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Why I am closing my studio
First I want to thank all of my wonderful customers who have been so forgiving
over the last few years. Without your support I would have given up much
sooner.
Back in 2015 our family opened a hobby store. My job was to do all of the
behind the scenes work of ordering, scheduling, accounting and so on which
would leave me with plenty of time for my studio. The store did not do as
well as we hoped but by taking on hours and working without pay we were able to
stay open and continue to pay off the loan. Then the minimum wage
increase hit Colorado. I had to cut a part time position and take on
those hours myself. The increase was staggered over the last several years
and each year I took on a little more, still without pay. Then at the end
of 2017 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. 2018 was intensive chemo and
radiation. I am in remission and have been doing very well health
wise. But the extra labor we paid to keep the store open was costly and
sales had dropped without me there to run my store. I took on 50 hour
weeks as soon as I was well enough. The hard work paid off, the store was
doing well. I was starting to cut back my hours when the next blow struck.
Our landlord announced a unsustainable increase in our rent and the loss of our
gaming space. It was either close or find a new location. In
October of 2019 we bought our own building. The next three months were a
mad dash of renovating, painting, cleaning, and prepping for our end of the
year move. At the same time my employees experienced their own wave of
hardships and I was working the floor 6 days a week. I think I was doing
60 to 70 hours of work a week by this point and only the light at the end of
the tunnel kept me going. We moved into the new space and opened in
January of 2020. The new location was doing well but I was still having
staffing issues with more than half of the shifts being missed for various
reasons, so still working 50 hour weeks and still without pay. But, for
the first time since we opened the store was covering its costs and we were
planning to add me to the payroll in March as well as trimming my hours to a
reasonable number. Then? You guessed it. Coronavirus.
Add to all of this issues with computers, battles with Paypal changes that left
me with no way to change shipping costs, and multiple issues with emails not
going through and you are looking at a poorly run studio. I have lost
orders, shipped late, and have come to dread seeing new orders. So it is
time to call it quits. I am packing up my studio. If life ever
returns to sustainable I will reopen. I will settle all current orders
but will not be taking any new ones. At some point I will list my
remaining stock for purchase, I just don't know when.
I love my customers and hope to someday once again provide you with ways to
create your flights of fantasy.
Happy Customizing,
Tammy Abbey
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