Tuesday, January 22, 2008

In this corner we have. . .

Yellow gold! It is undeniable that trends filter down to different parts of the country at different times. After all, we see magazines coming from New York telling us the hottest jewelry right now is yellow gold and images of celebrities wearing yellow gold everywhere, but the average Jane in Middle America loves her white gold, platinum and silver pieces she wears every day.

But wait, just a few years ago weren’t we all supposed to be wearing white gold, platinum and the high-end high quality new and exciting silver brands according to the fashion powers that be? Are you outdated, unfashionable if you still wear the lighter hued metals? Do you have to update to yellow gold? What if you have your great-grandmother’s heirloom pieces from the first half of the 20th century? And you LOVE wearing them? It’s not like the green eye shadow that was the hot color of spring 2006, jewelry can be an investment (especially the matrimonial kind), and something many women build their jewelry wardrobes around!

Change is never easy, especially when the change being proposed is something as personal as jewelry, a keystone of your personal style. Are you expected to buy the hot, new trend every season? Of course not, unless you want to! But adding pieces throughout the year that you love and will wear for years to come never goes out of style! Bottom line, everything old is new again and will be 10, 15 and even 20 years from now too!

Friday, January 4, 2008

Technology, wonderful technology. . .

Since mentioning our change over to a new operating system in the last post, now is the perfect time to introduce an integral part of the switch as well as the Fink’s family.

Rhonda Ellis is celebrating her first anniversary with Fink’s this month! She is our internal auditor and deals with not only the stores, but every one in corporate if there is a question about the new system. . .

I've heard many folks say that “nothing stays constant except for change”. The statement seems to hold very true for our company after reflecting over the past year. With a new store opening, two established stores moving and one of the stores closing the doors, our company was also introduced to a new computer operating system this year.

Craftsman for Windows, known as C4W, is a program with a Microsoft® Windows® operating base. This provides Fink’s employees with the more common Windows® appearance and functionality that many are already used to seeing on their home computers.

Fink’s customers will also reap the benefits from the recent computer changes. Faster processing time, more receipt detail and on-hand, immediate customer history information are just a few of the benefits our customers will see. We all appreciate your patience as we are still learning and adapting to our new system.

Hats off to Todd Stafford, Vice President of Information Systems, and to Todd Peters, Senior Auditor and Systems Analyst, who spent many long nights and weekends working on this system, ensuring that everything was ready to go. Lots of caffeine and chocolate were essential to keep them going during this long and trying implementation!

As for now, I will prepare to put my “auditing” hat back on and step back from the IT world. Good bye for now and happy shopping!

~Rhonda Ellis
Corporate Offices, Roanoke