“Complete and utter geekdom.” That was Lila’s response when I asked what was going on late this afternoon, our third and last scheduled day for inventory. “We are on it.” She and Connie were at the computer looking like they were enjoying themselves. They’re just that kind of people. To me, what they are doing is rocket science. Thank goodness they work here at JOY.
We closed down the shop for three days this week to take an inventory on all the stock that we have. We showed up on Tuesday morning armed with a grid and ledger of the entire shop and stockroom broken up into workable sections. Each section had a code like F-15 and a title like “Bra wall top right.” Two people had to count…and then verify that count…of items in each section with the other person, and then we had to scan that section and make sure that the number of items matched the count. In all there were 70 sections. You don’t have to be a mathematician to figure out that this took a lot of time.
Once every section was scanned, we had to upload it section by section into the computer. This was about the
time late this afternoon when I went into the front to see how things were going. It was really a two-person job at this point and quite honestly if Lila and Connie are in the house and there is tedious and important work to be done involving downloading data into a computer, the best thing I can do is to stay out of the way and check in once in a while. For the record, I did have some very important jobs this week like turning the tags on items throughout the store so that the UPC codes faced out. This made it easier for the geeks…I mean Connie and Lila…to scan. I was super psyched when they trusted me with a scanner this morning and I got to blip blip blip just like them. It was kind of like when you get an award just for participating. “Complete and utter geekdom” was a good sign from Lila. I had full trust that she and Connie had it under control.
About an hour later I checked again and Connie was hunched at the computer by herself and Lila was sprawled in a chair. They were communicating across the room in some number language I couldn’t understand. There was a problem, but they were handling it. I asked them what what I could do to help. They said they could use a snack. I set off to Shaw’s where I bumped into every person I knew as I carried around the largest bag of potato chips I could find and two containers of Helluva Good onion dip. I also bought each of us a lottery ticket. Hey, you never know.
It’s now well past 6 p.m. and I just heard a squeal out front. Everything downloaded and numbers matched and they figured out whatever they needed to figure out. They are now geeking out over reports and some minor discrepancies that they understand and are further geeking out about. I asked again if I could help and they assured me that they’ve got this. They are showing no sign of fatigue. I’m feeling ready for bed and can’t wait to open the doors back open for business in the morning. What a team.
In doing online research about inventory, I came across a quote by a man named Fairfax Cone. He was a businessman in the 1900’s 
(sounds funny to say that, doesn’t it) and built a big business in advertising in New York City. He said, “The inventory goes down the elevator every night.” For all the counts and blips and scans of every bra in this shop, they’d all be nothing without these women who help me run this place. We don’t have elevators, but we do have Shaw’s. If you bump into them in the chip aisle, could you say a big thank you for me.
This place and these women never cease to amaze me.
Counting my blessings,
Joy
