Hun, it went from smoking in covered walkways (which is illegal), to staring in our windows and watching us and our customers, to talking about guns and why they bought them (aka, to use on their therapists). It's not getting better.

And we did scope it out, obviously lol
This stuff didn't start happening until we moved in in October.
And hun, this is a great location. We're right by the movie theater, across from the dance studio, down the road from Social Security, and right across from the DMV. There's a lot of traffic here. They're simply too afraid to walk through the gathering of mental people who smoke like chimneys, and I don't blame them. I refuse to be here alone because I'm afraid of who will come in here.

And like I said, it depends on if we can find a spot that's affordable. I'm not paying 3-9k a month for rent. They're nuts. $400 a month is plenty for me. We're trying to move, but it all depends on if the place we're looking at works out :3

Lol Good luck hun!
If you're only wanting to do it part time, I'd just open a website or something. Plus, you have to be willing to invest in the higher quality products and be willing to spend thousands of dollars of your personal money, unless you take out a loan. Not to mention you have to be prepared to not earn profits for at least the first 6 months, or possibly longer if you can't get the word out or business isn't that great. It's definitely not something you want to do on a whim and then stop part way through or something :3
Either way I wish you luck with it :)

LOL!
Eh - the hooch works great for pirate items though!
Just think of Johnny Depp :P

What item is Mr. Owl from? He's super cute!

I got curious too and started looking around!
It's from the Book of Daydreams CI :3

hunhunhunhunhunhunhunhunhunhunhunhunhunhunhunhunhu nhunhunhunhun :drool:

dang roachi whipping out the big items for T/O?

@Emma - Far out, that's crazy. Well maybe you should go talk to the people that run that place. It's not good if people are thinking about getting guns to kill their therapists. It's a dangeous place to be in.

Ohh that's really sad. So what can you do about it though??
I'm guessing that lady who came in and stole was from that lot that hang about outside?? What about a security guard at the door, or one that will tell them to piss off?

Ahh i see, well good luck with that then!

I already have a way of selling the products. And i've already made a bit from word of mouth. AND i didn't have to spend too much to do it xD. I guess it all depends on the product you sell/make. Invitations are not as costly as those buckets that you do. Paper is cheap and you can find a lot of bulk lot stuff like ribbons and plastic flowers and what not to make them pretty. But i do plan on getting a small loan to get me started. It's not gonna be anything big, it's just gonna be on the side while i work full time, until i can get money together to make it bigger etc. But yes i know, i'm starting small. I'm not launching into anything big straight away. Thanks hun :). I did ask around to make sure that what i was doing was worth it, coz i didn't think it was. But they all said so, and i told them to be brutally honest. Becuase money and time is involved here. But yeah i got a good repsonse. SO we will see ^^.

Yeah, but i hate how there isn't enough around. There isn't enough of anything on this site xD. So eh i'll just start selling mine.

@maria - There you go emma answered you ^^

@Ayx - YAhh im bored with the exchange lol.

*hummy comes in singing*
'who's got the hooch?

Roachi's got the hooch!

Vickyll3:~~roachi's got the hooch!

Lols @ Hummy.

Argh 34 guests again lol.

Roachi~~what are you doing to attract so many guests?
O.o
you doing some dancin' to hummy's singing?

I dunno, they always seem to appear when your in here Humz lol.

Originally Posted by Roachi

@Emma - Far out, that's crazy. Well maybe you should go talk to the people that run that place. It's not good if people are thinking about getting guns to kill their therapists. It's a dangeous place to be in.

Ohh that's really sad. So what can you do about it though??
I'm guessing that lady who came in and stole was from that lot that hang about outside?? What about a security guard at the door, or one that will tell them to piss off?

Ahh i see, well good luck with that then!

I already have a way of selling the products. And i've already made a bit from word of mouth. AND i didn't have to spend too much to do it xD. I guess it all depends on the product you sell/make. Invitations are not as costly as those buckets that you do. Paper is cheap and you can find a lot of bulk lot stuff like ribbons and plastic flowers and what not to make them pretty. But i do plan on getting a small loan to get me started. It's not gonna be anything big, it's just gonna be on the side while i work full time, until i can get money together to make it bigger etc. But yes i know, i'm starting small. I'm not launching into anything big straight away. Thanks hun :). I did ask around to make sure that what i was doing was worth it, coz i didn't think it was. But they all said so, and i told them to be brutally honest. Becuase money and time is involved here. But yeah i got a good repsonse. SO we will see ^^.

Yeah, but i hate how there isn't enough around. There isn't enough of anything on this site xD. So eh i'll just start selling mine.

See, thing is, a woman from the mental health center stormed into our shop one day and started cussing us out and telling us to leave their clients alone and they can do what they want and blahblahblah. So there's no point. And with Step By Step, there's really no point because even if they talked to them, the people aren't going to remember it the next day. They don't even remember it the next hour after we talk to them, ya know? So we're pretty much at a loss and our customers are getting scared off by them. It's definitely not the products, because everyone who comes in buys something and loves our products. The woman who came in the other day (the one who told us about the 9k47 or whatever it was) asked for a business card and asked if she could order over the phone. So we know she's never coming back into the store, even if she does order from us. She's rather pay shipping than come back to the store. Now that is our last straw. We simply can't conduct business with them there. :/

Nope!
The woman who came in and stole the sound chip isn't from either place. Shocking, right? They people who come in from Step By Step, the ones who don't creep us out, are actually really sweet. They're cute little old people who have just slight disabilities, like they're a little slower than normal or something. It's just the rest of them and the mental health center that are the problem.

See, thing with that is, it's a hiring expense that we don't have right now. Plus, it looks really bad if we're having to have a security guard protect our shop. I mean, that's just a big red flag that it's not safe to come down to the shop because of the surrounding places. :(

Haha Thanks :)
We heard back on a place and they're wanting 1.2k a month, but they're willing to work with us for the first 3-4 months and give us a break on it until we can get going and see if we can even afford that much. We might even be able to get it down to 8-900 a month if we work it right :3
So if this goes through, we'll be out and moved into the new place (literally, brand new building) by May 1st :3

That's true, paper is a lot less expensive than our gift cans, but I meant more along the lines of the printers, embossing machines, etc., not to mention the bulk product you're going to need to keep on hand etc :3
I mean, you can't just use a piece of construction paper or cheap cheap paper and say here ya go, ya know? I'm sure you'll figure it all out though :)

I really hope it works out for you and you're able to get a reasonable loan!!
Try and see if there are any small business group things that will help with grants and such. We have them around here and we're calling on Monday to see if we can get an appointment to meet with them and get some grants to move and expand :3
Maybe get back some of the money we invested XD;

Haha Yeah I know - I hate how limited the big items are. It really makes getting them difficult. I wish they'd just release some more into circulation. I can't imagine creating and adding 10 or so into the economy would make their worth go down. If anything it would help balance it a little more. I mean, our user-base is wayyyy bigger than it was in '07 etc. So the amount of items like that available is totally not even close to being in proportion, even as a rare, in comparison to the user-base - which sucks :( </3

LOL Thing is though, next month you'll be buying it all back :P

Ahh i see, what the hell? Just because you told those people to bugger off?? I would ask them to piss off from outside my shop too. In NZ your not allowed to loiter around someones place of business like that, unless you've asked permission too. Can't you involve the police?
Ahh the Ak47 possibly?? Yeah i don't blame her. But yeah it will be losing you business, which really sucks.

Aww thats really sad. That lady sounded awful lol. Has she been back?
Ahh i see, well it's an awful position to be in.

Ahh well thats not too bad. Sounds soo much better then the place your in. Goodluck with that ^^.

No, these are different kinds of invitations my dear. Handcrafted ones. I don't need embossing and all of that. A printer yeah, but nothing fancy.
I'll show you when i get my pictures off my other computer.

Yeah i might look into that. Heres hoping lol.
Ahh well that's awesome i hope it works out for you. :) Hopefully you'll be making a big profit soon ^^

Yeah the GBA/Questers raffles were good for that. I really thought that they would do something to release more items like that. But i guess not.

Yeah probably xD.

omg
I swear I just a big argument with my bother in law
and now my boyfriend is so mad
oh gosh

-claims down-
Hooch!

Ohh no vicky, what happened??

It was so stupid
I swear I dont even remember what the hell happen
but my boyfriend is rushing here from work.....

Oh o. That can't be good lol.

Originally Posted by Roachi

Ahh i see, what the hell? Just because you told those people to bugger off?? I would ask them to piss off from outside my shop too. In NZ your not allowed to loiter around someones place of business like that, unless you've asked permission too. Can't you involve the police?
Ahh the Ak47 possibly?? Yeah i don't blame her. But yeah it will be losing you business, which really sucks.

Aww thats really sad. That lady sounded awful lol. Has she been back?
Ahh i see, well it's an awful position to be in.

Ahh well thats not too bad. Sounds soo much better then the place your in. Goodluck with that ^^.

No, these are different kinds of invitations my dear. Handcrafted ones. I don't need embossing and all of that. A printer yeah, but nothing fancy.
I'll show you when i get my pictures off my other computer.

Yeah i might look into that. Heres hoping lol.
Ahh well that's awesome i hope it works out for you. :) Hopefully you'll be making a big profit soon ^^

Yeah the GBA/Questers raffles were good for that. I really thought that they would do something to release more items like that. But i guess not.

Yeah probably xD.

It's illegal to loiter here too. But there's a small walkway by our shop between us and the Mental Health. If they're on the other side of that walk way, we can't do anything. And if they're not directly in front of our shop entrance, or around it, (meaning they can in the middle of the walkway) then we can't do anything. When they're by our doors, I do say something, but what's the point in involving the police?
They can claim that they weren't in front of our door, the Mental Health will back them up even if it's not true, and it's really not going to do any good because tomorrow, they'll do it again. So all it'll do is put our name in the police blotter, and we really don't need that kind of publicity lol
Not to mention the fact that because they're disabled or whatever, nothing will be done. Just a light wrist slap that they'll forget in 2 minutes :/

Maybe? Lol
Not 100% sure - the woman wasn't sure exactly the wording/numbers - but she recognized it as a bomb or gun or both or whatever :3
Still, we're losing business because of it. I mean, I bet you anything the people who experience that are telling their friends "Omg! Great gift shop down the road from the movie theater! But guess what happened when I went there....."
I can already imagine the stories, and I don't blame them one bit for being afraid to come down to our shop :/

Nope - only the one time, but we keep expecting her to be back LOL
She's lucky I wasn't there or I would have told her off. Mom's too nice for that :/

Thank you!
And yeah definitely.
If we can get it we'll be in the same building as Little Caesars and will be right next door to them, so that'll DEFINITELY bring in traffic :3

Yes, I know they're handcrafted lol
I guess I'm just not picturing the type of handcrafted you mean :3
Or at least not the type of invitations you mean lol

Alrighty!
Can't wait to see :D

Sankyuu!
Hopefully we can get in there quickly :3
We really need the grant :/

Hopefully!
I know we will once we get out and away from the mental health center and step by step. They're honestly the reason people won't come down to our shop. And I don't blame them :/
I mean, everyone who comes in buys our stuff and loves it and tells everyone. But people are too afraid of coming down there because of what surrounds us :/

Agreed!
I honestly though that's what the Auctioneer was for - auctioning off items that are rare, adding more into circulation. But nope! It releases an entirely new line of rares that are outrageous in price >.>

Nope that is not good
not at all

*Noms on Roachi*


I'll give all my gold to someone who comes and folds my laundry for me. DX

I'll do it Chunsa!! LOL
If only you lived near me :P

Gotta warn you, it's like, 95% of my wardrobe.

LOL
Believe me, now that my Mom and I are at the shop all day and working 6 days a week, laundry piles up like that here :/
Mainly because my dead-beat dad won't pitch in and get up and help >.>
But ya know lol

What do you value the hooch Roachi?

Edit: thanks hummy: love for the ping

@emma - Will reply when i get some time.
@chunsy - I would if i lived anywhere near you lol.
@Vicky - Um dunno just gonna take a look at offers at the moment :)

*kidnaps Roa*

I've folded about half of it, some is still drying, and I swear to god I'm going to kill my cat, as she just created more laundry for me.

:-x:illgetu:

Ohh where am i goin? :P
I need 3 meals a day and lots of water!! And don't forget to take my laptop and my sunshine pillow ^^ :P
Oh no, i did mine on friday and the bf folded it all yay :)