the return of the rabbit

One of the things that have been weighing heavily on my mind for the past months has been my other business, Petty Pets. The SM Megamall branch's location had to be moved. The new location is only several meters away, but the entire configuration is different. The previous one had four counters forming a rectangle in the middle of the floor. The new space has a wall and requires several long counters.

I had my brother Ricky's architectural firm design the new store, while my partners and I wrestled with the requirements of Megamall and the Bureau of Animal Industry. We took the opportunity to design display counters that would treat the animals we sell in a more humane way. In the meantime, we had to close down and pull out all our inventory, thus missing the heated Christmas shopping. When all the paperwork was done, we had to wait for the centralized authority of all the SM malls to reapprove us as tenants - which is standard, but which also gave them a chance to offer us an inline space. An inline store would cripple us at this time, so we declined.

Finally today, weeks later, we got word that everything was okay and that we could begin construction of the new store. This will take us about two weeks before we can ingress, which means two more weeks of lost sales. Two weeks from is Christmas Eve. Gah.

Meanwhile, we've been receiving text messages and email from various customers asking when we'll open. These are all very heartening because at least I know our store is relevant to some.

When the store reopens, I'll be able to breathe a sigh of relief, and get back to running that business.