The Ides of May

The Ides of May doesn’t really get much press… The Ides of March is really where it’s at… Oh well… It’s a Shakespeare thing.

The contractors doing the facade remodel started slowly, but have really ramped it up over the last several days. They pulled down all of the lighted signs, completed more facade demo, and completely tore down the Intellitec space. The first 100 linear feet of the building is a pile of rubble.
There are a couple of small issues as a result of the construction, as expected.
The most important is that sales are down a little. After two weeks above the break even point, it is disappointing to experience slower sales. So far, it looks like this week is going to fall about $400-500 below the break even point. Painful in the short term, but will help us greatly in the long run… We just have to be patient and not get too concerned about sales during the construction period. I may approach the Property Manager and negotiate a reduced rent during the construction period…
Our dumpster service was unable to access the back of the building and could not empty the dumpster this week. We also had some rainwater leak into our storefront as a result of the construction work. A couple of ceiling tile grids are stained, and we have some water/dirt stains running down our wall behind the merchandise cooler. The GC said he will correct everything in the end…

Dave Ramsey just mentioned all of the complaints he gets about credit card policies, fees, outrageous interest rates, unfair practices, etc. Many people want Congress to get involved and fix the credit card industry via regulation. Dave’s response was that if you are waiting for the Government to fix anything in your life, you had better not hold your breath. His advice is that if you don’t like paying ridiculous amounts of interest and high and unrealistic fees, that maybe you should choose to not use credit cards. It is not a problem the Government needs to get in the middle of. Basically, if you don’t like credit cards, then don’t use them. Sounds like common sense to me…

Gotta run,
JD