Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day, we have freezing fog blanketing the Sachse/Garland corridor, and my store is in an outdoor mall. Gotta love it. However, I am optimistic that we are a destination for everyone who loves not only great scents, but great prices as well.

I put in yesterday's numbers in the sales spread sheet Don made, keeping my eye on the daily sales number. I know the current number for our store is half of what we will need just to break even in the new location, so I get a little nervous. That brings up my education concerning triple net (or nnn). This is the jargon that means the lessee (me) pays the replacement cost insurance on the entire building, the property tax, and the maintenance on the store I choose to lease. If a store leases for $20/square foot, the next question I have to ask is how much the triple net is. You would think that this would be standard for a strip center, mall, or complex, but ohhhhh no. That would be too simple.

For example, in the mall where I am now, the nnn for the store we are considering is one price, while the other two proposals for the same mall, one street over, have two different nnn's. What this means in a nutshell is that as far as "ownership" goes, everything is our problem, but we don't own it. We will be paying twice (or more) of our home mortgage for a store that we are leasing. Of course we are there seven days a week, nine hours a day, so technically we are there more...Who thought of this plan???