October 4, 2014

►    Customer Feedback: Customers Roxanne & Earl M., from Northfield, MA stated that their general shopping experience with us was Excellent.  “Good service, people were nice, and you had everything we were looking for.”  Did any of our team members do an unusually good job?  “Mia – very nice and knowledgeable.  One backroom guy helped us load the van & kept a defective stool (very tippy).  Other guy wanted us to take it.”  Sales help was rated Excellent.  “Professional, knowledgeable, and friendly, and gave us space when we needed to discuss the budget!  Operations, communication, and product performance were all rated Good. They would recommend us to a friend.  “Products, service, friendly.”  What do we do really well?  “When doing google searches for “game room” or “pool tables” your store does not show up – improve website search engine.”  What do we do really well?  “Friendly service, carry quality products.”

►    All new advertising, weekly specials, monthly department promotions, and more change Sunday, October 5: “Hot Fall Sale”

►    There were 37 One-of-These awards for September; six for Customer Service.  Finalists were Tod, Joe, Anne-Marie, and Mia.  Owner’s Choice was Tod, and Drawing winner was Jake.  Congratulations and thank you to all.

►    Upcoming Events:

October 11-12:  FREE Food.  Add cookies & pastries to your FREE coffee and tea in the Coffee Shop, while supplies last.

October 18:  Happy Birthday Sarah:  FREE birthday cake in the coffee shop, while supplies last.

October 26-31:  Halloween’s coming.  Trick-or-Treat for some Halloween candy here, while supplies last.

►    Remember, we now close at 6PM on Mon, Tues, and Wed.  We also don’t open until noon on Sunday.

►    We created a Pool School schedule for 2015, and it is on the web and in the store – or will be, any day.

►    Thank you to Patrick, who just turned in a $20 Dunkin’ Donuts gift car that he received as a tip.  The cash value of it went into the tip jar.

►    All of our billiard cloth in stock in cuts, is Premier.  So we have changed over the cloth books to eliminate the generic “21 ounce BCA Quality” to identify it specifically as “22 ounce Premier”.  This is a big improvement, as Premier is heavier, and is stain-resistant.  We still have our piece of Simonis (now on clearance) as the person who bought it actually  never gave us money.  We are now stocking Olhausen Accuguard in wine and dark green (it will probably come in by October 10).  We lowered prices on Accuguard (by a lot) and stain-resistant 760SR Simonis.  You really need to re-read all of the new billiard cloth information.

►    Cartridge Advice is changing.  Based on advice from Pleatco, America’s leading cartridge manufacturer, we no longer advise rotating two cartridges for longer life.  Why?  Because it only helps a little bit.  But it totally screws up the consumer’s keeping track of the cartridge life.  And no consumer ever rotates a pool cartridge!  For all cartridges (except Intex throw-aways) hose off every month.  Chemically clean every three months (for outdoor pools, that’s still July and closing).  Replace after 12 months of use.  The labels for our Marquis cartridges have been adjusted, and new labels are being made for all the cartridges.

►    Welcome to Kile Stetson, who will be joining us to work as a salesperson, next week or the week after.  Kile is getting his BA from URI in Political Science, and has extensive sales training from selling and financing new cars.

►    The new website and mobile sites are now live, and being tested.  If you see something wrong, please tell Rose.  She has hundreds of pages and links to proof, and it’s a HUGE job.

►    News of the Weird, from the Hippo:

Cutting edge science:  On dairy farms across the country, cows bizarrely queue up, without prodding, to milk themselves by submitting to $250,000 robots that have recently become the salvation of the industry.  According to an April New York Times report, this advance appears to be “win-win” (except for migrant laborers watching choice jobs disappear): more efficient for the farmer and more pleasant for the cow, which constantly pregnant, usually prefers frequent milking.  Amazingly, cows have learned the drill; moseying up to the precise spot to engage the robot’s arms for washing and nipple-cupping.  The robots also yield copious data tracked from transponders worn around the cow’s neck.

►    Added by Dennis: I used to work on a farm (part of the Essex County Agricultural Institute).  It amazed me how obedient cows are, and how much they loved to be milked!

►    New Humor: I saw seven girls share one umbrella and none of them got wet.  Oh, that must be a very big umbrella.  No, it wasn’t raining.