Colorado Clay and Credit Card Cons
Things have been a little sad around Generous Servings recently. On Monday we got the results of a soils test back, and they showed that our soil is too expansive to support the columns we were going to put in to allow the removal of more walls. It's the clay--the same clay that makes it a backbreaking chore to plant a tree also makes a really poor building substrate. Now we are doing more testing and working on a back-up plan, but in the meantime, there hasn't been any work on the building. It looks like the bombing of Berlin in there, and it's kind of spooky to have it stand empty in this state.
Despite this dispiriting state, Jill and I have been busy creating castles in our minds. Does this look like a coffee shop to you?
The orange spray-painted lines mark where the coffee counter will go. Jill and I role-played being baristas and customers to see how things would flow. The overall conclusion was that we're all going to be up close and personal in this café. We also think it would help if we hire an assistant barista who is about the same size as Jill.
We've also had meetings with food distributors, people who try to make concrete floors look like something other than garage floors (with little success), sign printers (not my favorite profession thus far), and credit card processors (much worse). I just learned that when you get rewards from using your rewards credit card, it's the places you purchased from who have to pay for that perk. All these years I've thought I was sticking it to Visa by always paying my bill in full and then getting my rewards in cold hard cash, but it turns out I was actually sticking it to Safeway, which I feel less good about. My conscience is clear when it comes to small businesses, though: I never pay for a $3 coffee with a credit card. When you do that, the coffee place has to pay about $0.30 to the credit card company and processor (more if you use a rewards card). Ten percent of your purchase just went to a company that you know would take you for every penny if they ever got the opportunity. Be kind to your neighborhood businesspeople, and please use cash for your small purchases.
Despite this dispiriting state, Jill and I have been busy creating castles in our minds. Does this look like a coffee shop to you?
The orange spray-painted lines mark where the coffee counter will go. Jill and I role-played being baristas and customers to see how things would flow. The overall conclusion was that we're all going to be up close and personal in this café. We also think it would help if we hire an assistant barista who is about the same size as Jill.
We've also had meetings with food distributors, people who try to make concrete floors look like something other than garage floors (with little success), sign printers (not my favorite profession thus far), and credit card processors (much worse). I just learned that when you get rewards from using your rewards credit card, it's the places you purchased from who have to pay for that perk. All these years I've thought I was sticking it to Visa by always paying my bill in full and then getting my rewards in cold hard cash, but it turns out I was actually sticking it to Safeway, which I feel less good about. My conscience is clear when it comes to small businesses, though: I never pay for a $3 coffee with a credit card. When you do that, the coffee place has to pay about $0.30 to the credit card company and processor (more if you use a rewards card). Ten percent of your purchase just went to a company that you know would take you for every penny if they ever got the opportunity. Be kind to your neighborhood businesspeople, and please use cash for your small purchases.
posted by The Cooking Doctor at
8:20 PM
2 Comments:
What a bad week! Hopefully things will turn around very shortly. You can't put in some large flat thing that will spread the weight out?
Are you girls going to sell machines there? I think the floor looks great even for concrete.
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