Starting this Wednesday, May 5th, I will be opening "Rob's Word Shop" for the month of May. Rob's Word Shop is a storefront shop where individual letters and words can be purchased. Single letters are 50 cents and single words are 1 dollar. As the sole proprietor of the store, I invite you personally to stop by for a chat and buy a letter or a word. These chats will be recorded and, with your permission, collected in a book form at the end of the month. My shop location is 308 Bowery (the south window at the Bowery Poetry Club), and my hours of operation are Tuesday through Thursday 11-2PM from May 5-May 27.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

May 25, 2010 - Day 9 at Rob's Word Shop
Left apartment at 10:48 on bicycle and arrived at 10:56. My "Business Hours" sign had fallen down and took some effort to re-affix to the window. Set-up from 11:00-11:15. Filled mail orders from 11:20-11:50. Customer #1 arrived around 12:15 and purchased the word "Simulacra". He asked for the word to be written on the cover page of his of the book he came in with: Philip K. Dick's "The Simulacra." Customer #2 made 3 purchases: "pronoun", "the madness of decision", and ":P" for a total of $5.50. Customer #2 asked about bartering a musical composition for the words and letters, and I agreed. Customer #3 purchased the word "puella" and she asked to have it printed from the computer. Total sales: $2.00 (+$5.50 in the barter exchange).

Friday, May 21, 2010

May 20, 2010 - Day 8 at Rob's Word Shop
Left apartment on bicycle at 10:50 AM. Arrived at Word Shop at 10:58 AM. Set up was completed by 11:10. From 11:15-11:30 I worked on the blog post from the day before.

Customers #1 1nd #2 arrived around 11:30. I spoke at length with customer #1 about his situation so that I could arrived at a phrase. The phrase I came up with was "french class girlfriend." He seemed very pleased with his phrase which was hand-written in cursive, lowercase.

Customer #2 had many orders to fill; all of the words and phrases were provided by the customer. He ordered 12 words, each in marker on separate sheets of paper. Here is the list of Customer #2's words:
-PORTRAIT
-LANDSCAPE
-BUDDHA
-Wife
-Supernatural
-The
-Daughter
-A
-Rubber
-Baby
-Bottle
-Nipple

Customer #3 ordered the word "divine"-- he had me write it with my eyes closed and left-handed.

Total sales: $16.00

Thursday, May 20, 2010

May 19, 2010 - Day 7 at Rob's Word Shop

Left apartment at 10:53 walking. Stopped for coffee. Arrived at Rob's Word Shop at 11:03 AM. Set up between 11:10-11:20.

Customer #1 arrived at 11:30. He ordered the 2 words "Robert Fitterman" and asked for them as a signature. I produced this signature on 4 separate pieces of paper (pen, marker, print & script) but only charged for the 2 letters. Customer #1 also asked for quotation marks on a separate piece of paper (all punctuation marks are free.) Lastly, Customer #1 ordered the word "Pichler" in cursive as a signature. For this last order, the customer produced his own sheet of paper that already had the word "pichler" printed on it. $3.

Customer #2 arrived at 12:15 PM and ordered the words: "Don't make YOUR problem MY problem." The charge was for 5 words because "problem" is repeated. The words were written in lowercase cursive marker except for the pronouns "Your" and "My" which were written in uppercase block letters. $5.

Customer #3 ordered 3 letters on separate pieces of paper: "I' "K" and "E". These were written in marker, all uppercase and centered on the page. $1.50.

Customer #4 ordered 2 words: "under" and "where" on a single piece of paper in marker and written in cursive. $2.

Customer #5 ordered 6 words: "manufactured scarcity" as a phrase on a single sheet of paper, "retarded practice" as a phrase on a single sheet of paper, the word "I" (single sheet) and the word "ressentiment" (single sheet). This customer received a 20% employee discount which made the total $4.80.

Customer #6 ordered 2 words as a phrase on a single sheet: "oil'd pelican." We arrived at these words together. They were written in lowercase cursive with marker. The word "oil'd" was offered free of charge as a student discount.
$1.

Customer #7 ordered the words "flowers" and "ICE". "flowers" appeared on a separate sheet of paper--it was written in quotes (gratis), lowercase cursive with marker. "ICE" was written in all caps with marker. $2.

Total sales: $19.30

Left Rob's Word Shop at 2:20 PM; stopped at stationary store for folders, new marker, 2 Sales Books, and a computer printer toner cartridge. Total price $28.70. Arrived at apartment at 2:45 PM. Received a phone message requesting "Gift Certificates." Designed two $1 Gift Certificates and sent to patron as an attachment via email.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

May 18, 2010 - Day 6 at Rob's Word Shop
Left the apartment, walking, at 10:53 (rain), and arrived at the Word Shop at 11:01. Set up shop from 11:05-11:30. The extension cord for the printer had been misplaced, and it took some time to reconfigure the wiring. I had 1 customer and 1 mail order today. My customer arrived around 11:45, and she did something that no other customer has yet to do... she wrote her purchased word by herself. In an effort to do business-related activities when business is slow, I beautified the "Rob's Word Shop" storefront sign from 12:45 to 1:30. Total sales: $3.50

Customer #1 "EARLOBE" $1
Customer #2 (mail order) "Robert M Fitterman" $2.50

Sunday, May 16, 2010

May 13, 2010 - Day 5 at Rob's Word Shop

Left apartment at 10:55 on bicycle. Arrived at Rob's Word Shop at 11:00 sharp. Set up from 11:00-11:12. Organized ledger and receipts from 11:15-11:30. First customer arrived around 11:30. I was continually busy with 6 customers from 11:30 until closing at 2 PM. Total sales: $12.50.

Customer #1 "BEANS DEAR?"
Customer #2 "S" and "S" (this now makes "S" our most popular item)
Customer #3 "the small form"
Customer #4 "diarrahea z"
customer #5 "nizes and shape / An overall blend"

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

May 12, 2010 - Day 4 at Rob's Word Shop
Left apartment at 10:45 on foot (rain). Arrived at Rob's Word Word at 10:55. Set up shop between 11:00-11:15. First customer arrived around 11:45 and purchased 1 word and 3 letters for $2.50. 1 letter was given gratis because the printer was not printing properly. This was the first customer to request a computer printed document. The word was "mouth"--there was an additional "e" at the end and an "n" underneath. Additionally, the letters "o" and "n" were hand-written over the "ut" of "mouth."

My second customer arrived around 12:30 and purchased 1 word: "footprint." This word was generated by the customer's initial word "wince." After some research on the word "wince" we learned that "wince footprint" is the name of a software program. We decided that the 2 words were very nice together and so I wrote in marker "wince footprint." I only charged $1 for 1 word because the first word was primarily a generator for the 2nd word. I left the Shop at 2:15 and walked back to my apartment. I arrived there at 2:25 PM. Total sales: $3.50

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

May 11, 2010 - Day 3 at Rob's Word Shop
Left apartment at 11:00 on bicycle. Arrived at "Rob's Word Shop" at 11:05 AM and quickly set up shop. I had no customers today, but I did have 2 requests for mail orders and 1 hand delivery. Left the shop at 2:10 PM, dropped off hand-delivery, and bicycled home. Arrived at my apartment around 2:18 PM. Total sales: $11.50 (payment pending).

Customer #1 "S"
Customer #2 "On errands of life, these letters speed to death."
Customer #3 "feldspar" and "gones"

Saturday, May 8, 2010

May 6, 2010, Day 2 at Rob's Word Shop
Left apartment on bicycle at 10:30 AM for "Rob's Word Shop." Stopped at stationary store for envelopes and folders ($5.25). Arrived at "Rob's Word Shop" promptly at 11:00 AM. First customer arrived at 12:30 PM. Served 7 customer continuously from 12:45 to 2:05 PM. All 6 customers preferred single word purchases. Closed shop and left 308 Bowery at 2:15 PM. Arrived at apartment, on bicycle, at 2:30 PM. Total sales: $7.00. Below is a list of words sold on 5/6"

Customer #1 "Constraint-B"
Customer #2 "better"
Customer #3 "technicolor"
Customer #4 "tops"
Customer # 5 "nachleben"
Customer #6 "unscripted" and "off the books" ("off the books" was gratis for a friend)
Customer #7 " Poetry"

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

May 5, 2010 - Day 1 at Rob's Word Shop
Left apartment at 10 AM. Picked up computer printer from friend's house at 10:15.
Took taxi to 308 Bowery ($4.50) and arrived at 10:45. Set up printer, completed signage and opened at 11:00. First 2 customers arrived at 11:10. Together they ordered a combination of single words, multiple words, and letters for a total of $26.00. For this first customer, my record-keeping was disorganized and I do not have a record of their purchases (but I will be requesting this information from them directly and I will post it when I receive it). My second customer arrived around 11:50AM. This customer purchased 2 words for $2: "interpolate" and "selfhood." Third customer arrived at 1:30 and purchased 1 word for $1: "escape." This customer sought consultation in choosing her word. Closed the shop at 2:00PM. Walked home and arrived at 2:15 PM. Total sales: $29.00