After living in the Arctic for nearly five years I decided it was time to move back to 'the south'. I moved to Ottawa in April of 2005 to work for Famous Brands (Edmonton) Ltd, better known as XS Cargo. XS Cargo is a big box discount store selling brand name products purchased from distressed situations at incredibly low prices. Some sources of these items are end of the line close outs, cancelled orders, manafacturer over runs, liquidation stock, "As seen on tv" items no longer featured on tv, returned products from other retailers (which has been inspected, serviced as necessary, and guarenteed to perfrom to the full manufacturers specifications).

          I was initially offered the position of Assistant Manager at the Ottawa location. In August I was asked if I would move to Kingston to be the Store Manager. This was a difficult decision to make as I was still settling into Ottawa. In the end I decided it would be in my best interest to take the promotion. I was told that there were plans in the works to open a second Ottawa store and I would have an opportunity to relocate back to Ottawa at that time.

          I enjoyed my time in Kingston immensely. I faced many challanges and have dealt with each one in a decisive manner. One of my immediate tasks was to find an Assistant Manager and a third key holder, as there was neither when I arrived.

          Under my leadership the kingston store has continually been successful in such areas as service skid ratings, mystery shopper evaluations, and PRP (Product Replacement Plan) sales. I have consistently stayed well within my labour budget while at the same time obtaining higher than budgeted sales. The National Sales Manager has identified my positive attitude and attention to detail as being some of my strenghts. After a recent tour he wrote in a company newsletter that he was "very impressed with the overall operation" of my store and that "it was the best merchandised store in the chain". I also had the distintion of being the only store to have zero variance during an audit conducted by a third party, this I achieved twice. Just recently the Kingston store received two honours. First we were ranked #1 in PRP sales for the month of July out of 32 stores and Second we obtained a score of 99% from a Mystery Shopper in August, a testament to the great customer service received at the Kingston store.

          On Sept 1st 2006 I relocated back to Ottawa as Store Manager with XS Cargo. The Ottawa store does a little more than twice the volume as the Kingston store. I stayed on with XS Cargo for five more months before electing to pursue a new employment opportunity. My biggest achievment before leaving was continuing to increse the stores PRP penetration month after month.