Late August, 2008

My annual major growl will follow as usual in autumn, but I wanted to let the community know immediately that this will happen very soon. If you saw my post in May, you'll remember that I expected to have to move to larger quarters sometime within the next year. Once again, events have forced the change sooner than I would have wished; the owner of the building where we have been wants the space back and will not be renewing any leases. So we must be out within the next month.

I emphasize that this move is in no way indicative of problems with SBE; we are as happy, furry and healthy as we have ever been. A bigger space will allow us to carry more stuff and offer better service, so I am busy turning lemons into lemonade.

I Have Secured A New Cave--got the keys, have started to plan the million things that must be done before moving day. Geographically, we will be not far from where we are now. The space is about twice what we presently have and will be easier to set up as a warehouse/office. While I will do my best to make the move seamless, we may have to shut down the shopping cart for a few days. If it comes to that, we will give as much notice as possible, especially to our commercial accounts.

Concerning service issues: I hope you have noticed that the shopping cart now works more smoothly, especially for large orders involving quantity discounts. I made the time to fix this and had just gotten it done when the landlord dropped the bomb. So I have to put everything else on hold and concentrate on planning the move. As we move in, we will take the opportunity to reorganize and label bins and space that had gotten very cramped. I still can't afford the level of automation of a Mouser or Digikey, but I will work out with my staff a way to reduce the error rate in packing and get better control of the inventory. Please realize, however, that things may be worse for a short while until we get fully moved and set up.

Regards