Since my last entry, we've just been working, working, working and working with a little bit of sleep. We'll sleep when we're dead, is my motto. Anyhow, September 30th was the restaurants 1st year anniversary. We had a week long celebration with a large discount for our customers. Most the the customers that came in that week were our loyal customers. It's strange since we have customers that come in twice or three times a week for a month or two, then totally disappear... even those customers came in.
Oh yeah, last Spring two kaiten sushi bars opened up within 2 miles of us.... that makes 26 sushi restaurants within 2 miles. You can say that is quite a few! Their grand opening week, we lost a huge amount of customers since the people around here mostly want cheap and edible food. I thought our menu was fairly reasonable but there's no way we can compete with such low prices. Especially when we have better quality ingredients. Both of those restaurants are owned by huge corporations that plan on opening 50 more each within the next 2 years. Yes, SoCal will be saturated with cheap, fast food sushi - which people around here like.
My crew continues to work hard. The turn-over rate for employees is very high. It's unbelievable! But at least Dad and I can rely on each other and there some really great employees that we have on staff. There have been several times that I was the kitchen cook, dish washer, bus boy AND the waitress, all while dad was busy with the sushi bar. If Dad were not here working, I think we totally would not have lasted this long! Miraculously, we've made it over a year now! We'll see what's in store for this new fiscal year!
Dad also celebrated his 71st birthday... his second birthday here in SoCal. I'm not sure if the SoCal life is enjoyable for him or not. We work 7 days a week 14-18 hour days, so there's not much free time for anything.
