Shop shop shop! Buy buy buy! Everyone hates the consumer feeding frenzy that the holidays have become. And nothing embodies this vile form of consumerism more than knuckle draggers duking it out at 4am over a half price TV at Walmart. But this year, for the first year in my life, I’m a retailer. We have a pop-up shop, which isn’t quite as real as a genuine store, but nevertheless I find myself looking forward to Black Friday. Do you know why it’s called Black Friday? Because it’s the day retailers hope to get out of the red (debt) and into the black (profits) for the holiday season. Like all retailers we've invested quite a bit of money into inventory and setting up the shop. Money we don’t know if we’ll ever see again. So the notion of hordes of shoppers descending upon our store like locusts sounds marvelous.

We have become accustomed to dismissing everything in this world. Like petulant teenagers who know it all. Sometimes it’s good to look at situations from a new angle. Like when I hired people and became a boss for the first time, suddenly I saw work and employment in a whole new light. Reversing the roles and appreciating what it takes to run a profitable business is a learning experience. I still squirm at the thought of mouth breathers savagely beating one another for bargains. But the idea that people may come in, appreciate what we make enough to buy it, and move my store from being a money loser to a money maker sounds great to me.

Come on in, we’re open and we would love to see you.