Some months ago, we closed Bazaar not only on Tuesdays, but ALSO on Wednesdays.
Why would we do that??
Well, we needed to make time to fix a few things so we’d have a stronger foundation. As it were, Josh was running 14+ hour days, 6 days a week, and his “rest” day was going towards shopping, doing repairs, and catching up …
This could not be. Bazaar is meant to be a labor of love, a source of joy; a marathon, not a sprint, and our ethos on sustainability needs to include our well of personal energy. Our hearts broke when one day, Josh was excitedly telling a customer about open mic night and someone remarked, “How would you know? You never go.” Thursday night is payroll night. Josh not being at open mic despite that being his *heart* is a testament to his love for the overall mission.
After some marital negotiation 🙂 a compromise was struck. As all good marital negotiations go, there is a PowerPoint slide involved! We will reopen on Wednesdays once:
1. We’ve hired & trained staff to run some shifts independently, with no compromise to service&quality
2. Window signage & lighting is improved
3. Cost-saving checklist – water audit/electric/food delivery
4. We’ve proved that the new setup is helping by having 2 short weekends away (with the cafe open) and our cost base is improved (we won’t bore you with the numbers)!
As luck would have it, you take three steps forward and one back … staff call out sick, go on holiday, and things break … Progress is slow BUT we are making progress. We’ve been doing a consulting engagement with an industry veteran and our training program is heaps better already. We would LOVE to see the cafe open for longer hours, and on Wednesdays, and (gasp) Tuesdays too!!