The day began like any ordinary Monday.  I drove B to school, walked with my good friend on the Greenway soaking up all those great late summer morning vibes. It was absolutely fabulous morning to be outside.

Richard sent me a picture of the huge truck shipment that had just arrived at the hardware store. We made plans for the day. I would go home quickly after my walk on the Greenway and make a few sandwiches for lunch, then head into the store. The unpacking of the boxes would be an all day event. We had a plan.

I arrived at the store to find out that our computers were not working and the credit card machine was down. We were hand calculating every sale and handwriting every purchase… the internet was down!

Since the internet issues were not a quick fix and progress not being made quickly via phone calls, I had to leave to take care of other business for the store. Richard was embedded in the internet problem he was on the phone again with our current internet provider. So, I drove back across town to unlock a local pool padlock so folks could swim. Richard had not been able to leave that morning to go take care of that simple task. Upon my return, he told me someone was to call us within the hour to set up an appointment to take care of the internet issues.

We worked through lunch, helping our customers and time passed quickly because we were busy. In the retail world busy is always good! We did not receive a call from our internet provider, and our boxes were still there waiting to be dealt with. Another call to internet folks, someone would call us back soon was the promise.

Meanwhile, we worked on the boxes of store stock. Some of the items that had arrived in the boxes were some purchases from the Chicago hardware show. Funny thing though… we ordered 1 toaster and 1 iron to see how these new items would do as home essentials… in the boxes we found 12 toasters and 12 irons instead!!!! That was a bit of a surprise, of course we had to pay for those extra items when we received the truck shipment that morning. I called our Orgill rep and he came by to fix the error in shipping- thank you Steve!!!

Putting up store stock is not easy as opening the boxes and then finding where it goes. Everything has to be checked off, accounted for, ticketed correctly, and then placed in the correct location of the store. New items.. well, that does take longer because often you have to move products in order to make room for those new products.

Another thing to note: with the new tariffs, prices are consistently changing with any type of metal items.. so when any type of metal piece comes in it is ticketed and placed on the store shelf, it needs to be double checked to ensure that all of the current store stock is priced appropriately- all with the new price increase. This is a time consuming task, we have lots of small metal pieces… need I say more.

Late afternoon that messy Monday brought two more interesting events: 1.  our internet would not be restore until possibly Wednesday. That little nugget of news was a hard pill to swallow as a business owner. We began to problem solve for other possible solutions. 2.  A car pulled into one of the front parking spaces outside our front door. An elderly gentleman came inside our store while his wife remained in the car. He began to chat with us about what he needed. Suddenly, a huge POP sound came out from his car. From my perspective, it appeared that smoke was coming out from the engine. I thought the engine of their car had blown up. Everyone close by heard the noise and people started to gather to assist these folks. It was the front tire that had popped. They were so extremely lucky that the tire had not popped while they had been driving down the road!!! The smoke must have been from the tire.

In the midst of messy Monday, one thing was consistent all day… our customers were fabulous!!! They were patient, & understanding of a situation that we could not easily fix. Many people said, ” that is all right, I would rather shop local”, I don’t mind to pay cash today.

Even in those messy Monday moments when things seemed to be difficult, we were able to get those sweet moments from our customers who keep us going. This is why we do what we do, messy days or good days. They are all the same… you guys keep us going in the right direction.  Thank you!!! We appreciate your support!!!