Nemo’s News 10-15-2007

Well, last week never did shape up and have a strong day. We rounded out the week at about $500-600 lower than our recent typical averages (for the whole week). We have found that holiday weeks really are strange. I’m hoping to see things rebound this week. The last time I said it was time to start doing some advertising or marketing, we jumped up in sales and had a good growth spurt. I’m hoping the same thing will happen, but who knows…

Tracy and I visited some other coffee shops recently.
We went to Sorrano’s yesterday, both their Colorado Springs location on North Academy and their Monument, CO location (which is their original location). The coffee was very good, as we have heard. They utilize La Marzocco semi-automatic espresso machines, as do we. The owners roast their own coffee, and I have to admit is one of the best local products I have tried. The best goes to Kaladi Brothers in Denver, Sorranos is probably second best, followed by a tie with Crowfoot Valley in Castle Rock and CCM (Colorado Coffee Merchants) here in the Springs.
As for Sorranos, the Academy location is new, and is very corporate looking. They have lots of woodwork, but it is the ‘corporate installed’ looking stuff. They have a gas fireplace, and a large retail wall. We had Josh, Jonah, and Ethan with us and the clients already in the store decided the place was a library, not a coffee shop. I don’t blame them for being confused, because it was incredibly quiet. We got lots of angry or irritated looks from several people. Overall impression – The coffee was very good (brewed coffee for Tracy, vanilla Americano for me). The décor was very nice, but too corporate feeling, and to sterile. There was no warmth, except for the massive inferno in the gas fireplace (I had to get up and move farther away). The existing clients were not nice or friendly, although the staff was. Their Monument store was a little older, and had a better feel to it. It was basically the same concept, but not as fancy. The staff was friendly, but the décor and atmosphere were more inviting. I bought a pound of decaf espresso (we are almost out and might run out before our coffee order arrives). They weighed, measured, and packaged it as regular espresso. They labeled the bag as espresso, so I asked if it was decaf. They said ‘oops’ and started over.

I have stopped into It’s A Grind coffee shop near Intel several times in the last couple of weeks. The store is very corporate, and matches the franchise theme you see on their website. The point of sale is way in the back and to the left, and the décor back there is all dark (black ceilings, too). It feels like going into a cave to order coffee. The quality of the coffee is absolutely horrible. I had really bad coffee one day, so I tried an Americano the next. It was by far the worst Americano I’ve ever had. They do have an orange scone that is very good. The flavor of the icing reminds me of the Orange flavored cinnamon rolls my Dad used to make for Shellie and me when we were kids. They have no prices marked on anything, so after buying two scones there, I still have no idea how much they are or if it is a good value or not. The staff is the sickeningly sweet, over the top, kind of friendly. They have that “it is company policy” to be friendly feel to it, rather than a genuine friendliness. Every single customer gets the same robotic greeting of “What can we make for you today?” with a big cheesy smile. I’m sure the people there are friendly enough, but they come across as plastic and not genuine. Based upon my experience there over a period of two weeks, I would say they are in trouble. I saw very few people coming in to get coffee on the way to work, and I was there during what should be the morning rush. They do have quite a few people (who appear to be retired) hanging out in the café drinking coffee and reading papers, talking, etc.

We have not received any response to the voicemails I have left for the current owners of the second location we are interested in. I am going to mail letters (certified mail) to the current owner’s home address (for the life of me, I don’t know why it is publicly available… I found his name on the county assessor’s website, then did a people search) and to the address listed for the business address. If we don’t get a response from that effort, I’ll look for a commercial real estate broker that specializes in business properties.

I had a meeting with our equipment vendor and had productive results. My effort was to resolve the issues, get what we need, and still maintain the relationship. You never know when an espresso machine boiler element might go out, requiring quick service. I think I could do most repairs to the equipment myself, provided I can get the parts. In any case, I did not want to sever ties with the only company in town that services espresso/coffee equipment, regardless of how bad an experience we’ve had so far.
The results of the meeting are as follows:
1 – They are going to repair our espresso machine. Specifically, they are going to replace the bushing on the steam wands that are leaking, check the touchpad for brew head #1, and troubleshoot the inconsistent performance between group 1 and groups 2&3. They are also going to install a two cartridge purification/softener system at my request. I will be paying for parts and they are going to install without charging labor $$.
2. They are going to repair the Bunn G1 bulk grinder. We have already replaced this piece of equipment at a cost of approx $800. We can use it at a second location, keep it as a backup, or sell it on EBay for about $300.
3. They are going to swap out the La Marzocco Swift grinder for a new espresso grinder of our choice (Mazzer). We have already bought two Mazzer grinders for our shop, but we can use the new one at a second location, or keep as a back up.
4. They are going to try billing the electrical contractor for the $800 repair bill, and will not be invoicing us for that, as agreed in the beginning.
5. They are adjusting the small wares invoice to remove four items that we were unhappy with and returned to them. Once adjusted, we will pay that bill.

These guys are actually nice guys and I personally like both of them. They put some equipment in our shop that we were not satisfied with, and they are making good on the deal we originally agreed upon. I wish things hadn’t gotten so ugly in the last couple of weeks, but we are definitely on the right path to resolve these issues and maintain a business working relationship.

I have had a photography group meeting at the shop since June. If you are local and would like to check it out, here is the link:
http://photo.meetup.com/586/

We teach photography lessons, have studio photo sessions, photography field trips to surrounding areas, have photography contests with prizes, participate in local charity events providing photography services for their websites, etc…
It has been a huge success, and I’ve met some great local photographers through the group. I enjoy being a participant, but I have determined that I’m not really interested in teaching photography. I have spent nearly 25 years learning photography by trial and error. I enjoy the skills I have developed, but it isn’t that much fun to me to teach them to others. Now, Photoshop is a completely different story!! I have been using Photoshop since about 1995 and I have gotten pretty good with it. I recently started a Meetup group for Photoshop and we had our first meeting/lesson on Friday night. That was a blast, and I really loved doing it. We started with a meet & greet, followed by setting up some goals for the group, then reviewed some of my Photoshop work, and the work of two other members. We followed all of that up with a lesson in black and white conversions. I covered, the basic desaturate command in Photoshop, converting an R, G, or B channel to a BW layer, the Channel Mixer option in monochrome, and the holy grail of BW conversion, CALCULATONS! The night was a success and I think everyone enjoyed the discussions and lessons. We will be splitting the group into a Beginners group and an Advanced group. I need to schedule the next lessons individually.
I took several photos and uploaded them to the group Pbase site and gave the assignment for everyone to practice BW conversions on them. I have also posted several Photoshop tutorials at the Meetup site for everyone to take a look at and to try. If you are interested in learning Photoshop, check it out here:
http://photoshop.meetup.com/238/

Tracy and I took the boys to the Pioneer’s Museum on Saturday afternoon. They have a current exhibit of fine woodworking and quilting projects. They are not antiques, but are current work of various local artists. I have been inspired! My grandmother made me a quilt, and it is one of my favorite possessions. I am finding that the older I get, the more I appreciate things that someone else has made for me. Josh, Jonah, and Ethan all love that quilt, and have all used it at one time or another. It has gotten thread bare in one spot, and I need to take it and hang it up somewhere, rather than continue to use it as a blanket. In any case, I have set a goal for myself to make each of the boys a quilt for Christmas! You can call me crazy, but I really think I can do it. I designed a pattern yesterday, and I made one quilt panel for practice and it came out great. Basically, I just need to make 20 quilt panels, sew them all together, sew a border around it, layer it with a solid backing with quilt stuffing inside, and sew that… and wa-la, you have a quilt. After giving it much thought, I have pretty much decided that it requires much sewing to make a quilt. I’ll leave my pneumatic nail guns out of this project!

Well, I need to run…
Thanks for taking a look into our lives with regard to the shop, and, well, some things not related to the shop!
Take care everybody…
JD