We’ve been quiet, but very busy this month. As we announced in July, we purchased the store property and inventory of The Whiz store in Westborough, MA.
We also purchased the game library, as well as several tables, chairs, and bookcases from The Adventure Pub of Arlington, MA. They closed their doors on July 31. Thankfully, we are going to be able to re-home their games and add them to our own library of borrowable games.
We are close to finalizing the e-commerce store. We need to enable a few features, one core one is a loyalty program to keep in touch with our community members.
Dave has been feverishly entering in the inventory into our point of sale system. Carrie has been busy sorting and cataloging our very large Magic: the Gathering card collection. Russ has been spending money on inventory, storage space rental, finding out that the logo he likes is un-printable in basically every other format than a website, and trying to fix that.
We are actively looking at additional ways to serve the Haverhill community during the pandemic. We are fleshing out the details of a board game rental service. Athena at the Adventure Pub gave some great insights into how to handle game rentals, effective ‘quarantine’ of returns, and more. We hope to be able to get a similar service up and running soon after the store opens.
When is the store opening?
We do not know yet.
Our landlord and his work crew are working hard on the property. This month they have been focusing on internal drywall work in the upper floors. Their hope is to get the retail floor finished by the end of September. We will then need time to do our own interior work, as well as getting the required permits for opening the store. There have been delays in materials delivery due to COVID-19. Maintaining worker safety also requires smaller work crews, and keeps the number of sub-contractors on-site low. This, of course, slows the pace of work.
Right now, we are planning on having access to the space on October 1, 2020. We’ll then be painting, decorating, setting up furnishings and fixtures, and moving the inventory we’ve purchased from the Whiz and the Adventure Pub on site. It is a lot of work, but we will get it done. Tentative plans now are for a soft opening at the beginning of November.
Mayor Fiorentini, has expressed interest in attending the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Prescott Building. So, we better get ourselves dressed for the occasion!
