The Basement is Usable!
163 words eaten alive on September 1, 2010 - Filed Under Business |
I’ve had some help over the last couple weeks with cleaning out the basement here. You can actually move from one end to the other without having to squeeze through narrow gaps! Managed to throw out a lot of garbage, took 2 loads of scrap metal to the scrap metal guys and brought a couple boxes of stuff upstairs to sell. Found a box of deadbolt locks that I had been looking for, and even more cards.
So now we have room for up to 16 people but I only have chairs for 10! Gotta go buy some when I can find them on sale. I saw some at Zellers for around $4 the other day but when I went back with an empty car they were back up to $7 each, yuck. So I’m still looking for cheaper. Could use a couple folding tables too, 2 of the desks we’re making do with are rather narrow.
New DVDs this week
30 words eaten alive on September 1, 2010 - Filed Under DVD, Entertainment |
Slackin’ this week! New release DVDs are:
9th Company (DVD & Blu)
Marmaduke (DVD & Blu)
Why Did I Get Married Too?
Ultimate Heist
The King of Fighters
Letters to God
Survival of the Dead
Harry Brown
A Warranty Isn’t What it Used to Be
320 words eaten alive on August 25, 2010 - Filed Under Business, Electronics |
Many years ago when I started this business pretty much everything I sold had a warranty of 1 year or better. Nearly all those items could be returned to my distributor for repair/replacement. During the last few years though there’s been quite a shift in the way a warranty is handled, most items now have to be sent back to the manufacturer by the end-user (the customer). It started with monitors, then other spread to other items. Now there are very few things that can be brought back to me to take care of. Power supplies, hard drives and RAM are the only ones that come to mind.
When I first got Rock Band there was a big pink piece of paper inside the box that said “If you have problems with this hardware DO NOT return it to the store it was purchased from, please call this number….” I’ve been seeing that a lot lately. New gadgets especially, I just checked out an iPad warranty for the hell of it and it’s 1 year manufacturer, but you can also buy extended time direct from Apple.
It isn’t just with little stores like mine though, even the big guys like Walmart are the same way now. You get a 14 day period during which you can return something to Walmart, but after that if the item dies you have to deal with the manufacturer directly. Not that it’s a bad thing generally, but in a lot of cases it means you may have to pay a few bucks in shipping fees, but it also tends to be faster if you deal direct. If an item comes back to me, I ship it back to my distributor, then they ship to the manufacturer. So while you lose the personal service, you also cut out the middle men involved in the RMA process!
New Movies today
19 words eaten alive on August 24, 2010 - Filed Under Business, DVD, Entertainment |
Lots of new releases today:
Abandoned (Blu too)
The Back-up Plan (Blu too)
After.Life (Blu too)
Cash (Blu too)
The Joneses
City Island
$5 a Day
Happy Anniversary!
73 words eaten alive on August 20, 2010 - Filed Under Business |
Gator Byte turns 11 today and we’re celebrating with a No Tax sale. Today and tomorrow (Aug 20th & 21st) all prices in the store are HST included!
We’ve survived another year and are planning for many more. The loss of the ferry this year hasn’t affected us too much (as we expected) and hopefully there will be a new boat next year to get things back on track for everyone else.
What Would I Do with Triple the Space?
206 words eaten alive on August 17, 2010 - Filed Under Business, building |
Just for shits and giggles I called up the leasing agent for the old Movie Gallery location, wondering how much the rent is there. I knew it was going to be high but it never hurts to ask. The space is much bigger, 3600 sq. ft. compared to the 1200 sq. ft. we’re in now. So 3 times the space. For 6 times the rent. Yup, it was higher than I had expected, coming in at “around” $5,000 a month. Now I realize sales would increase in such a good location, but I don’t think it would increase enough to justify paying 6x more in rent.
But the question today was, what would I do with the space. I’d spread out things more so they’re not so cramped. I’d get in some new product lines, memorabilia and collector type stuff, vintage t shirts perhaps, really push the whole retro gaming thing. We already have the best selection in the area when it comes to older console games (Atari, NES, Super NES, Turbo Grafx, etc.) so I think I’d focus more on that side of things along with the current gen 2nd hand stuff like 360, PS3 and Wii.
New Releases
22 words eaten alive on August 17, 2010 - Filed Under DVD, Entertainment |
New releases in today, August 17, 2010
Furry Vengeance (also on Blu)
The Last Song (also on Blu)
The Assassin Next Door
Lost: Unraveling the Mystery
Suck
Basement Sale soon?
131 words eaten alive on August 16, 2010 - Filed Under Business, sale |
What do you think? I’ve got stuff cluttering up the basement and every once in a while I bring some of it up to put for sale, when I can find room for it. But I was thinking the other day, I should just straighten out the basement a little, make it so things can be seen, and then have an indoor yard sale type thing, in the basement. Sell off the old stuff cheap just to be rid of it. Christmas ornaments and holiday décor, ceiling fans, boxes of batteries, shelving, lumber, old computers, everything down there would be fair game. Christmas is coming after-all, it may be a few months off still but it has a way of sneaking up on us anyway.
Any interest?
Smell From Harbour
92 words eaten alive on August 15, 2010 - Filed Under Business, Ranting, This Town |
If you are in our store and find that the store smells fishy – that’s because of the ocean and the tide going out. For some reason it was worst on Saturday – during Shark Scramble – no one complained but mannn!! we wanted to puke – luckily by closing the door and spraying some febreeze helped immediately. So if you ever come by the store and it smells funny – it’s not us – it’s the ocean. But you can always tell us – we don’t mind constructive criticism at all.
Review Of First Tournament – Magic
87 words eaten alive on August 14, 2010 - Filed Under Amused, Business, Entertainment, gaming |
So how did it go? pretty awesome – we had like 12 people that showed up – including myself and some friends who hung around. Some came by but didn’t join in the game. We started at about 5.15pm and ended close to 9pm. Everyone went home pretty happy i would like to think – and I was late to pick up the brat from her grandparents’ but she was ok – about it – guess she had a great time at her grammie’s and grampie’s too.
Friday The 13th!
76 words eaten alive on August 13, 2010 - Filed Under Amused, Business |
Yes ! it’s Friday the 13th today and everytime we get a Friday 13th – the store is always busy – very weird eh. Yes! we’ve noticed too – so we kinda expected it to be really busy and true enough – it is busy. As i sit and have my lunch at 3.45pm – this is the first – i’ve gotten a chance to sit and eat. How’s your Friday the 13th going thus far?
New Releases for August 10
13 words eaten alive on August 10, 2010 - Filed Under DVD, Entertainment |
New releases on DVD today are pretty slim pickin’s.
Date Night
Death at a Funeral
Find Our Advertisement
91 words eaten alive on August 8, 2010 - Filed Under Business, DVD, Entertainment, This Town, gaming |
Yes! we advertised ! so if you find our advertisement – you will know that there is a special going on. We won’t tell you where we’ve advertised of course – then that would be way too easy. We figured we should since Movie Gallery is officially closed and so is 10 to 10 – they don’t do rentals anymore. So if you are new or if you don’t know already – we do rent games and movies – YES! NEW RELEASES! every Tuesday – and the cheapest in this town!
Revamping The Store
250 words eaten alive on August 4, 2010 - Filed Under Amused, Business, Entertainment, This Town |
If you haven’t been in to Gator Byte lately – then you haven’t seen the new shelving in our store – yes – the time of the year again – to revamp the store and give it a fresher look. Plus, we know a lot of our new customers are from Movie Gallery – and we didn’t want them to miss Movie Gallery so much – therefore we bought some of their fixtures to make us look a bit more familiar to our new customers. Yes ! 11 years in business and there are still some who doesn’t know that we rent movies – and new releases comes out every Tuesday. We aimed to please our good customers !
We even helped a local business find Beading Tools for their jewelry making business and when another customer who was in asking for crystal rhinestones for her hobby – we found some artistic wires and beading for her too. We placed the orders together for both of them online – pretty easy actually. So yes ! if we can help out – why not right? Our store had been pretty busy – and we are very pleased with the new shelving – and more new releases had been bought of late to cater to our customers. So come on in – if you don’t know we do have new releases – we rent them for $3 tax included a night. We have Blu-Ray movies too for just $4 a night tax included!
keep looking »
