This jingle from Burger King comes to mind since custom printing is my biz. The customer my always be right, however, kissing ass isn't my fortay unless I am being well-paid for my efforts. I try to be nice, pleasant and happy-go-lucky about what I am doing for a living and understandably we are trying to give customers the ability to produce printed garments in small quantities with their own designs. This is seemingly a simple task, just like Burger King can leave off the mayo and not complain. The problem is if the customer keeps changing their mind or doesn't know what they want. This week has been excruciating with almost every customer deciding after the fact that they want different artwork or to modify the design size. I consider this ridiculous since it means that I have wasted screen after screen on jobs that will never get printed.
Why can't people just print out their design, hold it up to a shirt and decide on the size before they committ to having it printed? I don't want to waste my life making samples for people who won't don't seem to have a ruler in their universe and who can't decide on the dimensions of their artwork ahead of time. To me a screen is like a special piece of film, cleaned, prepared with light-sensitive chemicals and stored for use in duplicating designs, not to be wasted because the customer can't estimate and stick to their decision. Most of these designs aren't exotic or interesting, so that makes it more frustrating. If I had the proper technology I could show how each design size looks on different shirt sizes, but I could also spend that time enjoying my life. Ok, I've talked myself into a new project, shooting photos of shirts with rules next to a bunch of designs, like that will work.
The good news is that we have trimmed cost on warehousing and the stores are being re-stocked with decent inventory for the spring, which starts today. The new store in SF is breaking even and strangely Tuesdays are our strongest day of the week. We haven't figured that out yet, maybe that is the day that tourist arrive on cheap flights from Europe or something. I was looking at a place in Berkeley for a new store, but the deal fell through. The landlords aren't desperate enough yet and I must require too many favorable terms for before I move in. Triple net is a fraud, making the tenants pay the taxes for the landlord is a rip-off. I'll wait until the summer when school is out and the stores start closing on Telegraph avenue, then I should be able to get a decent deal on rent. There isn't any point in opening stores that aren't going to be profitable, except for exposure, and there is no reason to be in business just to pay someone else's mortgage. The internet provides a way to market products without having to pay excessive rents, but the real-estate agents of the world haven't caught on yet. Once building owners realize that business's can't stay in business without making a profit then they may consider charging affordable rents. This will only happen after neighborhoods go down and the larger corporate stores start defaulting on owners. Sad but true. Email us if you know of any reasonably priced areas that could handle an Y-Que retail store. Small and cheap.
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