Under the gun

By now, I know the Trek Store routine. Big Sale at the end of February, Super Sale at the end of March, and then insanity until Labor Day.

It's a pretty simple formula, really.

But despite the fact that I have a big calendar on the wall in the office, despite my phone's email inbox blinking at me almost constantly, the Big Sale has crept up on me. It starts today. We're almost — almost — ready for it.

The first time it hits 50, Omaha goes crazy. Last weekend saw the door counts spike, as people who'd been hibernating all winter poked their heads outside and took a sniff. It's been the same story all week. That's a good thing, of course, because that means we were busy.

The downside is that we were so busy we couldn't prepare for the sale day-by-day. It happens sometimes. I spent Monday re-tagging bikes, Wednesday writing sale tags and cleaning, Thursday updating prices and cleaning, and this morning will be moving things around and ... cleaning. That probably could have been done in one day, if not for the bit about having customers.

Why so much cleaning? In the middle of all of this sale preparation and nice-weather traffic surges, we're remodeling the back part of the store. Dust, paint, etc.

It's going to be fine, of course. It always is. But before it's fine, there's going to be a lot of coffee and maybe a little bit of last-minute stress.

After that, it's just bikes. That's the part I like best.