Monday, April 11, 2016

Predicting store traffic - I'm leaving now

I HAD A lovely five-hour golf nap Sunday while The Masters was on. I did wake up in time to see poor Jordan Spieth implode on the 12th hole. I thought he showed a lot of guts and class the rest of the way. Too bad he only made $880,000 for finishing second - no consolation to him, but a whole bunch of Fifth and Maine renovations could be done with that kind of money.

Golf, like life, is all relative.

I was also awake during a computer company commercial which talked about "dark data" and businesses using rain, er, a cloud, to predict trends.

We don't need any high-falutin' computer or overpaid accounting executive to predict our trends at Fifth and Maine. You see, all I need to do is leave, and then we do big bidness.

Predicting store traffic is impossible. I would love Second String Music to be busy every second of every day. It simply doesn't happen that way, and Saturday was a prime example.

Between 10 a.m. and noon, we didn't have a single customer. I don't think that has ever happened. A few years ago I would have been alarmed, but Sheryl has taught me that the whims and cycles of retail are what they are, and sometimes you can't control them.

I uttered the magic words. "I'm going to walk the dogs," I said. And a few minutes after I left, customers started showing up. In the hour I was gone, Sheryl sold a lot of stuff and even got to visit with her favorite musician, Logan Kammerer, and his three adorable little kids.

Thank you Mike Sorenson for the Rock N Roll photos!
When I got back, it was all quiet. So quiet, I decided to take a nap in the back room (a raucous HartLyss gig the night before was partially to blame). I kept hearing the door ding and kept coming back until Sheryl ordered me to "just sleep." She closed the door to the back and kept the dogs up front. So I slept, finally.

I woke up about 3:45 p.m., and sure enough, the store had customers. The legendary Luke Lyter was giving free guitar lessons, people were looking for vinyl records, and a guy had just walked in looking for an acoustic amp. Fortunately I was able to help sell the amp and other stuff, and Luke kept showing young guitar players how to play a barred F chord.

It's quiet this morning again. So I'm about to walk the dogs. Come in and have Sheryl help you!

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