Whiny Monday Rambles

I'm in a Junk Funk.  I got the Booth Blues.  I got the Low Sales, No Sales, Ain't Makin' Rent, Cryin' Shame, Down in the Dumps, Whinin', Cryin', Moanin', Blues!

Cue slide guitar here.

Okay, so I'm being melodramatic.  It's something I do so well.  But I'm in a bit of a slump here and I'm not coping with it well.  Not well at all.

I've already talked about not making rent at one site last month.  What I haven't really talked about is the fact that I almost didn't make rent the month before as well.  If I hadn't had several last week furniture sales, I would have gone in the hole that month too.

Last week started off looking like the same thing was going to happen again.   Can't have that.  Just can't.  So I went on the offensive (or is it the defensive?) ad pulled out the big guns.  I rearranged the whole booth.  I marked a couple of large pieces down (one sold).  I slammed the hell out of Craigslist.  And on Friday, I started a sale that's running until the end of the month.

I really didn't want to do the sale route.  I try to keep my prices low enough that I don't have to.  Any more off that cuts my margins way too thin.  Besides, I had done one at the beginning of April and didn't sell a damn thing.  It seems to be working this time around.  I finally made rent last night.  There's still a couple of days in the month, so I can still make a little money.  Maybe.

Everything that I'm seeing is telling me that it's just been an overall slow period at this store, but it's so hard not to take it personally.  I've had a real crisis of confidence over the whole thing.  I know the late spring and early summer is a slow time in this business.  In Louisville, we have to deal with Derby mania on top of everything else.  I also know I wasn't the only one to not make rent in April.  I know all of this, but it hasn't seemed to  help my mood.

Of course, part of that problem is the fact that last week sales at the other store tanked.  For most of the week (and the weekend before) I didn't do over ten bucks a day.  To add insult to injury, a week ago Friday, I had a super day.  Tons of sales--over 70 bucks worth.  Then BAM!  The floor dropped out.

One booth struggling I can deal with.  One of the reasons I have two is so they can supplement each other.  But when both are struggling, I start feeling like maybe I really don't know what I'm doing.

Thankfully, sales have picked up at that location again.  Last night, I matched last month's total, so I'm now set to increase, which is always good.  It's just that I was on a trajectory to have a killer month.  A real killer month.  And that's been totally derailed.  There's almost no way I can do that now.

So, maybe it's not bad enough to be singing the blues now, but it was for a little while.

On top of everything else, my bike got stolen last week!  From out of our back yard!  Someone hopped our fence and swiped it.  I'm still seeing red over that.  I've got another one, but it's going to require about 200 bucks worth of work to get in running shape.

So last week pretty much goes down as not one of the best ones ever.  Maybe this one will be an improvement.  I'll be house sitting this week, so I'm not sure about blogging just yet.  I intend to try, but those plans never work out when I'm away from home.  We'll see.

Today is the second anniversary of this.  I went to the big flea market over the weekend.  That was something we always did either on Memorial weekend or the Fourth of July weekend.  Didn't buy too much.  Just kind of wandered around, checking stuff out, like she and I used to do.

On a happier note, if Blogger's counter is to be believed, I have finally matched the 2005 post count!  Now for 2006 and 2011!