In Chinese culture, August is called "Hungry Ghost Month." For those who believe in this, and in feng shui principles, this is a period when it is considered unlucky to open a new business, move into a new home, get married, or even, I think, have a baby.
My family doesn't really believe in this, but we were scheduled to open a new shop around this time. This is is the second branch of our little card and gift kiosk, and this time it is a proper store, located in the new wing of a posh mall.
The administration team of this shopping centre has been desperate for shops to open as the foot traffic is low and the overhead costs high. They offered a discount on rental rates for the next two months to all tenants who open shop in the month of July.
In a rush to avail of this discount, we managed to open on the very last day of the month. However, there were still some small kinks to be ironed out, particularly with our new POS system. Nevertheless, we opened, and are now running fairly smoothly.
So just before the start of Little A's new schoolyear has me rushing between two shops, training new staff and sorting out various accounting issues. The timing is good, so next week will be entirely devoted to Little A's start of school.
Hungry Ghosts, begone!
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