For What It's Worth

Seriously, lady? You're going to return a $4.98 item because it's not quite what you expected? Good lord. Fine, spend $3.75 to mail it back to me. I'll just drive to the UPS Store to pick it up, then process it through Excel, Sunshop, and QuickBooks, then log onto PayPal to issue your refund. Together with the credit for the product that you (suspiciously) claimed was defective, you just reduced my next paycheck by $3.40.

People like you are why I can't have nice things. 

No week has ever ended in the red before, but this week was heading there until it clawed its way up to $22 on Thursday afternoon. Since then it has soared to $69.45. I don't think any week has ever finished below three digits before, either, so we still have a shot at setting a record.

I honestly don't know why I'm still reporting monthly numbers. Of course they're going to decline year-over-year as I gradually run out of stock. Compiling them each month compels me to make sure that I'm taking enough markdowns to show a loss, and makes me explain any unexpected trends. And it's the last year, so there's a sense of completion. Mostly from force of habit, then, here they are:

January and YTD

Total income: -33.6%
Payroll: +39.8%

Marketing: -76.4%
Net Income (Profit) vs LY: -181.1% (-$160)

Actual Profit/Loss: -$72

$300 worth of Curio City markdowns more than offset a small Blue Hills payday. K-1 losses are one of the few tax deductions that the Republicans didn't take away. By passing 85% of its revenue through as payroll, Blue Hills is nearly incapable of losing money, so I need those Curio losses to keep coming all year.