Looking For a Space Might Be More Challenging Than I'd Hoped

Yesterday was just as busy as I thought it would be, with a few twists and turns in there just to make my life more interesting. *sigh* My car appointment went well - I dropped Minnion off and they had a new CX-5 waiting for me to drive off in - no charge. I liked it once I figured out how to work the CRT sound system and got it set to a general radio station that I could live with for a few hours. (I chose Minnesota Public Radio's Classical station - that's me in a nutshell - heavy metal in general, but a grounding in classical that I turn to as an 'always welcome' sound). I headed off to find my warehouse. 

I generally listen to Sirius XM's "Turbo" station in my car and 
on my phone. That's hard rock and it gets me moving on the 
treadmill and in general. But ... I couldn't access Sirius on 
the rental (without a lot of bother), so I went with an old 
favorite - public radio's classical music station. That's me in a 
nutshell - classical/hard rock. LOL

After getting lost in the warehouse district and using Google to get back to where I needed to be (which was actually REALLY easy to find *sigh*, I met with Mike. I explained what I was looking for, and that I had 48 metal shelving units alone that would need space, not counting any of my merchandise or standard displays. He said he didn't have anything large enough, but we walked to vies his largest unit - 2600 square feet. Yup. Not nearly large enough for my needs. He then passed along a card of a guy in Minneapolis who might be able to help. 

WareSpace was perfect in many ways, just not large 
enough. Their largest unit is 2500 square feet and I need 
more than that. They took a complex, completely revamped 
it, and made a lot of individual units for start-up businesses 
in it. It's a great concept and in many ways it worked 
for us, but not in size. *sigh* Back to hunting for that 
perfect space. 

My car was finished, so I drove the rental back and switched out a newly spark-plugged and fluid filled Minnion, happily waiting for me. She's purring now - LOL. On my way back home I decided to drop by Har Mar Mall. It's a mall that's actually in between work and my home. It was one of the first (if not the actual first) enclosed mall built in the state of Minnesota. But it's mostly vacant now. The larger tenants have moved to other locations in the area, and Marshall's is moving to their new space in our general area within a week or so. So there's LOTS of vacant space in the mall - perfect for a short-term lease and perfect situation for people in and out of our sale. 

Har Mar Mall, a strip mall located between the shop and my 
home, is basically a dead mall for interior shops now. Those 
stores with a strong exterior entrance - Michaels Arts and 
Crafts, Barnes & Nobel, Burlington Coat Factory, and some 
smaller restaurants, are doing great. They have regular 
business. But they don't have their back doors unlocked 
to access the larger Mall. It seems the Mall itself is mostly 
used by walkers these days, and there's nothing much 
sadder than a place that had been lively and active declining 
into old people walking their laps. 

Unfortunately, speaking with the property manager on-site, the mall isn't accepting any tenants at all right now - long or short term (I'd be looking at about 8 weeks for the rental contract). They're trying to get all of the permits in line to begin demolishing the mall next year. The City is fighting them on the grounds of a "historic" site, but I suspect the mall will win and will knock it down and rebuild something they think will work better in that space. That will cause Barnes & Nobel to have to move or close for a few months, which will make me very sad. But ... back to me (because of course, it's all about me - LOL), that doesn't solve my very real dilemma of finding approximately 4400 square feet of usable space in which to hold my clearance sale. I'll have to continue my hunt. 

I'm not counting anything out at this point in the process, 
but I do need to get something lined up in a reasonable 
period of time. It's too early to bounce this off DH just 
yet. He's stressed about cash flow and inventory. 

I did speak with the other guy - the Minneapolis property guy - who might be able to help. I'm hoping that might work through. I'd love to stay in my general area, but I also don't want to do anything farther south because we have a large problem with homeless and addicted people a bit south of our store's location and I don't need to be running a "Store Closing" sale in that environment. It's a pickle, to be sure. But at least I've started looking. Positive thoughts, as always, would be appreciated. I'm sure everything will fall into place, but I don't really need any additional anxiety in my life - LOL. So, I'm off to swim away some of this angst. Have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Going To Be a VERY Busy "Day Off"

I'm running a little bit ahead of schedule today, having awakened at 2:30 am instead of my normal 3:00 am for swimming days. So I took advantage of that little extra time to be a bit less rushed with my morning meditation, and it also gave me time to get the first load of laundry going before writing this and wrapping things up. It's a swimming day today, so I leave for the gym in 40 minutes. It's also a trash day, so the bin needs to be put at the curbside. 

It's not easy to stick to any plan when life wants 
to challenge you. However, sometimes you really 
have to dig in your heels and slow things down 
enough to actually come up with a concrete plan. 
I hope I'm doing that with this warehouse exploration. 

I've got an early morning appointment at my car dealership for a semi-annual checkover, but I'm leaving Minnion there today and taking advantage of one of their no charge loaner vehicles. If they don't have one set aside for me, I'm totally screwed because I have an 11:00 am appointment to view a warehouse space that I might rent for my going out of business sale period. To sell down to nothing isn't easy, and that's what I want/need to do. For that I need space, and my little sales floor simply won't be enough. I'm looking into renting a warehouse space for the sale period - approximately 8 weeks of time. The logistics of all of this will be frightening, but I'm going to have to make it work. 

I've been looking at warehouse spaces to rent, because we 
simply don't have the footprint necessary for a true Going 
Out of Business sale in our current location. These people are 
close, they have security, heat, etc in every space and every 
space has its' own loading dock. They may meet every criteria 
I'm looking for to be in for 2-3 months while we clear everything 
out to the bare walls. 

Of course I also have other errands to do today like grocery shopping and some cooking, but that will take place this afternoon after I retrieve Minnion from her automobile physical - LOL. It's just going to be one of those days. DH was upset at me because I didn't dive in and help him string beads for sale last night, but I just needed to sit and veg out for a while. He simply didn't understand that I needed an hour or so to just relax. Oh well, one more misunderstanding in a long encyclopedia of misunderstandings. 

I have a million things on my mind, a single day off, and 
two appointments that I must keep. I think I need my swim 
just to work off some stress. LOL 

So, I'm going to wrap this up, take some of my frustration out in the pool this morning, and hopefully have a day where everything actually clicks into place for me. It's a hope, right? LOL Have an excellent Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.