Try this one on. Roll it around the mind for a moment. A customer calls. He’s having a problem with his GameCube, specificially with the power supply. It’s burned out, and he wants a replacement. We don’t sell replacement power supplies. The only place I know to get them is direct from Nintendo. I recommendContinue reading “Things That Make You Go "Hunh?"”
Category Archives: Work
And So It Begins…
The day after Thanksgiving. They call it Black Friday. Christmas is thirty days away. Twenty-nine shopping days. Four weeks. I made out today my schedule for the next two weeks. Next week is definitely a sixty-hour work week. The following week looks to be about the same. I may have a day off–my first sinceContinue reading “And So It Begins…”
Woo-Hoo!
I posted a few hours ago: “I’m curious how many people will show. I expect it will be more than twenty. I hope it will be more than forty.” I can’t name numbers. Trade secret. Sorry. I can say this. I way low-balled the number of customers that showed up for the midnight launch. EvenContinue reading “Woo-Hoo!”
Same Bat-time, Same Bat-channel
Another midnight opening. This time, for World of WarCraft. Unlike Halo 2, though, this isn’t a company-wide phenomenon. In fact, I know of no other stores in the chain doing a midnight opening. Like Halo 2 we had the product in stores, in the backroom, awaiting the street date. Pre-sells were solid, substantial, not HaloContinue reading “Same Bat-time, Same Bat-channel”
Oh, I've Been Busy
For the better part of the past week (the last six days, to be precise) I’ve been at our newest store in Wake Forest, first setting up the shelves, stocking the shelves, then organizing the store for business. Long days, hard days, and in the middle of interviewing an applicant yesterday I yawned, apologized forContinue reading “Oh, I've Been Busy”
Retail Moneyball
Moneyball takes a look at how unconventional baseball statistics can make even the poorest of teams into winners. In a way the sales summary spreadsheets I’ve been playing with could be looked upon as a kind of “retail Moneyball.” Retailers will tell you about the importance of add-on sales, of high average sales, of highContinue reading “Retail Moneyball”
Spreadsheets? Gah!
No, this isn’t the “State of my life” post promised on Saturday. That’s still drafting. I will, however, share some thoughts on spreadsheets. I hate them. All told I’ve spent ten hours, spread across three days, building a spreadsheet array. Right now it’s 18 sheets deep. What the array does is take sales information, thenContinue reading “Spreadsheets? Gah!”
Florida
The flight for Florida leaves in two and a half hours. Updates should resume on Thursday, beginning with an extensive post on life and work. In the meantime, some political news! Reporters from The Onion have uncovered a potential scandal involving the Bush Administration–serious gaps in Bush’s service as President. The article notes that “[f]reshlyContinue reading “Florida”
On the Road
In an hour I’ll be on my way to Richmond. Fable, the long-awaited role-playing game for XBox, comes out tomorrow everywhere, but rather than have it shipped to stores I’ll be picking up copies for the local stores at the Richmond airport, so it can go on sale today, a day ahead of schedule. IContinue reading “On the Road”
Work, Work, and More Work
This week I’ve been working on an OSR for work. It’s internal parlance for Overstock Recall, where the store receives an e-mail detailing what products to return to the warehouse for reclamation (in other words, boxing game cartridges or resurfacing game discs if scratched) and reprocessing for shipment to other stores. Generally stores receive theseContinue reading “Work, Work, and More Work”