Christmas countdown 2
Jude and I taste some lovely biodynamic wine but then spend a sleepless night as the situation in Lordship Lane worsens slightly. We also decide that from January 1st, we will ban plastic bags from our shop.
Jude and I taste some lovely biodynamic wine but then spend a sleepless night as the situation in Lordship Lane worsens slightly. We also decide that from January 1st, we will ban plastic bags from our shop. A terrible thing has happened. Someone who shall remain nameless (mainly because I have not yet found out who it is, but I fully intend to) apparently spoke to the woman who did not turn up for her booking on Saturday night and refunded her deposit a month ago when she phoned to cancel. This same person failed to remove the details from our party booking file, leading Michelle to conscientiously put them back in again when she noticed that they had been crossed out.
The lady is not completely excused as Michelle had also left two messages asking her to confirm menu and wine choices in the week before Saturday and it would have taken very little effort for her to phone us up and tell us not to be moronic as she had already cancelled. I would not have minded her use of the word moronic here for that is what we were being.
Along with selling the best wines in the world, I have always wanted to be the proprietor of a business with incredibly high standards in service and I’m afraid that although we try, we still fail miserably sometimes. It profoundly depresses me and I will never understand how people can get themselves in such a muddle so often but rest assured that Green & Blue will never stop trying as hard as they can on that front. If we get it wrong in ways that are not obvious to us, please always, ALWAYS tell us so that we can do our best to rectify it.
We had a tasting with Doug from Les Caves at Clapham yesterday which was a real treat. Lots of delicious biodynamic wines which we will be listing from next year, all of which were very inspiring and another reason to keep plodding on, despite endless obstacles. Speaking of which, despite things looking brighter towards the end of last week, we seem to have slid backwards somewhat now with the landlord dithering again about evacuation upstairs which means that the possibility of closing is now bobbing around on the horizon again. That, coupled with apparently many more bitter complaints about paper plates and plastic cutlery yesterday, did not put me in the best mood, despite the lovely wine.
After the tasting, I was doing a ‘how to taste session’ for newer members of the team. I usually really enjoy these, no matter how tired I am, as it is a chance to clearly set out what we are trying to achieve, as well as teaching them a skill that they are going to use continually at Green & Blue. I also find that as soon as I make a connection with the energy of a group, I am fine – as long as the group have an energy and are interested. That happened to an extent yesterday, but mainly I was feeling so tired and fed up with drains, party booking fiasco’s and paper plate complaints that I don’t think it was my best session ever. Claire managed to sell 13 Christmas cases while I was doing the tasting though which is a big step forward for Clapham and was a reason to be slightly more cheerful. The bar was nicely busy when we left at about 8.30pm, which is usually isn’t on a Sunday, so that was good too.
Back home, Jude and I spent a sleepless night till we managed to drop off at about 5am this morning. That really is very unusual as one of us usually manages to de-stress the other sufficiently but we both tossed and turned all night. Not the best start to what will be a busy week.
Things looked up a bit again when we arrived at Lordship Lane and found that the ladies had done a splendid job of cleaning yesterday and double checking pricing labels etc which are all now as they should be. Doing Christmas decorations is one of my jobs – one which I am clearly failing miserably at. Jude’s window display is winking away and looking marvellous but my small tree and greenery plans are not going to materialise until my days are no longer hijacked by the struggle to stay open. Hopefully, by the end of the week, somehow.
Team meeting today was mainly focused on everyone making sure we are fully stocked over Christmas. Given our space constraints, that will almost certainly mean cases stacked right at the front on the shop, which I hate, but it is better than running out. We also talked about opening hours and who is working when. Jude and I will be here for New Years Eve, which should good fun and very lively – we are applying for an extension to our licence so that we can serve till 1am. Bookings are starting to come in but I think most of them will be made at the last minute.
Finally, I told the team in the meeting that we had to start publicising the fact that from January 1st, we will no longer to using plastic bags at Green & Blue. We can offer empty boxes or people can buy one of our cloth bags. These are unfortunately not free as we have had to pay for them, but we are charging cost price in an effort to make them as reasonable as possible (£2). The ladies were all for it but Jude and Tom both thought that some people would be very upset. I don’t want to upset any customers but enough really is enough and until you take a stand, people won’t remember to bring their own bags. Jude thinks we will have to revoke the decision but I really hope not. I realise that we are running a business that has to make money in order to continue and so can’t drive people away, but surely everyone these days is aware of the damage that plastic carrier bags do to the environment? Jude is going to look into the biodegradable plastic bags some retailers are using now and if we can afford these and they are indeed a viable alternative (I will have to research), we will get those in. If not, we are going hard line. Eliza is painting boards informing people of this fact tonight.
The lady is not completely excused as Michelle had also left two messages asking her to confirm menu and wine choices in the week before Saturday and it would have taken very little effort for her to phone us up and tell us not to be moronic as she had already cancelled. I would not have minded her use of the word moronic here for that is what we were being.
Along with selling the best wines in the world, I have always wanted to be the proprietor of a business with incredibly high standards in service and I’m afraid that although we try, we still fail miserably sometimes. It profoundly depresses me and I will never understand how people can get themselves in such a muddle so often but rest assured that Green & Blue will never stop trying as hard as they can on that front. If we get it wrong in ways that are not obvious to us, please always, ALWAYS tell us so that we can do our best to rectify it.
We had a tasting with Doug from Les Caves at Clapham yesterday which was a real treat. Lots of delicious biodynamic wines which we will be listing from next year, all of which were very inspiring and another reason to keep plodding on, despite endless obstacles. Speaking of which, despite things looking brighter towards the end of last week, we seem to have slid backwards somewhat now with the landlord dithering again about evacuation upstairs which means that the possibility of closing is now bobbing around on the horizon again. That, coupled with apparently many more bitter complaints about paper plates and plastic cutlery yesterday, did not put me in the best mood, despite the lovely wine.
After the tasting, I was doing a ‘how to taste session’ for newer members of the team. I usually really enjoy these, no matter how tired I am, as it is a chance to clearly set out what we are trying to achieve, as well as teaching them a skill that they are going to use continually at Green & Blue. I also find that as soon as I make a connection with the energy of a group, I am fine – as long as the group have an energy and are interested. That happened to an extent yesterday, but mainly I was feeling so tired and fed up with drains, party booking fiasco’s and paper plate complaints that I don’t think it was my best session ever. Claire managed to sell 13 Christmas cases while I was doing the tasting though which is a big step forward for Clapham and was a reason to be slightly more cheerful. The bar was nicely busy when we left at about 8.30pm, which is usually isn’t on a Sunday, so that was good too.
Back home, Jude and I spent a sleepless night till we managed to drop off at about 5am this morning. That really is very unusual as one of us usually manages to de-stress the other sufficiently but we both tossed and turned all night. Not the best start to what will be a busy week.
Things looked up a bit again when we arrived at Lordship Lane and found that the ladies had done a splendid job of cleaning yesterday and double checking pricing labels etc which are all now as they should be. Doing Christmas decorations is one of my jobs – one which I am clearly failing miserably at. Jude’s window display is winking away and looking marvellous but my small tree and greenery plans are not going to materialise until my days are no longer hijacked by the struggle to stay open. Hopefully, by the end of the week, somehow.
Team meeting today was mainly focused on everyone making sure we are fully stocked over Christmas. Given our space constraints, that will almost certainly mean cases stacked right at the front on the shop, which I hate, but it is better than running out. We also talked about opening hours and who is working when. Jude and I will be here for New Years Eve, which should good fun and very lively – we are applying for an extension to our licence so that we can serve till 1am. Bookings are starting to come in but I think most of them will be made at the last minute.
Finally, I told the team in the meeting that we had to start publicising the fact that from January 1st, we will no longer to using plastic bags at Green & Blue. We can offer empty boxes or people can buy one of our cloth bags. These are unfortunately not free as we have had to pay for them, but we are charging cost price in an effort to make them as reasonable as possible (£2). The ladies were all for it but Jude and Tom both thought that some people would be very upset. I don’t want to upset any customers but enough really is enough and until you take a stand, people won’t remember to bring their own bags. Jude thinks we will have to revoke the decision but I really hope not. I realise that we are running a business that has to make money in order to continue and so can’t drive people away, but surely everyone these days is aware of the damage that plastic carrier bags do to the environment? Jude is going to look into the biodegradable plastic bags some retailers are using now and if we can afford these and they are indeed a viable alternative (I will have to research), we will get those in. If not, we are going hard line. Eliza is painting boards informing people of this fact tonight.
