Toy Store Saga

[Kanalah]

Sorry about the delay there guys. Had to finish sewing 400 squares together. Looks awesome, and I will post the next part right away.

[Kanalah]

Part Fourteen

As it turns out, what I thought was a weakness was now a strength. I was homeless, I literally had nowhere else I needed to be. So now I went up to the shop every day. I didn't want them to suspect I was watching them. I would act all cheerful and say I was here to help out during the busy holiday rushes. I saw a lot of guilty looks, let me tell you. Of course I didn't just sit there, I worked my butt off. I don't just say I'm going to help - I do it. Besides, with how swamped the place gets during the holidays, you really need more than just one person working.

So of course my holiday sales were awesome again, although I still couldn't sell those quilts. At the next monthly meeting there was a lecture about "showing up and working when you're not scheduled to be there." But now I saw which way things were going and I was getting fed up. I loved the customers and I was really having a lot of fun selling toys. I just hated the other people constantly screwing me over for no reason.

So again hubs and I sat down and had a talk. We had to move our store. Easier said than done of course.

Photo of the "parlor" area. My toy room is actually on the far right: http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...elloParlor.jpg

Two photos of inside my room: http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...lloToyShop.jpg

Bordello fun facts:
It was a working bordello from 1889-1944 when the "madam" died. We know of at least one man who died upstairs in the bordello. It's said he's still hanging out up there - which is why everyone thought I was nuts for going up there at night to work. There was things turning off and on by themselves, walking noises, things moving, etc. I would just talk to "him" while I worked and we generally got along. Some local ghost hunters have spent the night up there and recorded a lot of EVPs and stuff.

In 2006 there was a fire upstairs in the bordello and the owners decided to close down. Surprise surprise - no one had insurance on their inventory. Luckily I didn't lose any quilts, but I did lose 2 18"x24" animal portraits that I had for sale.

[Gizmo]

Really? They aren't paying you more by being there and they've got extra help with the customers. Most bosses would be happy.

Of course it means they can't undersell your goods and can't treat your room as a playroom...

[Hanzoku]

This being the issue.

I'm... more then a little surprised one shop owner is allowed to sell another shop owner's products. Where does the money go, anyway? From this description, it sounds like they were grabbing your product, paid with your money, selling it at a discount and pocketing the resulting money. Which sounds a great deal like outright theft.

[Kanalah]

It works sort of like a multi-family garage sale. Each room has a different number, which is written on the price tag. When someone bring it up to the register, it's written on the sales ticket under "Department".

Then once a month, they total everyone's sales and write them a check.

And yes selling at a major discount without my permission I do consider theft. I already knew if I went to the small local PD about it, they would tell me to settle it with the owners - which at this point was a lost cause. The only thing I really could do, was camp up there to keep an eye on things.

And even with all the junk that went on there, I really loved the place. I had a lot of fun talking with the tourists and I loved the history of the area. I've gone up there/worked since I was 10, and it's really sad that when I do open a store, I become the whipping boy.

[eltf177]

I just went through all this and I feel for you.

What really disturbs me is the "no compete" clause, which the others kept breaking and made _you_ stop instead of them not starting in the first place! And your own mom and grandmom backing up the other venders instead of you was just beyond fail!

Virtual hugs and cookies...

[LillFilly]

It seems like all the older folk ganged-up on you because, of course, you're young, must have no idea what you're doing, and they figured they'd boss you around. I can't believe your own family was in on it though.

[Kanalah]

My family is a special kind of special. They've always been cold towards me. It's really weird - if we're out in public together, they act normal and loving, but then if we're alone they rip me a new one.

It just made me not trust anyone.

Mom's also great at promising things she know she should do, and then backing out on them later. She kicked me out and refused to pay for my wedding - Hubs and I paid for everything. She promised a baby shower - I set it up and paid for everything myself. She even went out of town for the birth of both of her grandchildren.

[Kanalah]

Part Fifteen

Then began the search for a new store. Rent in the touristy town was incredibly high. Plus the whole "living out of a hatchback car" thing was wearing us down. Hubs was considering taking more money out of his retirement fund to get us a permanent place to live. We noticed that the area of the city where my grandparents lived didn't have a toy store. I knew a lot of my Gma's church friends, and they thought I was just great. I began to think that it would be wonderful for them to have a local toy store where they could shop for their grandkids and have someone working there who was knowledgeable.

This area of the city is like a city within a city. They have their own police and fire, and town hall. We started looking at some of the open retail spots. When we went to the mall where Mom and Gma's old store used to be, the agent showed us around happily for a while, until she leaned in and said "You're not related to (Mom and Gma) are you?" It was then that we learned that Mom and Gma didn't pay their rent on the store and because of that the mall owner didn't want me there either. Great.

We looked around at the other shopping centers in the area - they were all owned by the same company as the mall. Wonderful. We finally located a shopping center on the edge of the city that was owned by a different company. And they happened to have an empty spot.

[tofu]

*popcorns* O.O

[Kanalah]

Part Sixteen

With what had happened to us at the bordello, we decided to do things a little differently. We visited each store in the shopping center - asking to speak to a manager or owner. We asked them about the building owner/maintenance people, we asked about customers/traffic flow, and most important - we asked them how they would feel with a toy store in the shopping center.

With the exception of one store, everyone thought a toy store would be awesome. We heard good things about the owners, lots of customers - very busy shopping center. So then we decided to look at the space. It used to be a storage area and aside from the new windows and door in the front, it was pretty rough. Cinderblock walls and thick floor tiles caked with dirt. No power outlets along one entire wall. And in the back corner, pipes coming up from the floor. Clearly it needed a lot of work.

Less than a half mile away was an apartment complex. We took a tour and it was quiet, and a good size apartment for the money. We asked the owners if we could pay the entire year's worth of rent up front, as we would be pulling it out of hub's retirement account. Word came down that it was okay, we wrote them a check and emptied out our storage space. Meanwhile I was still running up to help work in the bordello while telling customers that we would be moving to a larger location soon.

[Merriweather]

Trust me the US was obsessed with Teletubbies too. I grew to hate those creatures.

I loved it when Jerry Falwell (I think that's the one) talked about how horrible they were, what they were teaching kids. Cause, one of them (even though those things were of undetermined sex) had to be gay cause it carried a purse, was pink or purple?, and had a little triangle on top of it's head. So it just had to be teaching kids to be gay.

I admit, they annoyed the heck out of me too, and trust me, they were absolutley everywhere in the UK, worse than over here, but after hearing those comments, I so wanted a t-shirt or something

[Seshat]

And I already can tell that everyone at the bordello is going to be furious at Kanalah leaving; because How Dare She Be Ungrateful.

[LillFilly]

Boy oh boy, get read to duck and cover for the fallout!

[Kanalah]

Oh yeah they were mad at me for leaving, because now they didn't have a playroom or someone to pick on.

Of course they tried to get revenge on me.