Sisyphus
Sisyphus from Greek mythology was doomed to roll an immense bolder up a hill, only to have it roll back down just as it reached the top. And then he repeated that for eternity. I feel that in my soul because once we solve one issue at PJP, another one just pops up. And it literally never ends. Follow me for more small business analogies. Ahem.
(Also, all the people who read here to learn more about entrepreneurship probably just closed the tab in horror. Perhaps the whole Sisyphus thing is a little dramatic.)
Here’s a round up of all the things:
Someone keeps dumping empty pallets in between the two dumpsters we share with Pancheros, Buff City Soaps, and First Watch at PJP West. As of this morning, there are 14 empty pallets and we can no longer physically reach the dumpster with our trash. And trash people don’t take pallets because you have to pay an entirely different company to come and get them but none of us want to pay it since they aren’t our pallets.
One of our food suppliers duplicated our truck order and I didn’t realize it until the driver kept rolling in box after box and I realized that there was 120 pounds of rhubarb, 120 pounds of blackberries, and 120 pounds of blueberries. That’s really a lot of fruit that we can’t use within a span of a few days during this time of year, so I had it send it all back. The best way to make sure your delivery driver low key hates you is to return $2,000 worth of fruit in large boxes.
We’ve been embroiled in the most outrageous saga and I’ll share the jaw dropping details here soon. On Friday, I was having an email conversation with someone about it and they responded and asked if we could schedule a time to talk. Immediately no. In 2023, how do we still live in a world that people email to ask if we can talk on the phone? I’d rather send a note via carrier pigeon.
One of our freezers went out at PJP Nifong and that tracks because one just went out at PJP West. As it turns out, the GFI plug was just tripped at both and it turned the freezers off. The thing though is that the freezer has been plugged into the same outlet for three years and nine months, so…one day it just stops? I don’t understand and at this point, I’m afraid to ask.
And finally, we are negotiating a Letter of Intent on a space in Chesterfield. Except the Triple Net charges are $9.31 a square foot (that includes common area maintenance, real estate taxes, and building insurance). For comparison sake, it’s around $3.50 a square foot at Nifong. WOOF. For $9.31 a square foot, I’m literally going to need a glitter cannon to shower my car when it rolls into the parking lot. Though really, rolling a boulder might be easier than cleaning up a glitter canon…right?
