Update on our new Retail Space!

It is with mixed emotions that I write this blog post.  Many of you long-time customers have been excitedly awaiting news about our new, larger facility.  The space will allow us to once again host classes, as well as display our kits and instructions in a retail setting.  We’ll have a small “gift shop” for patrons who don’t want to make chainmaille, but who want to purchase artisan-made items for themselves or others.  This is our dream space, and we can’t wait to open it!

We thought we'd found our dream space -- but in fact, it is still out there, waiting for us.

Unfortunately, wait we must.  Creating the facility we want is no easy task.  First we had to go back and forth with the city on zoning and permit issues. Some of which were, frankly, odd: the by-products of big-city legislation with little benefits.  (For example, for zoning issues, it was a potential problem that the parking lot was not adjacent to our store, but rather, was at the end of the block.  We were also required to install a separate water fountain–not for customers, but for employees–and it was not acceptable to attach a filter to an already-existing kitchen sink or have a stand alone water dispenser. The water fountain fixture had to be connected to the city system.  And so on.)  We stuck through it and worked with our amazing architect to meet all the city requirements.

In the meantime, however, the bids from general contractors were coming in at 25%-100% more than we wanted to spend.  That made us nervous, especially because it was the first time the business was going to need a loan. Looking at our cash flow projections, though, we could still make it work, so we decided to forge ahead.

Then, over the past few weeks, it became painfully clear that the landlords were not invested in maintaining the building up to our high standards.  We realized that we could not spend so much money on a build-out, only to potentially have the landlord sell the slowly deteriorating building out from under us to a developer who would tear it down and put up a strip mall or condos.

The plans our architect drew up for the space.

It was with a heavy heart that the dream died.  When I first walked into the space in the fall of 2010, after having looked at dozens of other spots, I just knew “this is it!”  I could imagine our success there, could feel it just outside our grasp.  On the one hand, it is difficult to let go of something that initially felt so right and in which we’ve already invested time and money.  On the other hand, it is easy to let go of something that clearly does not seem to be in the best interest of the business.  I have a dozen employees that depend on me to lead the company and provide a successful future for them.  We have thousands of customers that rely on us to provide the best products and services that lead to gratification–and, for many customers, sales–worth far more than the amount spent with Blue Buddha.

I knew that moving forward with these plans would jeopardize this wonderful entity that we’ve built.  So, a few days ago, I canceled the lease (thankfully we can get out of it easily!) and we’ll start looking for a new space again.  It doesn’t feel as though we’re starting at Square One, though.  We’ve learned a lot through this experience, and we’re confident that we’ll ask better questions and look at aspects of the properties we never thought to look at before. We’ll find a better space, perfectly suited for the atmosphere of creativity and sharing we want to create.

And then, we’ll see you there.

In the meantime, the silver lining to all this is that because we don’t need to focus on preparations for our new space right now, we can work on some programs and services that we know will help you with your chainmailling adventures.  We’re not giving any hints just yet, but we think you’ll be especially excited to see the new website content we’re developing!  We’ve got lots of goodies in store for you!