Dear Friends,

Construction continues at our Manchester, NH store and we now have employees in New Hampshire as we have begun the training of our new team. Many of these new employees will be coming to Vermont next week to work with our existing team. We are all very excited as we build this next store and we should have some construction pictures to share with you soon. I know Katie has her hard hat for the construction zone.

Sweet corn season is about over here in Vermont and I can already see some of the trees beginning to change color. I’ve been looking over my yard and trying to figure out what I need to do before winter. I even turned on the heat the other day, just to make sure that it is still there. Some of the best motorcycling of the year is during September with the crisp air and changing colors, so I hope I can get out a bit before we have to put the bikes away.

Apple has a series of training modules and levels of achievement, and several years ago we became the first Apple reseller to require that 100% of our staff achieve the level of Apple Product Professional. Everyone—including our warehouse and accounting staff—goes through the training each year. I want all of my employees to be able to answer your questions, whether you talk to bookkeeping, shipping or our systems engineers. We have provided an little extra incentive—a party and Small Dog apparel—for those who do a bit more and earn the Apple Sales Professional designation. Though the percentage of employees who reach this level has increased, Katie has just upped the ante a bit and instituted a new policy for our retail sales team: the requirement that all of the retail staff achieve Apple Sales Pro.

With the availability of the iPhone at our Waitsfield and S. Burlington locations, we are excited to offer the complete Apple solution. We have iPhones in stock and are ready to help you with your new iPhone purchase. We are new at this, so have some patience, but it is a great relief to have this in-demand addition to our product line!