Sad Day

12/29/10

Today is a sad day. We will be closing one of our stores this weekend. We tried to stick it out through this recession. Which by no means is over no matter what media and economists say. Just because the bank bail out worked for the government doesn’t mean it worked for the people of this country. Just because the numbers “look good” doesn’t mean things are good. A great number and growing number of people are still out of work. I would like to know why they think “90,000 people back to work every month in the private sector” is so significant. Maybe because they like to throw numbers around and make them sound important.

We have three stores and a park where people play paintball. For over 2 years now the park has been holding everything together. It can no longer withstand the amount of debt the three stores pile onto it. It has been a tough decision. It effects more than us. It affects our employees and their families. Some of these guys have been with us for so long they are like part of our family. We know they have seen it coming. They are the ones working the sales and seeing what little is coming in.

So today we had to tell Brian that his last day at Poway is Friday. We of course discussed keeping him on at one of the other stores and giving him jobs at the field when they are available. It’s just not enough. He was our biggest concern when deciding all of this. He’s one of our best employees. He’s very reliable and we rely on him a lot. He took on a lot of responsibility at the store and took much of the burden of running it off our shoulders. We waited so long to tell him so it wouldn’t ruin his Christmas. We were also hoping for a miracle that never came.

Why do people claim they want good service, but continue to shop for the best price and turn away from the best service? We actually offer better prices and better service than they can find elsewhere as well as other incentives to buying our products. We’ve used all social media possible to make sure they know this, but people still think they are getting a better deal at box stores. Then they whine about having to pay us to fix their problem marker or install accessories because the box store has no actual knowledge of the product they sold them. At least they sought us out and we get to educate another person on quality and performance. Hopefully they stick with us and can afford to continue playing.

We’ve lost many players to the economy. They themselves losing jobs and having to cut back. Entertainment is the first thing to go when you are trying to save money. I know this first hand. We haven’t taken a real vacation in over 6 years. That was our entertainment. Whatever time off we could get was spent traveling. The most traveling we do now is to Yosemite once a year and this year it might not happen. Keeping our house would be sweet victory through this economic downturn. We’re not big spenders as it is. We never went for extravagance. Maybe that’s why we lasted so long. It’s almost like we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, if we can just make it a little further, things will be ok.