My wife and I live in the second story above the store.  We have a large roof for a yard; with decks on the southside and a covered one off the back, that is our favorite.  It faces west and affords amazing views of sunsets and thunderstorms.  It also features the most urban view in town.  There is every manner of brick, stone, fire escape, graffiti...all textured by the shapes of the many additions, over many years, to the backs of our neighboring buildings.  We enjoy the view, and the relative peacefulness of it.  (We don't even hear the garbage trucks at 6am anymore.) 

 

Other people like our alley too.  We've noticed for many years it seems to be a requisite site for senior pictures.  And in recent years it has become popular for all manner of photographic portraiture: newly engaged couples, with the new Harley, wedding pictures (sometimes featuring the limo as well), and my new favorite -the proud new parents with baby.  We try not to gawk or laugh, but sometimes it's hard -we have a splendid view of  most of the favorite spots.  Sometimes it can be entertaining; will the dozen people in the wedding party all fit on that wooden stair case?  What do you suppose the weight limit is?  Sometimes they notice us and wave. This spring I thought I would take a picture of them once in awhile.  I've posted a few here. 

 

 

One of the hats I wear here at Zandbroz is "Card Buyer".  It's task I enjoy, but 21 years in, there are challenges; like quotation burn out.  For starters you should know that I buy most of my cards by working with a couple of super card reps.  These folks specialize in representing small presses ranging from Mom and Pops to large European lines.  These lines tend to be artist oriented (quite often artist owned and operated).  This means an appointment usually lasts all day and I mean a full 8 hours.  In that time I look at 1000's of cards from a dozen or more companies.  I usually look at them all -but very quickly; if the graphic on the front doesn't catch my eye ....i'm on to the next.  The cards come in decks sorted by occasions and that's how you handle the; deftly like a card dealer.  There are other criteria considered after graphics; like size and position.  I rarely look long at a horizontal card, because they waste space in card racks.  Same with odd ball sizes, they don't fit well and can cost more to post. If the card passes these concerns I will look at the copy and sentiment or tone......that eliminates a majority of the rest.  Some cards are old favorites (that always sell) and others are "been there done that".  Like I said at the start, quotations are big in the card world.  In 21 years of buying cards it feels like you've seen the same gems (& less sparkling) over and over again...I won't even try to list the cliches....But to my continued delight and I hope you our card customers; there are always some new thoughtful, funny, unique ....or same old with a new twist.  It used to be you had to be dead (or close to it) to be quoted...now anything goes.  Which brings me to the subject of humor, especially the tasteless variety.  You would be amazed how many truly nasty cards are out there.  I buy a few things that might not be some of my customers cup of tea, but I know that many of you, like me,  enjoy some of the edgier humor.  There's lots of wonderfully creative work being done in the card world and that is surprising in these techno times.  Sometimes I wonder how many of our cards are purchased to send (and how many of those actually get delivered) and how many are bought for the image. 

We are deep into a mayoral campaign here in Sioux Falls, with six candidates vying for the office.  Recently one of them announced that if elected Mayor, he would get rid of the parking meters downtown.  This apparently resonated with some folks, because they have been coming into the store to tell us the good news.  As a downtown merchant of 21 years and long time Parking Advisory Board member; I know there would not be a parking space available during business hours. When I first started my  business downtown it was the first thing we thought of too...get rid of those parking meters.  They aren't customer friendly. We quickly learned that the thousands of people who work in downtown offices would all park on the street if it was free. In fact, downtown's biggest parking problem is employees parking on the street and feeding meters.  As a member of the Parking Board I understand the importance of using parking meters to insure available convenient parking for our retail customers.  Furthermore,  Parking is an enterprise department of city government; meaning it generates all it's own income.  This income is used to build and maintain the parking facilities.  No city funds are used for the parking system.  But perhaps this candidate wants city government to subsidize the parking facilities......

I told you I would keep you up to date, in my quest to solve a office printer problem.  I managed to work it out myself, "the old fashion start all over again way". That night I just reinstalled everything ....it's working again.  Two days later, Sanji sent me my answer...I didn't accept the answer on the grounds that I didn't have the luxury of waiting two days and to be fair I did not read his answer (besides it was long and complicated looking).  It remains to be seen what will happen to the $11. being held hostage in my "account".  I'll keep you posted.

 J.

I just published the site and everything seems to be working and looking much as intended.  Again thank you for your patience.  At a minimum we will keep the content of the site fresh.  I finally know how to use this rudimentary site layout...and will try to improve look and feel as I learn more.  Most importantly we are going to work to get some of the most popular products set up for online shopping.  In the mean time, call or email..... we are at your service.  

We have lots of events in both stores this spring...check out the Events listing.

 J.