Since the Oddyssea website is now up and operational and doesn’t even look terrible (given that I am not a designer) it makes sense to move Oddyssea specific content there from this point forward.

The first example of this policy is the post published about the vintage cash register posted there this morning. Also, the archives from the Oddyssea category have been posted there to make it a one-stop shop.

So, I’ll likely post here a little less frequently and on non-Oddyssea topics 😉 In other words, back to humor, politics, interesting things to me, and griping. Enjoy? I don’t know, we’ll see.

It has been an eventful July as we sprinted up to the launch line for Oddyssea. We originally intended to “soft open” mid-June; due to some fixture delays the date slipped until July 14th.

While the shop is now open and operational (yay!) there are still significant components missing which will help us secure a sustainable and profitable operation in the long-term. Not the least of which is getting our website up and functional. I’m doing a first pass of this, but will be engaging our friends over at 5Rockets to help boost it to the next level.

We don’t have external signs installed on the premises yet -> that’s a bit of a problem in attracting visitors to the shop. Something to be addressed in the near-term.

Significant internal attractions are still missing, our 3D printer, Zoltar, and our restored cash register.

Our most significant in-house developed product is not complete and consequently is not available for sale. This is a drag in two ways, one we’re missing a big part of the fun and two, it’s a profitable item for us.

All that being said, we do have an embarrassment of riches in and around the shop. We now have a talented and engaged team of people working with us on and in the shop. We have our major fixtures in place and merchandised. We have developing processes and practices that will provide consistency and will enable us to scale.

Most importantly, the visitors we have had seem to really enjoy the experience of the shop and that’s what we wanted to achieve.

For example, one woman visiting with her significant other spent upwards of an hour browsing around, touching, playing, and interacting, and at the end of her visit decided to make her own terrarium securing a 400mL beaker, some colored moss, a raccoon skull, and a succulent plant as the ingredients. She was giggling like a school girl as she collected her treasure and headed home to work on her project.

That is the exact experience we wanted to create when we conceived of the shop. It’s a slow start with many warts to be sure, but the early returns suggest that the concept has merit and could succeed. That’s something we couldn’t know until we opened the doors and started engaging with the public.

Right now we’re trying to recover from last week’s Herculean effort and move toward a steady state of operations. We’ll continue to fill in holes and improve the overall Oddyssea experience as we drive toward our “Grand Opening” Labor Day weekend.

617 Main St.

After what seems an eternity, we’re taking Oddyssea out from under wraps today. You can read about the logistics on the Oddyssea website.

With person-years of effort now invested and many unsung heros, we are only a little embarrassed to share what we’ve been working on with the broader world and invite people in to visit. There are still many loose ends to tie up and undoubtably we will be tested as we operate the store for the first few weeks.

The store is something of an experiment in retailing; we are mixing nature, science, technology, and art products and projects so that each visit has something fresh, new, and fun to experience.

But even with those known (and unknown) “gotchas” we are very excited to share Oddyssea with the world. Drop by, help us test the shop out. Help us find bugs in our beta test and improve. We’re looking forward to a fun, long, satisfying, and profitable run.

No picture on this post ;-).

The last few days have marked dramatic progress toward opening Oddyssea. We are now at a point that it’s possible to contemplate opening the doors, soon. Maybe as early as this weekend (hint, hint.)

Even with the progress, there is still a mountain of work to complete and it’s just a matter of prioritization and sequencing. Everyone is feeling a little pressed for time (there’s nothing like a deadline to force focused execution toward desired end-state.)

Assuming prospective customers can enter the store without risk to life and limb and we can actually process a sale should anyone wish to buy merchandise, we will forge ahead with our beta test aka soft opening. Stay tuned!

In addition to learning how to build cases, mill box joints, cut and thread pipes, build transmissions, lighting design & installation, and fan configuration & installation – I’ve added building window screens to my repertoire.

The shop has windows that we want open, but we’d like to keep the insects and birds in the outside, where they belong. Therefore it was necessary to acquire screens for the windows. However, there aren’t any that would fit our windows.

So, another trip to the hardware store opened up another option: build the screens. Material was then acquired, measured, cut, assembled, and installed today. Much easier than I would have imagined and it certainly served the purpose. Fun, fun, fun!