That's A Start
It’s been relatively calm at PJP, minus hating January. But no worries, there’s so much going on worth discussing. So, let’s go:
PJP West turns ONE tomorrow, if you can even believe that. And just like parenting, the days are long but the years are short. I have a lot of thoughts to unpack about the two store life, but in short, it’s been easier and more worth it than I would have guessed.
Of course, with two stores, you get double the issues to deal with. And so when the brand new floor mixer at West just stopped working, I wasn’t surprised. (Actually very little surprises me these days.). The repair person said the motor was bad in the mixer and that the company no longer exists and there is no replacement motor IN THE WORLD. That seems intense, no? Also, the average life span of a floor mixer is 12-20 years, not 11 months and 29 days. So now the mixer is going back to the company that sold it to us so they can take a look. And if the motor really doesn’t exist, they offered we just buy a new one for $3500. Sure.
Panchero’s next to West is under construction, which means that the parking lot is a mess and we mostly listened to the sound of drilling all of yesterday morning. I think it is an interesting commentary on the freedoms a national chain has in closing for six weeks to remodel versus what that would look like for a small business (who likely couldn’t afford that long without sales, plus would stress the whole time about customers forgetting they exist during the remodel time). I’m not a franchise girl though, so I what do I know?
Did you read that the Bed, Bath, and Beyond in Columbia is slated to close? You know what I don’t want to look at across the parking lot from West? An empty Macy’s and an empty Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Who is in charge of business recruitment in this town? Can they take a special trip out of the new airport terminal to the headquarters of Home Goods and apologize for the whole sign height variance debacle from a few years ago and woo them back into interest for a Columbia location? Follow me for more planning & zoning tips. Ahem.
And finally, we did a little research this week and visited five potential PJP STL locations. Sadly, we hated three of the five, felt marginally about the fourth location, and really overthought the last one…so who knows. But I do know that the third location won’t have a mixer from a company who makes a motor that lasts 11 months and 29 days…that’s a start.