The Return of Monday Rambles

I lost a week or so in there somehow.  Please accept my apologies.  Life got a wee tad hectic for a bit.  It'll probably happen again. I'm willing to bet on that at least.

Anyway, April has been a difficult booth month, but it seems to be picking up a bit.  There's still some time left to turn things around, but, man, the start was dismal.  It didn't dawn on me until the middle of the first week of the month that it was Spring Break!  No wonder sales were in the toilet.  I actually had the aggravation of a 99 cent day, which is not as bad as a no-sale day, but not by much.  To make matters worse, there was an email snafu that night and no reports got mailed.  Which is worse:  not receiving the 99 cent sales day report or receiving it?  The re-sale philosophers will be arguing about that one for decades to come.

I'm actually concerned about not hitting my sales goals this month.  There's not much month left and there's too much ground to make up.  Sometimes it happens, I guess.  Not that there haven't been some good moments this month, just not enough of them.  Weekend before last, the Easter Bunny came to visit and brought lots of customers, despite severe thunderstorms.  The mall asked dealers to come to their booths to meet customers and make deals.  I managed to unload a couple of pieces that had overstayed their welcome.  (Although not as many as I hoped to.)  I also met a couple who are just starting to collect religious articles and they bought quite a bit from me.  The conversation with them was almost as much fin as the commerce.

We're also now in the midst of Derby Festival madness, which will undoubtedly drag on sales.  If you don't live here, it's a two-minute horse race.  If you do live here, it's a three and a half week party.  The kick off was the mega firework show downtown. Big noisy crowds of drunk people watching noisy explosions ain't my thing, so I've never been.  I was expecting a sales drag, because everyone (and I mean everyone) goes and spends the day down there.  Fortunately, it was rainy and cold, so people stayed in their own parts of town and shopped instead.

Our cable carrier switched digital music services again, so we have a decent Americana/Alt-Country channel again.  The last one was a little too tied to the Wide Open Country show on CMT, which meant we got lots of Alan Jackson slipped in, which did not make me too happy.  I spent more time listening to the alternative Latin rock channel instead.  I'm enjoying the new one quite a bit.  I like to flip over to the music when I'm doing stuff like cleaning or working on merchandise.

Speaking of merch, I've signed up for a free spot at a church sale that's coming in a couple of weeks.  I'm planning on using it to clear out more of my still too large backlog, and maybe a few booth duds as well.  I might ask a friend to join me so I'll have someone to talk to.  Ms Jackie seems to do well at these kinds of things, so maybe I will too.

March Booth Report is coming this week for sure!