Open! Open! Open!

Well. we got the store open and it's amazing! A lot of work, but it went smoothly enough, much better than most openings. The store is gorgeous and our customers are stunned, which is what we had hoped for them.

I managed to put together a really good opening team of 27 people for my department and we will have a total of thirty team members in another week or so. We have about 325 team members working at the store and twenty-five or so of them are working the over night shift. That also includes my department; I actually have people working twenty four hours a day to kep up with the demand. Our department has over 500 cheeses right now, 50 varieties of olives, a thousand wines, 175 beers, a hundred different chocolates, several hundred teas and coffees, including 30 plus fresh roasted coffee beans and hundreds of other items like crackers, nuts and jellies that are yummy with cheese. We just got in a marinated cherry from Spain...

I also have a lot of high end housewares like Le Creuset and Chantal and Rosanna...

I have a small special cheese case with special humidity control and there are some things in it that are rarely seen anywhere in the US.

You can take a look at what my store looks like at Here.

Go to Store Locations and find Louisiana and then select "slide show" for the Metairie store.

I've also been able to assemble the best team; I really enjoy working with these people.


Other News.

I took a spill on the scooter turning into the store parking lot a week ago, hit a patch of gravel and the front wheel just went out from underneath and I went off into the air and onto the pavement; picked myself up, just a very few scratches, nothing much at all, a little shook up, no pain... but the next morning I woke up feeling like someone had beaten me severely with a baseball bat! Two weeks later, most of the bruises have faded but my shoulder still ain't right. And I turn corners like an old lady lately...

Fortunately, I had just got a new bed, a "Select Comfort" bed... it has an air control for firmness and I got a matress pad with 2 inches of memory foam and all new sheets, pillow cases in 300 count cotton and new pricey pillows. It's sweeeet! The best bed I have ever slept in...and for what it cost, it should have come with a massuesse, but after all, well, if ya don't have a good nights sleep, you don't have a good day. (My old bed was fifteen years old... where does the time go?)

I watched "The Life Aqautic with Steve Zissou" last week and I love it! I really like all of Wes Anderson's films so far. I love Bill Murrey, he's gotten so good. And I am in love with Owen... a smart actor and a smart writer.

So, that's some of what's happening. I'm going to watch "Sideways" now...

ta.

durlx