June 29, 2013
► Customer Feedback: Customer Bob R. from Newton, MA, stated that his general shopping experience with us was Excellent. Did any of our team members do an unusually good job? “Seth did an excellent job explaining a thousand details of spa ownership with the pros and cons of different models.” Sales help, communications, and product performance were all rated Excellent. “Professional, extremely knowledgeable and patient.” He would recommend us to a friend. “Excellent service and pricing.” What do we do really well? “No pressure selling.”
► New everything starts Sunday, June 30. Web advertising and weekly specials are: “Hot Midsummer Clearance”. Department sales change: Above Ground (note lower price on the 1840 Escalade), Hot Tubs (note new models), Pool Tables, Grills, and likely Patio and Bars.
► New prices on the Broadway hot tub. New regular price list on hot tubs, showing the new program.
► New store hours start Monday, July 1: we close at 8:00 weekdays. Please be careful.
► Smart Pool has added a $50 rebate for the NC51, until July 31, 2013. I believe a $50 rebate sign and the rebate slips will be added to the display by your management.
► Please be more careful. Mia just found a sale tag on 40 lb. Slow Sticks that expired on June 1. Stephanie found a “New Season” sign from March. We have lost 18 5-in-1 Refill test strips (at $15 each). Did we receive them wrong? Did we sell them with Aquacheck yellow price tags ($10 each)? I don’t know. Forge loop inventory is way off. How? I don’t know. We could have not actually looked at boxes when we received them. We could have given the wrong hose with pools. We could have put the wrong price tag (lower) on the box. Why lower? If it was higher, the customer probably would have complained.
► Lunch Saturday, 6/29 (and leftovers Sunday, 6/30) provided by Uno’s Grill in exchange for Seasonal Gift Certificates we gave them for a promotion.
► From Victor: Please inform customers that they should clean their APC, Pumps, Filters, etc. before they bring them in for repairs. Or they will be charged a cleaning fee.
► The Maytronics Mail-In Rebates end Sunday, June 30. Yes, I know that’s a lame time to end them.
► If you do not receive your Quarterly Review and Bonus this week, do not fear. You still work here. It has just been a very busy month, and we are running a week or two late with them.
► We just got the Aqua Cloud floating mats. The most buoyant, most comfortable pool float in the world.
► We re-sorted the Automatic Pool Cleaner hose. Top shelf (with a sign on the side) is male/female. Next shelf is female/female (the last piece that goes in the skimmer).
► The anchor weights are now in the store: Heavy plastic container that holds 50 lbs. of sand (sold separately). Much less likely to break open in the pool than a bag, and concentrates more weight per square foot.
► News of The Weird from the Hippo: Weird Japan: (1) A generous local businessman recently graced the city of Okuizumo with funding for replicas of two Renaissance statues (“Venus de Milo” and Michelangelo’s “David”) for a public park. Agence France-Presse reported in February that many residents, receiving little advance warning, expressed shock at the unveiling of “David” and demanded that he at least be given underpants. (2) Fax machines, almost obsolete in the U.S., are still central to many tech-savvy Japanese families and companies (who bought 1.7 million units last year alone), reported The New York Times in February. Families prefer faxes’ superiority to e-mail for warmly expressing Japan’s complex written language, and bureaucrats favor faxes’ preserving the imperative paper flow.
► Internet Humor: A motorist was unknowingly caught in an automated speed trap that measured his speed using radar and photographed his car. He later received in the mail a ticket for $40 and a photo of his car. Instead of payment, he sent the police department a photograph of $40. Several days later, he received a letter from the police that contained another picture, this time of handcuffs. He immediately mailed in his $40.