Final Stretch?
I'd call it an 80% success rate on this trip. The shoes are on their way, the Goth dolls are on their way, but the clothes are another story. For some reason my supplier, a big name company, wouldn't allow me to deliver a bank check to their headquarters in L.A. They would only take a credit card (way beyond my limit) or a bank transfer. As is wont to happen, my first day back picking up the other bank checks I left their transfer info at home, and wasn't able to get back to the bank until Saturday. Banks don't initiate transfers on Saturdays. At least mine won't.
So, I set up a phone transfer agreement, which won't be active until at least Wednesday. Now I'm reconsidering the vendor. They've got really nice stuff, all the hipsters wear it, but they're at the end of their season, which means I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel for sizes and available stock. The new line is due out in June or July, not a long time to wait, but late even for my delayed opening.
My rep doesn't like phone calls ('Look, I'm usually in a meeting'). I've been instructed to use email only, but when I've done that, I've gotten form letters back, then a real response a day or two later. It's almost like they don't want my business. If I were at the end of my stock, and I had some knucklehead wanting to help clean me out, I'd be on the stick. But then again I'm not working for one of the largest clothing distributors selling to the Hollywood crowd. Maybe I'm not big enough game.
It all comes down to that I'm not going to hit my target opening date, which means I have another week to arrange another supplier or two. Tomorrow is Wednesday, when I check to see if the transfer has been set up; which is usually not the case. For some reason the branch always leaves something out of the application, and the transfer office makes them do it over again. This only gets noticed when I try to 'make' a transfer. What is supposed to take two to four days usually takes about two weeks. Welcome to the nineteenth century.
I did manage to have thin crust pizza at the best pizza parlor in L.A., Casa Bianca in Eagle Rock. We only had to wait an hour for a table. I picked up the iPod too, which last night I connected to the projector downstairs and was blown away by the quality of the video. It ain't hdtv, but from across the room at 102 inches it was completely serviceable. I also picked up the disc containing the logo for the sign from Rodney. Very damn cool.
Back at the ranch, my able crew, led by my Brazilian Amazon, has managed to cut through about a mile of red tape while I was gone. The physical phone lines are installed and only waiting for dial tones and an ADSL signal, the only document I need for opening is a health department inspection certificate, and they've managed to bypass a building permit requirement for the mezzanine, which should be installed by the end of the week. A lesson for all of you, when you need to get stuff done in a stifling bureaucracy, get a hot chick with an accent to do it for you.
Today I sign the contract to buy the shopping bags, which they claim will be ready in a week, as they manufacture them here. So, down to the stretch: fixtures for the bathroom, diamond plate and lights for the shelves, delivery of the inventory/sales register system, mirrors, furniture, mannequins, clothes hangers, office and storeroom construction, assemble mezzanine, floating rear-projection screen, order sign and only about a billion other things. No problemo, no?
