Darley Street: Episode Ten – The Wake up Call
Season One Finale!
by Steve Gray
Sally was enjoying some morning sun sweeping out the front of her shop, she stopped for a moment watching Gail chat to a guy across the road, she opened the front door to the shop that had sat empty for way too long, he paced out the space and jotted down details.
They chatted for some time before shaking hands and moving on. She closed and locked the door and headed up Hill street, Sally had hoped she would go the other way and make eye contact, to at least get to ask what might be happening. Nope, not today.
Mr Mandal walked up the street, bidding Sally a good morning. He asked her if she knew anything about Artie's list inside his front door that mentioned a range of shares… Sally filled him in on the details, the list went up weekly, sometimes a bit more often, Artie would research companies that looked feasible to invest in and some ‘savvy’ locals had done quite well, but be warned they didn’t always go up in value.
Mr Mandal thanked her for the information, and then exchanged pleasantries about the weather and how was business etc.
The day was soon underway, the broom put away and some thinking while settled at the front counter, Rex and Soren arrived almost in unison, more pleasantries exchanged.
Sally caught up with Gail later in the week, dropping into the bakery, and was rather careful to ask about the shop across the road. Gail didn’t say much but alluded to the idea that the guy wanted to buy the shop, she kept it for tax purposes but he seemed keen to pay a premium that would cover her concern about capital gains tax etc.
Sally did a bit of online research and the price he was asking was well above what the market would expect to pay for such a place.
Perhaps the guy had the same idea as Gail, buy it, hold on to it, lose on the deal to keep his tax under some level of control.
Two days later the guy popped into Sally’s shop. They chatted, Sally acted as if she didn’t know the guy and said, ‘Ah a new face…’ He added, ‘Oh yeah, I was across the road the other day and spotted your shop and thought I want to get in there and have a look, but I was a bit busy that day.’
He took a look around and then Sally, full of intrigue, asked him about the shop. Did he have an idea for the type of shop he wanted to open? ‘He added. ‘Oh, it’s just for investment purposes, I’d rent it out. A bit of renovating and yeah, hand it over to someone willing to make a go of it.
Sally hazarded a guess at the rent and mentioned how much he might rent it for, He responded with, ‘Ah no, more than that… These days retail outlet rents are quite high, even in comparison to a few months ago.’
The figure he mentioned had Sally gasping, she did a few quick figures in her head, noting that if she had to pay that much for rent she would find it difficult to be in business and she was certainly thankful that she owned her place outright.
The guy was gone not long after, he was amazed by what she had in the store. Sally always had a simple story about how she came to acquire many of the items through her well travelled aunt and her friend. Able to point out specific ‘not for sale’ items that certainly had people thinking the store was more of a museum than a place to buy things.
In the shop there were a few large indoor plants, and they soon let you know when they needed water, good condition one day, then fading fast the next. Sally attended to the plants, pondering the gents' stance on the shop across the street.
Rex came to take over from the front counter as Sally went to lunch, she mentioned the rent for the shop across the street, he was astounded also. ‘I wonder who would be silly enough to pay that sort of money, week in, week out.’ The pair shook their heads, as Sally headed to the’lunch room’ way down the back of the shop.
A thought dropped into her head, ‘When was the last time I put my prices up to reflect more current business conditions? Hm, far too long.’ On coming back to the front counter she opened up the settings on her computer and added a percentage to the overall settings for items, then printed a list of what they had with the old and new prices.
The list was then passed to Rex to implement, ‘Change all the prices to reflect the new ‘business conditions’ we have to deal with.’
What he didn’t get done today, Soren got to work on tomorrow. In all it took a full week to alter the prices on everything they had, as well as doing their regular work.
On the Facey Page, Sally reflected to others that business conditions need to be considered, ‘How much would your rent be if you were in a different shop a suburb away?’ That got people thinking, and hopefully Gail didn’t want to tweak the rents up!
No two days were the same in Darley Street; people come, and people go. Today was loaded with awakenings.
Stay tuned for Season Two of Darley Street!
More from Steve Gray
Steve writes with passion and intrigue, aiming to inspire and or raise awareness of topics. His poetry can take abstract turns, and his 'Odd Angry Writes' on his website are sure to turn heads with his aggressive approach to topics.
A background in Art and Design, as well as teaching, often gives his written pieces a unique creative perspective.
Like many, he is an ADHD person with some neurodiverse edges. A bunch of E books under his belt and some honourable mentions in the Geelong Writers Group puts his work in good standing.
