Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes.....

"Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don't tell them to grow up and out of it
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Where's your shame
You've left us up to our necks in it
Time may change me
But you can't trace time"

---Song lyrics by David Bowie

Since my last post, there's been quite a few comments about the situation at Webster's here on this blog, on our Facebook pages and on Altadenablog. The general consensus of opinion seems to be that the walls between the stores and the lack of good customer service has severely impacted area residents' willingness to shop at Webster's. Scott and I and our entire crew understands that. We're working extra hard to bring quality shopping back into the fabric of life in Altadena because we believe you deserve it. We'll keep pushing until all parties involved understand this concept as well.

Having a thriving business center on North Lake Avenue is a sweet dream of ours. With some work and cooperation, the dream could become reality. The work the Altadena Arts Coalition has been doing toward this end has shown great promise. We're in the midst of planning our next event, tentatively scheduled in conjunction with the lighting of Christmas Tree Lane in December and we're so excited about it! Fabulous things are in the works, so definitely stay tuned for more details as we plan them out, and follow my updates on Twitter.

As a store in transition in an uncertain economy, WFS has been able, for the most part, to hold its own. We are grateful to Webster's Pharmacy and our supporters, without whom we wouldn't have made it this far. As a result of this uncertainty, though, many of our employees feel insecure, and I don't blame them....I've been feeling a little insecure myself. Our manager for these past two years, Michelle Perata, is leaving us tomorrow for a better job elsewhere. We wish her the best of luck and will miss her dearly. She's helped us keep it together throughout the confusion of construction, the transition to being our own separate store and then helping retrain everyone to be the type of sales crew we envisioned. She's a wonderful gal and I hope you'll come by Friday to say goodbye to her. In Michelle's honor, we're serving cake (from Pastries by Nancy!) and lemonade from noon on and offering a 10% discount if you mention the code phrase "Michelle is the best manager"!

As sad as it is to see Michelle go, we're tickled that we could promote from within and give Leilana De Los Santos the position of manager. She'll be leading our crew Monday next, so if you haven't met her yet, drop by anytime to say hello. We're also sad to announce the departure of one of our newest employees, Tania. Her mother hurt her back and Tania left her position to help her out. We wish Tania the best of luck, also, and hope her mother's health improves soon. With Tania gone, we were left with two positions open and are thrilled to say those positions were filled within minutes. Our two new crew members are Trish and Devon, both local residents and both very smart, beautiful young ladies. We're building quite a team for you here at WFS and there's no time like the beginning of fourth quarter to hone their customer service skills. We'll have interviews with the new crew members soon.

We're also planning our Haute Halloween Festivities for Saturday the 31st. Keep reading to stay informed of our plans, and drop by the store anytime for decorating inspiration!