we need so many different kinds of gloves? It's a bit ridiculous. Secondly, what is with all the pink gloves? The brand name on some of them is "Tuff Chix". I think Pam will verify that Tuff Chix don't wear pink gloves.