Open a store – what could go wrong?

We are still digging out from under the nightmare of our first store location – a horror story involving, in no particular order, a PTSD victim hoarder as a neighbour on one side of us, a crazy cat lady hoarder upstairs from us, and a burned out acid freak for a landlord. The entire shitstorm culminated with our ceiling collapsing into the middle of the store (did I mention this was due to the upstairs celing being soaked in an over abundance of cat urine? Super fun!). It has been an experience I strongly suggest avoiding at all costs, not to mention a timely lesson in “why we have insurance 101”.

Having to move 1,000 square feet of merchandise (what we could salvage of it, that is) will try the patience of the strongest person. Needless to say, I am spending about 18 hours of every day trying to get the new location running smoothly. This would have been easier if we could have renovated *before* we moved in, instead of afterwards – for example, it’s generally easier to remove an entire wall when you don’t have shelving attached to it.

Hopefully, things will calm down by mid September. I’m excited about adding new product lines – Orijen, Acana, Blue Buffalo (by customer request) and Solid Gold. Possibly Earthborn and Halo, too – anyone have feedback on them?