I had my first "lunch meeting" today. As in, hey let's meet and discuss all of this over lunch that the company is paying for. My boss Kevin owed me lunch for completing this ginormous evil paperwork project that no one else was willing to touch with a 10 foot pole and radioactive gear. I'd give you more detail but you probably don't actually care. So anyway, we covered all the work related stuff we had to and then just chatted about what I think my future is with TJ's. It was very enlightening. The big things I took away from our talk, the things I'll have to think lots about...
1) Am I going to stay with TJ's long term?
2) If so, do I want to someday Captain my own store? (he thinks if I want it enough, I could be a first mate inside 2 years)
c) Am I set on moving to Milwaukee?
The whole Milwaukee move is actually something I've thought about a lot lately. The new Minnesota store is doing ridiculously well, and the expectation is that MKE will be good, but probably not quite the same. And Milwaukee will never have more than 3, 4 stores max. That's a small pool. We're opening in the southeast next year and that's going to be a huge growth area. Atlanta into the Carolinas and then Florida. Oh goodness gracious will we do well in Florida.
So where do I want to be? Am I really open to moving anywhere? Even if that means florida? MKE would be easy... and safe...
I guess the biggest problem I have at this point is reconciling my dislike of big city life with the fact that stores will always be in cities, usually big ones and their suburbs. Not someplace like Iowa.
