Hello Happy Hour, and Buh-Bye Grand and Toy.

Tonight is HAPPY HOUR for all the staff at the pub!

Reasons to celebrate include new staff additions Shawn, Hailey, Alysha, Lucas and Nabil.


Oh, and celebration that we stole a nice, six-figure-per-year-in-sales customer away from Grand & Toy!


Grand and Toy is owned by an American company, OfficeMax, so we don't feel as bad as if it was a Canadian company. Seems we have been picking up lots of new customers that were once G&T customers, and the main reason why they tell us is service. With the announcement yesterday that G&T let go 100 small business account managers, I only see the service getting worse. I'm not sure what their long term plans are for Small Business customers, without any account managers to support them.

Here is an interesting article about the G&T retail stores: Von Hahn: Image is everything, so Grand & Toy sells nothing

If you want to hear what the Grand & Toy employees are talking about their company:  http://www.ratemyemployer.ca/employer/employer.aspx?l=en&empID=2726

Here is Staples’ employees: http://www.ratemyemployer.ca/employer/employer.aspx?l=en&empID=739

All good news for Costless Express - thanks so much to our awesome customers!

Amazing Calendar Stats!

I think I saw some sunshine the past few days. July looks to be nice and look at all the weekend time we have lined up!

This year, July has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. This happens once every 823 years.

This is the only time we will see and live this event!

Calendar for July 2011  July Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Kinda interesting - read on!!!

This year we're going to experience four unusual dates.

1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11, 11/11/11 and that's not all...

Take the last two digits of the year in which you were born - now add the age you will be this year.

The results will be 111 for everyone in whole world.

New to the clan at Costless Express

Lucas

We have been growing like weeds at Costless Express, and with growth comes new people.

Today was an awesome day as I walked around the office.

First I ran into Lucas, a new addition to our warehouse team. I asked him how things were going and he said "I'm Happy". What a great answer. He said he loved being able to jump in and make a difference using his skills immediately. He said the things he as doing at Costless in his job would have taken years to move up to in responsibility at his last job at a large company.

It's is also a special day because we hired our first ever VP of Finance - Nabil. This high level position will allow us to expand and manage growth at an even faster pace. Nabil comes with a long list of successes in our area of business.

In searching for Nabil, we focused first on a culture fit - looks like Nabil fits right in.

Nabil

Also watch a video of our management team breaking the news that Nabil got the job.

We have have several more new people that are new to the Costless family and I'll write a second blog post soon.

Cheers,

Calvin

Costless Express at the Coquitlam Teddy Bear Parade!

June 12th was Coquitlam’s 22nd annual Teddy Bear Parade, and our EcoYike ran as one of the floats! City Councillor Selina Robinson rode our EcoYike, accompanied by Gumby (actually Calvin in a not-so-secret disguise)

Calvin suits up

City Coun. Selina Robinson and Gumby strike a pose right before the parade

We even made it into the Coquitlam Now: Coquitlam’s Teddy Bear Parade delights the crowd

A cop's story from the front lines of the Vancouver Riots.



I'm here at a conference in San Diego and have tried to follow the stories about the riots in Vancouver. Thankfully I have not seen much news about this embarrassing and sad event down here.

This week I met so many people who commented that they loved Vancouver and what a lovely city we have. I was humbled and so proud to be from Vancouver and made sure when I introduced myself I mentioned where I was from. But today I held back mentioning I was from Vancouver. I am just so saddened.

Read this amazing post that was emailed to me about a VPD cop and his riot story.

Cheers,
Calvin

Amazing things happened all night. Normal Citizens jumping in to help us.

Without being ordered to, many VPD members (the few that weren't working) came to work, geared up, and went looking for work.

We had cops with no helmets, no special gear of any kind, standing just behind us, and guarding our flanks, really putting their asses on the line.

Abbotsford PD sent a convoy of 15 police vehicles (dog handlers, gang squad, ERT, patrol) it took them 35 minutes door to door.

Delta, New West, tonnes of Mounties, including the lower mainland tac troop for the mounties all played their role.

I have a great memory of being at about Robson and Hornby Street, feeling exhausted and not knowing how much longer I could keep going then looking behind me and seeing a wall of RCMP tac troop members stepping past us to take up the advance.

Our ERT members deployed on foot, with all their gear on their backs, and walked the lanes, flushing looters out of the Bay even as the building was on fire.

Our mounted squad did an amazing job, as with our dog handlers and mountain bike guys.

Our medics from the BC Ambulance never backed down, and stood by with us through the whole night. Vancouver Fire probably put out more fires that night than in the previous year.

The interservice camaraderie was awesome, all night our guys were pumping each other up, encouraging each other, slapping each other on the back, a well timed word of encouragement here and there kept guys going when they wanted to quit. Shouts of "VPD!" coming from the mounties and munies as we dragged our sorry asses to the rally point at Nelson and Granville brought tears to my eyes.

As were were all standing down at about 02:00, downtown Vancouver was being policed by a hodge-podge of mounties, Abbottsford, Port Moody, and West Vancouver.

The total losses look like the 10 to 20 stores looted, 20 police cars destroyed, about 10 police officers injured. Dozens of fires, dozens of privately owned vehicle destroyed too.

So there it is. The 2011 Stanley Cup Riot.

The Subway Violinist

Here is a story that really made me think. Do we just cruise thru life on auto pilot? Why don't we stop an appreciate the little things in life more?

I know personally that my life has become so complicated and fast paced over the years. I do try to live in the moment and am sensitive to not flying on auto pilot... but... I don't know if I would have stopped in that subway either.

I promise to live in the moment and look for beauty "keeping my radar on high".
Would you have stopped to listen in that subway?

Check out where I'll be during the Hockey Game on Saturday!

This town has gone crazy for the Canucks, and Saturday will be a day to remember as we win game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals. But did you know the Canucks are also one of the BC Children's Hospital's biggest supporters? And did you know what else is happening on Saturday during the hockey game?

It's the 24th annual BC Children's Hospital Miracle Weekend (June 4-5, 2011), a celebration of hope, courage and remarkable people (aka Superheroes) making a difference. I have joined in this year, and will be sitting on the Miracle Maker Panel, raising money to provide the best possible care to children across the province. Please donate now and help sick children in BC.

This year I am honoured to be the Chair of the Retail & Wholesale Committee. Please tune in to Global TV on Saturday at 7pm to see the kick off of the BCCH Miracle Weekend when we announce the amount our committee raised this year - our goal was $4.9 million. Did we beat it?

Please visit my Superhero Page and place a donation to help make this Miracle Weekend the biggest in history, as we charge towards our goal of building a new hospital and helping even more sick children.

BREAKING NEWS!
CALL ME ON AIR AFTER THE HOCKEY GAME AND MAKE A DONATION!
Or click here now to donate.
Amounts over $20 will automatically generate a downloadable tax receipt.
Date: Saturday, June 4, 2011
Time: 9:30 PM - 11:00 PM  

TV Channel: Global BC (cable 11)  

On-air phone number: (604) 333-5447 direct to my phone

Please join me in making a difference.
Thank you so much,
Calvin Johnson
2010/2011 Chair - BC Children's Hospital Foundation Retail & Wholesale Committee