Monday, July 6, 2015

Back to normal...


We've survived another 4th of July season at the fireworks store and this time without Sonshine. I missed him to be sure, but I miss him all the time anyway. I know DH missed him a lot as he was down at the there store for the whole season without Sonshine's company and general/daily help.

This was Friday June 26--we def could have used Sonshine's help.

It was a strange and frustrating season too since the state of Texas/McLennan county have been working on the highways and byways of Texas--including our section of I-35 and the frontage road right in front of the store. Well, the actual highway work is done, but the frontage road is still a work in progress and has caused a lot of hassle and loss of sales these past few years. Hopefully by next season (Christmas/New Years), this section of the frontage road will also be complete.

And if that weren't enough, of course, there are other fireworks stands and stores in a general vicinity that we compete with. Two are going out of business, so that just leaves a stand...DH is thinking of trying to rent that space himself. We'll see what happens.

On an up note, I was managing the customers and the store for a bit, while DH was managing the parking lot after letting the guy we originally hired go. (That guy just wanted to sit in the shade and listen to his music and play on his phone...)  DH usually orchestrates the inside--getting customers to sales people, keeping the product on the shelves, but I got to take on that role and I didn't do too badly considering my lack of knowledge on what products we had in the storage area to re-stock with.

If we'd had Sonshine, he'd have known. Of course, he'd probably have been relegated to parking lot duty had he been there. :)  If I'd had one more sales person and one "runner," it would have been a little easier, but we made it through the huge rush, usually the four or five hours prior to dusk, without our shelves looking too awful. That's one thing we always try to do--keep the shelves full, so people always know they can find what they want right up until midnight. Fireworks don't go bad unless they get wet, so we store them for the next season.

Hope you had a fabulous weekend!

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