![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Running details into the ground...
Aug. 14th, 2004 10:25 pmI spent pretty much all of the store hours (9 am to 3 pm) at the store, trying to both help Drew with customer service and to familiarize myself with a trial version of a cash register software package he picked up. Our old reliable Royal cash register -- the main register back when we bought the store -- bought a piece of the cash register farm last Monday, and the little Casio unit -- which is much less capable -- was resurrected to take its place, but simply can't keep up.
I installed the software on the old VAIO, having forgotten that the "6", "-", Home and Delete keys don't work on the keyboard, and that the hard disk is pretty nearly full. Consequently, it took me nearly three hours to get the demo working.
Software has a tendency to make the easy hard. The manual for this cash register package is over 200 pages long. Apparently, if I choose to do so, I can probably keep my customers' dental records available in the database, so I can run such essential reports as: which customers with impacted wisdom teeth bought left-handed toothbrushes between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm using checks drawn on Chase Manhattan.
Criminy, people... I just want to keep track of some basic stuff, not document the farblegargling GNP!
Regardless of whether we eventually go with some kind of point-of-sale computer solution or not (we probably will), every fiber of my mind tells me it's going to make everyone's life more complicated, unless we really put a lot of work into the setup.
Anyway, given a choice of spending tomorrow or the rest of today going to Farmington to the Sam's Club there, after closing the store, Galina and I chose to go today. We ended up picking up some "wholesale" (read: Sam's Club packaged) gift wrap, which we'll sell in the store, and some "moving kits" that have many of the kinds of boxes we sell on an individual basis. Curiously, the only cash register Sam's carries on its shelves is an inexpensive (and feeble) Casio unit, so we didn't buy one.
After checking out of the Sam's, Galina drove to the TJ Maxx that's just down the road from the Sam's. I left her there and went to the Office Max down the road in the other direction to see about a register and some other items. Initially, it seemed as if they, too, were short in the cash registers for sale department, but the fellow running the store (apparently with one cashier) found what I needed in the back.
I also picked up a D-Link wireless router, since I'm well and truly sick and tired of the my Linksys router and its (a) lousy wireless range -- I'd like to at least cover the house, y'know?, and (b) more important, its fairly well-known tendency to frequently "hang" for no apparent reason, forcing the user to cycle power to recover use of the thing. The D-Link unit we have at the store has worked like a champ for months, requiring only the most occasional power cycle, and I'm not so sure those were absolutely necessary.
As Galina was still not finished at the TJ Maxx when I got back from the Office Max, I moseyed down to the Best Buy at the other end of the shopping center. There, I fell in love with a backpack that looks like it'll hold my VAIO together with the stuff that normally goes in a second bag when I'm out of the house (since my computer bag holds pretty much the VAIO, its power supply, and a few papers).
I was not pleased with the price (nor was Galina), but in the end, I think it will be a worthwhile investment -- especially when faced with airlines that are being pressured to restrict carry-ons to one item (except in Europe, where I understand the rule pretty much is just one carry-on bag).
My intent is to spend a lot of time in the woods tomorrow, but undoubtedly, I shall have to program the cash register for Monday's business day. Hopefully, that won't take too long.
Cheers...
I installed the software on the old VAIO, having forgotten that the "6", "-", Home and Delete keys don't work on the keyboard, and that the hard disk is pretty nearly full. Consequently, it took me nearly three hours to get the demo working.
Software has a tendency to make the easy hard. The manual for this cash register package is over 200 pages long. Apparently, if I choose to do so, I can probably keep my customers' dental records available in the database, so I can run such essential reports as: which customers with impacted wisdom teeth bought left-handed toothbrushes between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm using checks drawn on Chase Manhattan.
Criminy, people... I just want to keep track of some basic stuff, not document the farblegargling GNP!
Regardless of whether we eventually go with some kind of point-of-sale computer solution or not (we probably will), every fiber of my mind tells me it's going to make everyone's life more complicated, unless we really put a lot of work into the setup.
Anyway, given a choice of spending tomorrow or the rest of today going to Farmington to the Sam's Club there, after closing the store, Galina and I chose to go today. We ended up picking up some "wholesale" (read: Sam's Club packaged) gift wrap, which we'll sell in the store, and some "moving kits" that have many of the kinds of boxes we sell on an individual basis. Curiously, the only cash register Sam's carries on its shelves is an inexpensive (and feeble) Casio unit, so we didn't buy one.
After checking out of the Sam's, Galina drove to the TJ Maxx that's just down the road from the Sam's. I left her there and went to the Office Max down the road in the other direction to see about a register and some other items. Initially, it seemed as if they, too, were short in the cash registers for sale department, but the fellow running the store (apparently with one cashier) found what I needed in the back.
I also picked up a D-Link wireless router, since I'm well and truly sick and tired of the my Linksys router and its (a) lousy wireless range -- I'd like to at least cover the house, y'know?, and (b) more important, its fairly well-known tendency to frequently "hang" for no apparent reason, forcing the user to cycle power to recover use of the thing. The D-Link unit we have at the store has worked like a champ for months, requiring only the most occasional power cycle, and I'm not so sure those were absolutely necessary.
As Galina was still not finished at the TJ Maxx when I got back from the Office Max, I moseyed down to the Best Buy at the other end of the shopping center. There, I fell in love with a backpack that looks like it'll hold my VAIO together with the stuff that normally goes in a second bag when I'm out of the house (since my computer bag holds pretty much the VAIO, its power supply, and a few papers).
I was not pleased with the price (nor was Galina), but in the end, I think it will be a worthwhile investment -- especially when faced with airlines that are being pressured to restrict carry-ons to one item (except in Europe, where I understand the rule pretty much is just one carry-on bag).
My intent is to spend a lot of time in the woods tomorrow, but undoubtedly, I shall have to program the cash register for Monday's business day. Hopefully, that won't take too long.
Cheers...
