I'm off from work today, so I'm doing a few things related to the store.
The builder, landlord, and I met at the property this morning, to go over the plans. The original plan was a concern because there wasn't space for a water heater, and a pipe fixture was sort of in the way of some of what we were trying to accomplish.
After this morning's meeting, I think we're in good shape. The troublesome pipe is going to be relocated a few feet to allow for it to drop into the wall between the two restrooms. The bathroom water heater is going to be located above the restrooms, with another being above the office (to feed the sink in the back of the room. They'll be smaller heaters, or “instant-on” heaters. The landlord prefers that setup because to put in a room with a larger water heater actually costs him more money (he pays the water bills) because it would take several seconds for the hot water to get across the store every time it's turned on. It's also nice for us because it keeps us pretty close to the original layout.
November 24th Version of the Floor Plan
As you can see, the layout is similar to the first setup. We did lose a bit of space with the way the doors are positioned in the bathrooms, and this is a little truer to scale, I think. The first bathroom is a little larger because there's a support beam in the outside wall that will take up a small amount of space. We'll put some shelving alongside the beam, so people have some place, away from the sink, to put a purse or backpack. Both will be wheel-chair accessible.
We've added a second door to the office (instead of just a pass-through, to make sure the folks working the store can secure their stuff if they need to.
The items with a ? mark on them are things we don't know how or where to source yet.
We have a carpenter friend who is willing to fabricate the 8×4 tables (the larger red rectangles). He's also willing to hang the slat-wall and do other shop-fitting for us.
Any of the slate-wall items are in blue in the diagram – the ones along the wall are 8×4 panels, stacked two high, to give us an 8×8 wall section. The ones in the middle of the store are free-standing gondolas.
The magenta boxes are display shelves. The ones by the office will form a counter for sales, etc, and will probably hold the majority of the Magic singles we'll have on display. The one up front is more of a trophy case and will hold display armies. The one with the question mark will hold more display armies.
For the floor plan, the next step is to figure out where to put all the electrical drops.
Beyond that, our to do list looks something like this:
- Get the LLC paperwork back from the State (expected after Thanksgiving)
- Figure out what we need for a ServSafe license so we can see if it's worth it to sell snacks like soft pretzels, etc.
- Identify a good POS system / credit merchant
- Finalize sign designs for the directory and for above the store
- Identify the right flooring solution
- Figure out how we want to construct the 4×4 tables (or if we want to use something more traditional for those tables
- Identify a good video security system
- Get the insurance figured out
- Get the distribution agreements in place (can't do that until we have the certificate of occupancy)
- Determine if we, or the builders, will construct the serving / hobby counter and preparation stations (red rectangles labeled as “?”)
- Start inventorying all the stuff that I bought from Phoenix Games several years ago to help outfit a store
- Purchase all the fixtures
That about wraps it up for Monday.