Bueller...Bueller...
One year ago today, we banked a large check from a successful three day weekend at the 2019 Roots and Blues festival. And today, we just did normal stuff. 0/10 stars for pandemic life, seriously.
And just when I thought maybe 2020 couldn’t get any more bizarre, we received a letter from the City of Columbia utilities department that let us know we’ve been moved from a small commercial service customer account to a large commercial service customer account. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.
The determination of small versus large is based on an audit of our electric usage in June, July, and August. So our preference to not sweat while we bake landed us the opportunity to call our 2,100 square foot space a “large commercial space”. And for that classification, we get to pay a minimum demand charge of $369.04 a month and then 5.77 cents per kWh. I can tell you ZERO about kilowatt hours, but can tell you we average about $1200 a month for our electric bill before adding in the minimum demand charge. (Also, I had to Google “kWh” just so I would be certain what we were talking about here.)
Frankly, cost aside, I’m more annoyed by the classification definition that lumps our small store into spaces like Hy-Vee and Walmart and also the decision to average the three hottest months of the year to make the determination. And the voodoo economics behind it all, I suppose. Bueller…Bueller…
And while I’m at it, we’ve had our garbage returned to us several times now by an unknown dumpster diver. It has been returned to our back door and really what gets me is the dedication it takes to dig around in our super tall dumpster, open the bags, and identify our disgusting trash…and then haul it all out and down to our door. Isn’t that weird? Our bags are heavy, grimy, and dripping with egg yolks and lard remnants. And it is in the dumpster we were instructed to use and that we share with Subway next door. So it is a legit garbage mystery.
The Kroenke Group property manager had no thoughts about the trash returning entity, but did suggest I call the city refuse department. I did, but there was a lot of clanging and yelling and I remembered that the whole department is woefully understaffed and underpaid, so I just hung up. Especially because I worried this is just the beginning of the path of reclassifying us to a “large garbage use account”.
Just kidding. But I hope the city doesn’t get any ideas.
