Tuesday, May 26

Mental Couple of Weeks

The next two weeks are going to be very busy. Fortunately, the last couple of weeks haven't been too taxing and we've just had a long weekend (yesterday was a public holiday in the UK).

We bought a house down here on Friday, so now we've got to get it ready and move in. It needs decorating throughout, and there are a couple of more major jobs we'd like to get done before we move in.

This week my parents are coming up from Bristol to help us decorate, so I'm taking Thursday and Friday off work to go over to the new house and decorate with them, and we'll be working on it on the weekend too. Friday is also the day that Sumeria arrives in York. On Saturday The Wife is off to Sweden for a week for work, so next week I'm home alone.

Having my games in York has saved me a lot of money. In York I'm paying £1 per pallet per week, with a minimum order of £10 a week. I'm down to 4 pallets now, so I'm paying £10 a week. Down here in the South I was quoted £2.75 per pallet per week. For those four pallets that's only £11 a week, but I used to have more, and on Friday another 6 pallets are arriving from Germany, in York that has no effect on the amount I pay (still within the minimum invoice charge, just!), but down here that would add £16.50 a week to my costs. The downside is when a new game arrives I need to get my hands on a lot of stock, that means several trips to York to load up a car-full of games and bring them down here. So next week I will be mostly on the road and fulfilling pre-orders and stocking orders. In addition, I've the UK Games Expo that weekend, so I'll need some more stock for that.

In addition to everything else, I need to get ready for the Expo: preparing my stand, working out how much stock I'm taking, getting new business cards made and getting some Point-of-Sale signs done.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Is the travelling back and forth really cost effective compared to a local storage? Remember, the cost of the car is more than just petrol. You also have to factor in the expense of your time, which you might spend more fruitfully working at your base. The few quid you save on storage could be costing you more in other costs, including opportunity costs.

See you on Monday! :)

Unknown said...

Jon might be right...

Jackson Pope said...

Hiya Jon and Dirk,

The trips back and forth are fairly rare - it's just that they tend to come in bunches, this is the first one since January! On average I probably do less than one a month. They also have other advantages - I get to see my old friends in York :-)

Cheers,

Jack

Unknown said...

You cannot put a price on your last argument there ;-)

Jackson Pope said...

Certainly can't :-)

Cheers,

Jack

Mal said...

I bet you I can. How much is a round of beers, these days? ;)