fisherman s wharf, where they ran four separate jewelry stores. their son wrote to us concerned that they were too busy running the stores to have developed a solid retirement financial plan. our makeover team headed by chris meyers helped joe and mary create a plan to double their company s valuation. the team recommended joe and mary consolidate their four stores into one and name it monterey bay jewelry company. they took our advice and had a grand opening of the new store this march. they cleaned out the other three storefronts and will be leasing them to other businesses. our makeover partner, premiere store fixtures, provided new display cases. and with our help, they are setting up processes to track sales and focus on increasing turnover. joe and mary express gratitude for the guidance and feel they are in better shape now for when the day comes they do want to retire. heading into our tenth season, i want to take a moment to reiterate something we say
the army said they don t want. we are back with joe and mary. thank you for being here. joe, how does this stuff still happen? it happens because they are able to sneak earmarks in. it is way, way down from where it was in the high water mark of 2006. it is down billions of dollars. and a lot of progress is made. but a dollar of waste is to which. we could be giving tax cuts or spending that money on. and although frankly the other thing is some of them are not bad ideas to it a lot of people. 20 million for alternative energy research maybe somebody s waste could be someone else s. he s right. high water mark was 26 billion
shopping bags become a walking advertisement or bill board. they are going to walk around with monterey jewelry company. thank you. as michael and amy were wrapping up, helen stepped up to yet one more surprise up her sleeve. joe and mary, one of the things i know you re thinking about the expense of also doing this. coincidentally i sit on the board of directors of one of the largest fixture manufacturers in the country premier store fixtures and premier would very much like to create those fixtures for you. so that s one expense you re not going to have to worry about. thank you so much. so what do you think? i think it s awesome. i can t believe it. i m overdone. you are the best.
dollars in 1,000 square feet which is about $800 a square foot. most retailers would kill for that level of sales per square foot. the challenge i think is just joe s where he s at in his life right now f. he was 35 it would be a slam dunk. no issue. but in his early 60s he s looking to retire, and that s where it gets difficult. are they in a position right now where they can count on these stores to take care of them for the rest of their lives? no, i don t think so. he s going to have to find a way to get these businesses optimized so he can step away, spend time with grand kids and still see the revenue. one way to boost that occurred to helen when she first talked to joe and mary. they get an extra discount on the high end pearls because they buy them loose and string them by hand in the back of the shop. you re not buying the pearls strung? no. does customer know that you are stringing the pearls?
are not necessarily good day-to-day managers. as we saw earlier, joe and mary have been so business we the day-to-day of running their business that they haven t had a chance to do any long term planning. now, as they prepare for their retirement, they need help changing the direction of their company. our makeover team has given them some advice. that was just the beginning. we have a lot more in store for these small business owners. the your business makeover team has arrived in monterey, california. they are here to help these jewelry store owners open ta miz their business so it can support them. looking through books and walking through the store chris, helen and dawn have already made a lot of suggestions. the fact is jj, it s a great business. i mean they are doing a million