Oh, My Aching Brain

I have an assignation with the boss in the morning. He's putting together numbers for his "Blue Book" (cost per square foot for building a new store), and he seems to think I have numbers that will help him. I just deal with fixtures, decor and building equipment cost, not construction.

Yeah, I know it's all part of the same recipe, but it's not rocket science. And neither is it an exact science. It's not even an inexact science. I don't care what anyone says, these numbers are moving targets. Although most stores are "prototype" no two are exactly the same.

We also have to decipher what the tax and freight is on the millions of dollars worth of equipment that we order. You might think this would be easy, but it's not. There is no bottom line anywhere in our ordering system that says "T&F". We are forced to subtract the total spent as shown on one report from the total spent as shown on another report. The difference is allegedly the tax and freight. And our system is very temperamental. Some days we might come up with a million plus for T&F and others it could be a minus quarter of a million. Talk about confusing.

You may ask, how did I get picked to work on this project? Just chalk it up to being too stupid to say no. You'd think I'd learn.