Gossip at the Water Cooler

Blog Entry #40 hot off the press!

Well it's just after 4:30 on a Thursday and I'm still at work... If all goes well, I'd like to leave here @ 6pm... Even though we are suppose to be open until 7pm... In all honesty, I think I may have done an hours worth of work all day...Business has been slow for 2 weeks...I'll make good use of my time since the boss is gone for the night... and post in my blog and surf the EF That should pass the time nicely.

Speaking of work... There have been "rumors" flying around here... Last time something like this happened, the "rumors" turned out to be true... You have to figure that there is usually a hint of truth behind most rumors... That's how they start after all...

So anyway, here's the gossip...
This Dealership has not been making much money in the last few months... Mostly due to the Sales Dept not being able to sell more than 10 vehicles/month. Service and Parts make money and Sales has managed to get into the negative... I know the owners have been trying to relocate the store to an area with High traffic... As it is now, we are leasing the building from the previous owner and we are in a residential area. A bit tight for space, not much room to park, no chance to expand.
Truth is there is nothing available land wise... Yet... So relocating is not an option.
Dodge being Dodge, they want all of their Dealerships to be "ALPHA" stores... meaning no more single mom & pop Dodge... or Chrysler... or Jeep dealerships.. All must have all 3 lines under 1 roof.

Since we are land locked and don't have the room for Chrysler/Jeep... we either relocate so we can comply or we sell the Dodge Franchise. I guess from the owners' perspective... they were thinking about selling the franchise... And acquiring an import line..... and that import line would be Kia.
From what I know about Kia, they are a sub division of Hyundai... They are price friendly, eco friendly, and offer a great warranty 10/100,000 can't beat that. Our Parts/Service director was trying to organize a massive parts return from our dealership... that kinda tipped my manager off that something is going down! Why else would we be asked to get rid of all parts that have been here for 12 months and NO sales. After further questioning my manager was told NOT to say anything, but he filled me in as to what IS going down.

The Dodge Franchise IS being sold... and KIA will be coming in... He assured me that we will all have jobs.. That's a bonus... My manager, Al is not happy... He claims he's not an import Parts manager and wants to get laid off... Which I don't think will happen... since they are not closing the store and have nowhere to place him...
It will be a learning curve for all of us for sure... but I welcome the challenge!
At this point... this is all a "rumor" and those who know are being asked to keep it to themselves... With that being said...

Everything with a Mopar logo of any type has go.. all parts have to be sent back.. new parts coming in... There will be a ton of work to do once the transition takes place.At this point there isn't a set date... I hope Chad (Service/Parts director) doesn't screw up returning the parts back to Chrysler, like he did during the last buy out... That was a disaster!

Out here we celebrate Labor Day... Which means a 3 day weekend for me I will have Saturday, Sunday and Monday off!!! Most people celebrate by having an end of summer picnic/BBQ, most people close their pools for the season, and I bet it will be a big "Back To School" shopping weekend.
As for me.. I don't have any plans.. I'll have more time to spend in EU... Maybe get to spend some time with James... and get my weekly grocery shopping in along with getting laundry done (since I procrastinated this week) Oh and doing as little as possible!!! That's what intend to do!

Other than that... there is nothing more to report...and I managed to waste a whole hour hehehehehe and if all goes well, I'll be leaving in 30 mins
Thanks for reading/listening....
***The only downfall to posting at work with a proxy is that I have to come back later, change the font/color and add spacing***