it's a new year

Our trip was planned so that we would return before the end of our fiscal year (September 30). There are always bookkeeping bits to tie up and our insurance requires that we do a physical inventory at year-end.

QuickBooks has a physical inventory worksheet that can be printed and I also do my own listing of total numbers for each artist. Our inventory is so unique that we can tell if something is missing from the items that we put in and out of the safe every day. However, we have several artists whose numerous pieces are keep out of the safe at night, and keeping track of their individual pieces is not quite as easy.

We learned that one inexpensive pair of earrings was missing and was probably taken by a visitor to the shop. I won't call him/her a customer because it wasn't paid for, wrapped, etc. We try hard to keep an eye on anyone visiting the shop, but when large groups of friends come in at once it can be a challenge.

The loss isn't bad financially (our only loss that we know of, since we opened in May, 2007) but just the idea that someone would come in and take something that wasn't theirs is disturbing. I'm not so naive as to think that no one would shoplift in a nice, upscale gallery, but now that it's happened, it saddens me. I was raised to be honest and to treat others as I would like to be treated. What doesn't everyone else feel that way?