I always find it interesting how difficult progress can be to see, until you take a sum of its parts. It has been a few weeks now since the concrete was finished, and there have been so many interesting (and integral) jobs finished on our worksite that I’m having trouble keeping track of them all. We had Mr. Sarko in for a week, hard at work framing a slightly misaligned duct. I met Colin, who has revised many drafts in his workshop getting our millwork ready. Don is waiting for our new fishtank before he can hang drywall. But most importantly…

Doug is a tough guy. He’s reliable, easy going, and knows some good jokes. He has been the brains (and muscle!) behind all of our shelving and storage strategies- and he works alone. The stock room is the nerve center of a shoe store; if you have a well planned and efficiently laid out stock room everything in the store seems to run well. Doug and I started hammering out some floor plans over three months ago, and finally settled on a simple plan.

The idea was to try to re-use our entire shelving system as it already exists at our current downtown location, and add about a third more capacity. While we could simply line up 12’ high racks for shoes, it takes a lot of work and revision to effectively layout this kind of shelving- a delicate balance between optimal space usage and maximum movement and storage capacity. When the store starts to hum, you need to have access to lots of shoes pretty quickly- and when you have anywhere from 2 to 10 staff ducking in and out of the shelving you need space.

It took  5 people 3 full days to lay track (3/4 of the system is mobile), dis-assemble, re-assemble, build, move, and correct the shelving. As I mentioned, Doug usually works alone but I think he appreciated the help on this job.

Both Doug and I feel that it might just be the Greatest Shoe Stockroom Ever Built. It brings me comfort to know that so many shoes might find a happy (if temporary…) home in such a wonderful space.