My Arm was in the paper today...

...handing back change. Store looks pretty packed, though I winced at the D & D books scattered about the counter. I'd just got a shipment in.

The article, "Spreading the Wealth, Bulletin, 10/2/10, by Dave Jasper" is about the "Bend coin club president spends a day distributing his treasures downtown" and there is enough in there about Pegasus Books to repeat, I think:

"He has no such problem at the next stop, Pegasus Books on nearby Minnesota Avenue, where he introduces himself to Duncan McGeary, the store's owner.

"You could buy sports cards," suggest McGeary.

"You know, I did that in the '80's and early '90's," replies Campbell. "I still got a bunch left."

"Yeah, me too," says McGeary, a sly reference to the rise and fall of sports cards' popularity. "I'm not calling them collectibles anymore, I'm calling them "keepables>"

Campbell eventually decides on buying some small action figures. "I have a grandson that loves those guys," he says.

During the transaction, McGeary says, "So you want me to give those away to young people?"

"If you would."

"All right, I'll make sure they get them instead of the grownups," McGeary promises.

"They're worth more than a nickel, for sure," Campbell says.

"Well, I'll go cash them in," McGeary says, laughing.

When Campbell gets a handful of change back, he examines the coins in his palm closely.

"See, I always check the dates," he says. "Just habit."



So -- a pretty positive interaction, all in all. He gave me some Indian Head nickels to give away.

But I got to say --- my Arm is such a publicity hound.

Other shortstuff.

So I'm sitting in my office with the backdoor open around 8:30 PM, and I start hearing a cow mooing loudly and indignantly. West of here. Toward the center of town.

One of those things I'll probably never know the explanation for....

Nice to know we still got that rural thing going...

**********

A report that the venerable Strand Bookstore in N.Y. is filling their front counter with candy, to catch those extra dollars from people who don't buy books.

I could do this too, and I think it would work: except, I can't stare at Tootsie Rolls all day without eating them. I just can't.

**********

H.Bruce was asking what I thought of the Forbes rankings of Bend as a Small Business town.

First of all, Small Business by their measure isn't small business by my measure. I think, overall, Mom and Pop businesses in Bend have a double whammy -- seasonal business with an otherwise isolated small town atmosphere; but big town costs and expectations.

Secondly, I think these types of articles are probably more about the journalistic need to find an good story, and to find interesting locations, and so on.

Bend has an appeal. Which works nicely in a story.

But the underpinnings of "business" may not quite match the story. Who knows whether Bend is actually more conducive to business than say, Albany, or Medford....?

***********

From the Jack and Mrs. Eliott Move to Bend blog:

I've been reading Duncan's blog for some times now. Much of his blogging is about running Pegasus Books: the daily minutiae of operating a small specialty retail store in downtown Bend.

O.K. That's cool.

Well, I don't see why Dunc should have all the fun in the "here's how I do something which is important and takes up a lot of my time but probably isn't very interesting to anybody but a few" category....

Thanks......I think.

At least he's reading it....

Maybe I'll change the name of my blog to: Here's How I Do Something Which is Important and Takes Up A Lot of My Time, But Probably Isn't Very Interesting To Anyone But a Few.

It would be an even longer title than the one I have!

The framework is in place.

I wrote the following a couple of weeks ago, and proceeded with the plan:



So now that I have the framework in place at the store -- enough shelves to do the job on boardgames and new books -- I need to decide on a budget for next year.

I mulled it over all weekend, going back and forth on whether I wanted to be aggressive or careful.

After sleeping on it, I came to the conclusion that I want to try for a growth budget. What I mean by this, is a budget that fully stocks the store for current sales level and also gives me enough material for growth.

This is fairly aggressive, but it doesn't require that I bring in entirely new product lines, which is even more dangerous. In fact, a growth budget can mean that I'm just buying the best stuff I can get within current product lines.

It means ordering proven sellers and making sure they are in stock at all times. Possibly even getting extra copies; possibly even buying product that is similar, or an offshoot of something that is already selling.

Mostly, though, it means buying at my current average sales -- . Simple enough, right? Except my average sales over the course of a year are probably not met 4 months out of the year. Maybe another 4 months of the year they are barely reached. The big four months -- June, July, August and December -- pull the average up.

So if I try to spend the AVERAGE SALES level throughout the year, I'm going to fall behind or barely meet my expenses for much of the year.

The alternative is to play it careful, order much less in the off months. Which is what I've been doing.

I don't think the more careful strategy is working very well. I'm breaking even, all right, but at a lower sales level.

What I've noticed over and over again over the years is that my growth budget almost always create larger sales and is usually not out of bounds. It just means that I'm shooting more for breaking even on a higher sales level, than trying to make an extra profit on a lower sales level.

As I said above, the real challenging budget is trying to bring in new product lines -- which is what I've been doing since just before the Great Recession started and throughout most of it's duration. Because I could see that current product lines weren't going to be sufficient to feel comfortable with enough of a cushion in the profit margin.

So I've been increasing my inventory in boardgames and new books, which is a very costly proposition. But I've pretty much accomplished this, without going into debt.

Over the weekend, I looked at my order forms, and realized that a growth budget would pretty much match getting all the proven sellers back in stock and keeping them there.

At first, I was thinking I'd start the new budget on January 1, 2011. But then, I realized there wasn't a good reason not to start with October and November, especially with Christmas coming to back it up. In effect, getting much of my Christmas product early enough to make a difference in the fall.

Yesterday, I wrote down all the boardgames and dice and card game material that I was low on but that I new were proven sellers, and decided to see how much it cost to get them all back in stock.

As it turned out, getting 2500.00 worth of games, would only be a couple hundred dollars above the average monthly budget -- and this after months and months of stocking with the more careful budget.

I think new books are going to probably be similar in range. I'll probably do those next week.

Thing is, none of this product is risky as far as sales are concern. They are only risky in the sense that it is a more aggressive budget with possible ramifications for cash flow and credit.

I'm comfortable that I can manage those -- so I'm going forward with it.

One last thing, it gives me three months as a test case, with December as a backup retreat position. If it turns out that my growth budget is a little too much, I'll know by January 1, and be able to do something about it.


Later:

As I said, I did the above orders. I now have a couple of fill-in-the-hole orders to do, one for games and one for books, and I'll feel like I have what I need in place.

From then on, whether I go with a growth budget of getting all the evergreens in stock AND attempting new and experimental; or whether I just keep the good stuff in stock with the occasional new thing; either way, the framework is in place to accomplish it, and most of the major spending has been done.

I'll need to make up some ground at Christmas to have a clean slate for next year, but that shouldn't be a problem.

All I can say, is I like the way the store is stocked and arranged right now, and it's a pleasure to come to the store and see it.

Shortstuff.

I watched the 10th Inning documentary sequel to Baseball.

Made me nostalgic, even though I quit paying attention to B.B. a long time ago.

Also made me wonder if the season homerun record of Roger Maris, and the lifetime homerun record of Hank Aaron will ever be broken.

**********

Coyotes love Canadian Goose eggs. We need to bring a couple of coyotes downtown...

**********

Looking at the lists of Hot Christmas Toys. Won't have any of them. Nada.

**********

Been trying to come up with a Sedgway joke. Reminds me of the story that the first two horseless carriages in a certain state supposedly crashed into each other at an intersection.

Poor guy, that blinding 12 mph speed was just too much. They should never have taken out the parachute option.

Sedgways are dangerous! Especially if you drive them off cliffs. Of course, people fall off cliffs all the time. Walking is dangerous!

*********

Once again, the MacArthur genieooos grants have passed me by. I think it's because I insulted Gen. MacArthur that time. Called him Dugout Doug. Yeah, that must be it.

**********

As I tweeted yesterday, How will I ever withstand the overwhelming semi-interest in my product by customers? I mean, I'm getting people in the store, and they seem sort of kina interested, and they might throw a compliment my way, but they ain't opening their wallets.

**********

In conjunction to the above observation, it seems to me that I should be way more worried by what I'm seeing than I am.

Somehow, my gut instinct is that we're on the right course and everything will be fine.

Is that just my native optimism?

Either way, my brain can take over the planning around Christmas, if need be.

**********

There is a large element of "If you build it, they will come" to small business. There is no way around it.

But experience tinges it with a, "Yeah, but they may get lost along the way....." feeling.

Planning for next year.

I'm getting close to the time I have to decide what kind of budget I want to live with next year.
I figure I still have a couple of months to get the lay of the land. To try to figure out where I think it's all going.

When I do this, I keep asking myself the same two questions.

What have I done that I shouldn't have done?

And

What haven't I done, that I should've done?

On the first question, I think I've probably bought too much non-essential product. There have been good excuses -- either really good deals, or trying to establish new product lines for the future. But by January 1, the future will be NOW and there won't be any room for experiments.

Thing about experiments, about trying new material, is you really don't know sometimes what will work until you do it. You really don't know if stuff that doesn't seem to be selling well might be having a bigger overall impact than you think.

I'm trying to establish a kind of tone -- mainstream, but quirky. Slanted to the fantastical, but with enough stuff that would appeal to the average person.

On the second question, it's mostly that I realize I've been taking a lot of time off. I'm cool with that, but I'll have to pay close attention over the next couple of months to see if I can continue that into next year.

I've been extremely generous with the budget, and intend to keep that going through November; but if I don't see good solid results by Thanksgiving, I'll need to cut back to essentials and recoup over Christmas, and hopefully go into next year with a fresh slate.

This is just where my thinking is, right now. I'm enjoying the store a lot right now, because I'm having fun bringing stuff in. But I can't pretend that sales have justified the effort, so far.

Lesson learned.

About a year and a half to two years ago, I decided to quit trying to control customer behavior. I'd just let them be, and take my lumps.

Since I made this decision, I've had no disputes, no blowups, hardly even a discouraging word.

I admit to doing a bit of eye-rolling here and there, but mostly I've taken a step back. I was gaining a reputation for not being kid-friendly, or teenager friendly, and I didn't want that.

The result has been -- Sales aren't any better and probably no worse. On the other hand, I don't see any more product damage than I saw before. Wierdly enough, maybe even less.

So, ironically, I don't think it made much difference either in sales or damage level. But it has been a lot more peaceful.

Lesson learned.

Mammals versus Dinosaurs.

I saved up an article awhile back, which had to do with the demise of the big box stores...

It's a subject I wanted to tackle when I thought maybe I could do it justice. Today, there was a nice convergence of another article, which talks about the fall and rise of the small retailer. So here goes....

(I've included both articles below.)

While the article about the big box stores, REALITY CHECK TIME, never uses the words 'ponzi scheme', it sort of says the same things I've been saying-- that the chain stores depend on "the dynamics of a high growth roll out of stores."

Technically, I know this doesn't meet the definition of a ponzi scheme, I've always used the term as a way of pointing out the dubious strategy of depending on future revenues to justify your current tactics. Because there will always come a moment when that 'growth' strategy won't work any longer, and just like a ponzi scheme, the whole thing falls apart.

This guy makes the case that the expansion of the big box was based on borrowing and credit, and that the American consumer is tapped out.

I'd add a couple of other elements -- the pricing strategy of buying material from foreign markets is bound to fail eventually because of it's very success. That is, by making foreign markets more successful, they are bound to breed eventual higher labor costs. What happens if China's workers want more of a slice of the pie? How do you keep them from raising their standard of living? What happens with rising transportation costs? Material costs?

Basing your entire strategy on high volume depends on unending markets, constantly lower prices, and static technology.

And the ever quickening rate of change in technology make the strategy of growing bigger and bigger more of a gamble as we accelerate into the future. I suspect that building such an ediface is going to be looked upon as a ponderous gamble every time a new technology makes such ediface obsolete. Big box stores risk getting caught flat footed, totally committed to a strategy that no longer works. The bigger they are, the bigger they'll fall.

I suspect that when the economic climate changes overnight, that being small and nimble is going to be key. Like the small mammals that scurried beneath the dinosaurs feet, who emerged blinking into a new day.

Thus all the recent news about "smaller" Walmart stores getting ready to roll out in the big cities. Again, this would seem to be the endgame for the big boxes -- that, ironically, they have to get smaller to gain more market share. But if they get smaller, then a large part of their advantage will disappear. Small stores can compete again small stores.

The second article," AS BLOCKBUSTER'S CREDITS ROLL....." talks about small video stores that more or less took the opposite strategy as the big boxes.

These smaller stores focused on "... building a comprehensive film library rather than catering to the constantly changing tastes of the broader public."

See if this sounds familiar to what I've been saying through the life of this blog:

"Others might not get rich in this line of work, but passion keeps them going long after the credits roll.

“I sacrificed a lot to keep this business going,” said David Buffa, owner of New York Video in New York City. “It certainly did not make me rich, but I was able to stay in business and do something I love. It’s not a job for us. We like what we do. Having a passion for what they do is one thing these entrepreneurs have in common. While the big guys were constantly updating their product mix and getting rid of the less popular titles to make room for high turnover movies, New York Video has focused on creating a breadth of offerings.

“We lost business to them initially,” said Buffa, because Blockbuster had so many more copies of each movie. “But, we would sacrifice having more copies of one title to get single titles of more obscure movies. We don’t get rid of anything. We’ve kept every title we’ve ever had,” he told BusinessNewsDaily.

A couple of sentences here really leapt out at me:

"While the big guys were constantly updating their product mix and getting rid of the less popular titles to make room for high turnover movies, New York Video has focused on breadth of offerings."

And:

"....we would sacrifice having more copies of one title to get single titles of more obscure movies. We don't get rid of anything."

And that, folks, in a nutshell is pretty much what I've been doing and pretty much what I think works.

Nice to get confirmation from unexpected sources.

Sure, it may be a case of the most efficient buggy whip makers surviving the longest, but I don't think so. I think the future holds two main possibilities -- online, obviously. And small, nimble, service oriented small business.

Big box stores will be looked back on as a curiosity.



Here's the first article, minus the graphs. (Which are quite compelling, by the way, google the title of the article, because it no longer shows up on it's original site, but was referenced by quite a few other people.)

RETAILERS -- REALITY CHECK TIME. The Burning Platform, Jim Quinn, Sept. 8, 2010.

Having worked for a big box retailer for 14 years, I understand the dynamics of a high growth rollout of stores as a key to increasing market share and profits. Some of the best retail names in the US have practiced the identical strategy of concentrating many stores in each market to drive the small competitors out of business. This strategy worked wonders for Lowes, Wal-Mart, Target and Kohl’s during the early part of this decade. The combination of solid same store sales and opening new stores is a fantastic combination during good times. The results actually make the CEOs of these companies think they are brilliant. Their store expansion models based on rosy assumptions are followed like they can’t go wrong.

What these CEOs didn’t realize was that their expansion plans were based on lies and frauds. If they had advisors who could give them a reality check, they could have avoided the massive downsizing that awaits them. Their hubris didn’t leave room for a reality check. The population of the US has grown from 281 million in 2000 to approximately 308 million today. We’ve had a 10% population increase in 10 years. Consumer expenditures have grown from $6.7 trillion in 2000 to $10.3 trillion today. This is a 54% increase over the course of the decade. Amazingly, real average weekly earnings have only gone up by 6% in the last decade.

The chart below tells the story that retail CEOs have been ignoring for a decade. Consumer credit has advanced from $1.5 trillion in 2000 to $2.4 trillion today. This 60% increase in consumer debt has allowed workers who have barely increased their earnings to spend like they made a lot more money. This debt fueled consumption binge led major retailers to expand in order to keep up with the delusional consumers.

Retail America has run directly into a brick wall. Below are charts detailing the expansion history of four of the most admired retailers in America. Lowes grew their store count from 600 to 1,700 over the course of the decade, a 183% increase. Wal-Mart grew their store count from 4,000 to 8,500, a 113% increase. Target grew their store count from 1,000 to 1,750, a 75% increase. Kohl’s grew their store count from 300 to 1,050, a 250% increase. Same store sales are the true measure of a retailer’s health. When comp store sales are +5% or better, retailers make substantial profits and confidently build new stores. As the charts below clearly show, comp store sales have been in a substantial downtrend since 2006. The new stores that have been built in existing markets are over cannibalizing their existing stores.

Lowes has 500 more stores today than it had in 2005, $4 billion more sales, and $1 billion less profits. Target has 340 more stores today than it had in 2005, $12 billion more sales, and the same profit. Kohl’s has 240 more stores than it had in 2006, $1.6 billion more sales, and $100 million less profit. Only Wal-Mart has kept the profits flowing, mostly due to its international expansion. The tough times have only just begun for these retailers.

The American consumer is still heavily indebted. Much of the retail spending in the last decade came from mortgage equity withdrawals. Using your home as an ATM is history. Home equity is at an all-time low and 25% of homeowners are underwater. Home prices are destined to fall another 20%. There are 15 million people unemployed. Consumer expenditures still account for 70% of GDP. In order for the US economy to achieve equilibrium, consumer spending will need to regress back to 65% of GDP. This will require an annual reduction in consumer spending of $800 billion. The CEOs of these retailers have not grasped the implications of this coming adjustment in our consumer society.

There are three major errors that have been committed by every retailer in America. They failed to recognize that the spending per household was 30% over inflated due to debt financed demand. They then extrapolated the spending per household using a 5% to 10% growth rate. Lastly, they ignored the fact that their competitors had the same strategy. There are 1.5 million retail establishments in the US. Thousands of these stores are going out of business every year.

Lowes, Wal-Mart, Target, and Kohl’s have yet to recognize their predicament. They are still blinded by their hubris. The point of recognition will occur within the next year. Each of these retailers will be closing hundreds of underperforming stores in the next two years. Time for a reality check.

**********

"AS BLOCKBUSTER'S CREDITS ROLL, SEQUEL STARS INDEPENDENT VIDEO RETAILERS." Sept. 24, 2010. Jeanette Mulvey, Business News Daily.

Blockbuster’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing yesterday is being characterized as the final nail in the coffin of the brick-and-mortar video rental business. And, while Netflix, Hulu and Redbox have done their best to render independent video rental stores a quaint anachronism, some Davids have survived where Goliaths typically rule.

Around the country small video stores, many of whom have long struggled against the video rental giants, are thriving even as one of the mighty oaks of the retail forest falls.

By practicing good customer service, finding a niche and staying focused on what they do best, these independent video retailers, some still renting VHS tapes, are succeeding in spite of the burgeoning online video business.

Building a business

“Blockbuster employees literally laughed in our faces when we opened our doors in 2000,” said Matt Martin, co-owner of Black Lodge Video in Memphis, Tenn.

But, 10 years and 30,000 movies later, Black Lodge is one of the biggest video stores in the Eastern United States and its business continues to grow.

The secret to Black Lodge’s success, said Martin, is that the store, which occupies a 3,500-square-foot house with a music studio upstairs, has focused on building a comprehensive film library rather than catering to the constantly changing tastes of the broader public.

“We’ve gone to a lot of trouble to build up a vast film library for movies that are out of print,” said Martin, who started collecting movies in the seventh grade with his business partner Bryan Hogue.

Whether it’s horror, science fiction, or foreign films, Black Lodge has them and continues to add to its collection. Its broad selection, especially of hard-to-find and out-of-print movies, attracts customers who know they will be able to find even the most obscure films at Black Lodge.

The company rents movies for $4 for five days and doesn’t charge late fees. Putting trust in its customers is part of the process of building a relationship with them.

“The honor system works better than you’d think,” Martin said. The mass text messaging the company uses to remind renters to return videos doesn’t hurt, either.

Doing what you love

Others might not get rich in this line of work, but passion keeps them going long after the credits roll.

“I sacrificed a lot to keep this business going,” said David Buffa, owner of New York Video in New York City. “It certainly did not make me rich, but I was able to stay in business and do something I love. It’s not a job for us. We like what we do. “

Having a passion for what they do is one thing these entrepreneurs have in common. While the big guys were constantly updating their product mix and getting rid of the less popular titles to make room for high turnover movies, New York Video has focused on creating a breadth of offerings.

“We lost business to them initially,” said Buffa, because Blockbuster had so many more copies of each movie. “But, we would sacrifice having more copies of one title to get single titles of more obscure movies. We don’t get rid of anything. We’ve kept every title we’ve ever had,” he told BusinessNewsDaily.

The commitment to the business and the customers is what’s kept New York Video in business for 22 years.

The secret to survival? “Have the stuff people ask for and be able to answer people’s questions,” Buffa said.

Buffa also advises that small businesses—in any industry—to tailor its products and services to its customer's preferences.

“Once I started to see what people were interested in I would focus more on those, which in our neighborhood was classic Hollywood and foreign films.”

Finding out what people want isn’t just good business, it’s good customer service.

“People really, really appreciate when you can answer their questions or when you turn them onto something new,” Buffa said.

Back to the future

While technology has made Netflix and other live-streaming services a convenient choice for those seeking instant entertainment, not everyone has embraced the technology. This has created an opportunity for retailers willing to take the road less travelled.

Movie Madness, in the small town of DeMotte, Ind., is thriving by renting and selling “outdated” VHS tapes and video games for discontinued game systems. While the company does its share of renting current DVDs, it also does a healthy business selling VHS tapes to folks who are still using VCRs.

“So many other video stores only have DVDs,” said Mary Holobowski, who has owned the store with her husband, Rich, for 12 years. “But we still have VHS tapes, and a lot of games for game systems they don’t make anymore. A lot of people can't afford the new systems.”

Not only does the business make money renting tapes, it has created another income stream by selling VHS tape collections on commission. The company sells VHS tapes for a dollar each. It keeps 50 cents per tape and pays the owner of the tapes the other 50 cents. It’s a good deal for the buyer, the seller and for the Holobowskis.

Finding ways to serve its customers—even if it means renting a video or a game with nothing more than an IOU on a piece of paper—allows Movie Madness to build an ongoing relationship with customers.

“People still like that personal touch,” Holobowski said. “Being able to talk to someone and ask for recommendations is important. So many people are tired of dealing with big business.”

Customers are even more illogical.

The previous post was a roundabout way to call into question some of the consumer choices I see.

I can' t tell you the number of times someone walks away from an in-stock book, for instance, saying, "I'll buy it used."

This is almost always an illogical choice.

I'm going to make a blanket statement here. Everytime you walk away from a new copy of a book to look for a used copy, it costs you 5.00.

Example: I have a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird for 15.00 retail. Same copy would be 7.50 used.

Customer walks away looking for the book.

It will take a Minimum of half an hour to go back to your car, drive to the next likely bookstore, go in and shop, get back in your car and get back to where you started.

It will probably take you a minimum of a quarter gallon of gas in wear and tear and gas costs on your car.

So -- half hour of time, is 4.25 at minimum wage, quarter gallon of gas and wear and tear, .75.
Thus 5.00.

Mind you, most of these customers wouldn't work for 8.50 an hour, but there it is....

So....here's the kicker.

My new book buying is based on three things: Classics, Cult books, and favorites. That's what I concentrate on getting. I can tell you, most of these three categories of books rarely show up used --

Why? I already told you. Because........they're classics, cult books and favorites -- the same exact books that most people keep. Buy once and keep.

So whenever we get classics, cults and favorites, it's usually because someone is getting rid of a relative's books, or something like that.

Now Linda's store has pretty much an open door policy -- that is, we pretty much take everything that comes in the door. It amounts to 200 or 300 books a day -- which is more books than it sounds. That's enough books to cover a 6' by 3' table with stacks a foot or two high. Lots of books.

Now most of those books are going to be mysteries, S.F., romances. A large portion will be best-selling, new literature. Some are going to be non-fiction. And so on.

A very small portion are going to cult books like, The Alchemist or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or Desert Solitaire. A very small portion are going to be classics, like Catcher in the Rye or 1984. We don't get collections of Hemingway and Steinbeck all that often. An even smaller portion are going to be my favorites.

I know it doesn't make much sense. The world must be awash with Lord of the Flies and Of Mice and Men. You'd think.

But, like I said, I think most people keep them.

"I find these books all the time!" I hear you say. Or, at least, that's what the customers constantly say to me.

But it's a perceptual problem. You found the books you found, you didn't find the books you didn't find. At any one time, all used bookstores are going to have a portion of classics and cult books.

But will they have the specific classic or cult book, at this time, right now, available to buy that you are looking for?

I'm guessing, for instance, that we only get To Kill a Mockingbird in maybe 10 times a year; I'm also guessing that it stays out for sale for less than a week. So, out of every 52 weeks of the year, we'll have it available maybe 10 weeks. Multiply that by all the other classics and cult books, and at any one time we are going to have a fairly large collection of good books.

But will we have THE ONE book you're looking for, the book that I have in stock at retail price and that you're holding in your hand?

Odds are worse than you think.

"What about stores like Powell's?" I hear you ask. Well, assuming you live in Portland, you can probably add more cost to the half an hour -- more time, parking costs, shopping time, etc. Powell's is probably more likely to have it, it's true. Because they buy books, instead of trading. But remember, the supply and demand equation doesn't really change all that much. If I can keep 10 copies in for ten weeks out of the year, and Powell's does ten time the business, then they have ten times as many people looking for the book.

See what I mean?

So you go to the next bookstore, and it costs you 5.00 in time and energy. You get it for 2.50 less than it would have cost you to buy it new. If you have to go to two bookstores before you find it, it cost you 2.50 more. If you got to three stores, 10.00. If you have to give up and come back to my store and buy it new, it cost you nearly twice as much as original retail.

Or you can go online, take half an hour of your time that way, wait for it to show up, pay the shipping costs and take your chances.

Or you can buy the book for retail, right now. AT best -- even if you do find the book at the next used bookstore you go to, you save yourself all of 2.50.

I guarantee you that if you read the book, the original cost will be the last thing you're worried about. You'll remember the book. You'll remember if you liked it or not. You're not going to be thinking of whether you just straight out bought it, or got in your car and wandered around to 'save' a few bucks.

It's illogical, I tell you.


Again, I'll put a little caveat here. Some people just enjoy shopping. It isn't about the book.

But really, most of the time these guys actually find something in my store. It's the guys who walk away because I have that one book they want, but at retail, who are wasting their time.

It's instant karma --- they are being punished by fate for making an illogical decision, though they are probably not logical enough to realize it.

Retailers are illogical.

I've always tried to be logical in my business dealings. Or at least be aware of when I'm being illogical.

For instance, I try to ascertain the "True" cost of a product. Not just the price, but how much time, effort, and space is required to carry that product. How much service is required. And whether it's a service I can actually perform at a cost effective rate.

Time is money. More concretely, minimum wage is 8.50 an hour. If something takes you half an hour extra to do, that item cost 4.25 more. Energy is money. Driving 25 miles to purchase an item is 4.00 worth of gas and wear and tear on your car, so you better save at least that amount by driving that distance. Space is money. If you could use that space for something that will sell twice as fast, or at a higher margin, you're giving up that much money. And so on.

I think storekeepers get too hung up on simple cost of goods and margins, when they should be taking into account their precious time, energy, and space.

Most small business owners undervalue those items, and the world at large encourages them to do so.

Every time someone asks my WHY I don't do something, the answer comes down to time, space, energy as well as money. We small business owners are supposed to be willing to work all those extra hours for the privilege of working for ourselves -- 50 hours, 60 hours, 80 hours a week. Hey, you're paying yourself!

No -- you're not. You're costing yourself.

Admittedly, you have to probably work harder, but you have to be aware of the cost in energy.
I've decided over the last decade of watching other stores come and go, that burnout is at least as big a factor in people quitting business, as money. (Of course, it's much easier to get burned out if you aren't making money, and vice versa.)

Ironically, all the solutions that the experts propose for small business require that we give up more of our time and energy to make it work. The emphasis on service, for instance.

In my business, I've been told over and over again that I could make more money at games if I provided time and space. And yet, I've seen store after store go out of business, doing exactly those things. And often, with the departing lament of "I just couldn't do it any longer."

Well, yeah. Staying late, or paying someone to stay late, in order to support a game is going to cost you -- and even if the payoff is commiserate, there is only so much energy that can be given on an ongoing basis. You may make the money, and burn yourself out pursuing it.

So I very purposefully include the cost of using extra space, the cost of my time, the insidious energy drains, whenever I decide to do something or not do something.

Online selling, for instance, looks much better on the surface than it does when you start taking into account all the elements. Do I take time away from what I'm already doing and what would be the cost of that? Do I add more time to my day, and what is the cost of that? Do I try to hire someone to do it, and what's the cost?

Same with space, same with energy, same with all the other factors.



O.K. here's where I completely contradict myself. Business is as much an art as a science. The caveat to the above Logical Choice scenario, is that sometimes you do things because you want to. Because it gives you pleasure, even if it isn't the most efficient choice.

Sometimes there is a 'feel' to a product, or a product placement, that adds to the overall effect of the store. The example I've always used is that I once took out t-shirts and posters because -- logically -- they weren't performing. And yet I got a strong sense that not having them cost me overall sales and I brought them back.

And, like I said, sometimes you do something because you want to -- and the customer picks up on that. And that's why even though it may end up being a minimum wage job, it's the Best Minimum Wage Job a Middle Aged Guy could ever have.

Bugging out.

I've come down with some odd bug. Started as a little bit of a sore throat, followed by a total lack of energy. Slept until 9:30 this morning, which is two hours longer than normal and almost never happens anymore.

Linda always says, I get sick when I see an opportunity to remove myself from the wurly burly, and give myself an excuse to slack.

Not that I haven't been slacking. I've taken as much time off as I can. Funny how people always tell me to take more time off -- until I do. And then, it's "You're never here anymore!"



Finished off a book last night, "Peace War", Joe Haldeman, which is a not quite sequel to the classic "Forever War."

Funny thing about S.F. people -- they really like the idea of a melding consciousness, of humanity all becoming one.

For instance, the classic "Childhood's End" by Arthur C. Clarke.

Frankly, the idea gives me the willies. In Peace War, I was identifying with the bad guys who were trying to keep it from happening. The plot was stacked, though, because becoming part of the Humanistic Herd was the only way from keeping the End of the Universe from happening.

It's interesting to me that good old individualistic nerdtypes seem to really get off on the idea.
(Also, it's collarary, a community of high minded scientists that will save the globe through their superior intellect and moral values.)

I think there is an element of Revenge of the Nerds here. But also, they just really seem to get into each others companionship. Despite being a huge S.F. and Fantasy reader, I've never been comfortable with the any of the nerdfests I've been to, whether it was a S.F. convention, or a comic convention, or a Society for Creative Anacronisms.

I don't mean I don't think it's kind of cool. I'm not looking down at the geeks. But I feel like a nerd among nerds, unable to let my freak flag fly. It always looks a little too incestuous to me -- like watching the "Glee" kids in high school trying a little too hard to have fun.

I can understand how nerdy types want to find other nerdy types -- I just don't necessarily want to do it myself. Too much of a weird mirror, maybe. Or maybe I'm not nerdy enough -- I've always had lots of interests and read all kinds of books. Seems a little unseemly to be stuck on one subject -- a little too autistic.

Besides, I prefer to blend into the crowd, not be the weird one. (Maybe because, I've always felt like the odd one no matter how much I try to be otherwise. And there was that time in my life, about 40 years ago now, that I completely self-conscious that my life wasn't going right and desired above all else to be normal again.)

Probably, in the end, I just like my time to myself, and don't really want to spend a bunch of time dressing up. Just not a Joiner, whether it's Octoberfest downtown, or the latest comic retailers conclave.

On the other hand, I do kind of like the online community, to a certain extent. A "familiarity at a distance" is what I call it. I get to express myself, without actually having to put myself out there. I like knowing that I 'know' a certain number of people through this blog.

So maybe I'm not all that different after all.

Never too old to read.

As a business owner, I'm constantly being asked, "How you doing?" Often, it's with this concerned tone.

So the challenge is to answer that question with just the right measure of truthiness and cageyness.

Of course, like asking someone on the street, "How ya doin'?" the correct answer may be just, "Great!"

But I think a business that always answers "Great!" gets into a bad habit of not acknowledging reality. I mean, you're asking people to take your word that a certain product is worth buying, and at the same time trying to blow smoke up their ass? So -- like I said -- I'm always looking for the proper response.

Anyway, my latest attempt at an answer is, "Considering how much business sucks, we're in great shape!"

Which is totally true. I mean, I'd like to have higher sales, but I purposely built my sales level to a very high margin over my break-even point, while keeping my overhead as low as possible, so I had a lot of margin to give, and I'm not even close to the edge. In fact, in most meaningful ways, we're doing as well as ever.

I'm taking home the same wages, all the bills are paid, no debt, and we are keeping the store stocked.

We are even making improvements.

The only thing we're not doing in building our retirement through increased profits, which might be unrealistic in the Great Recession. Of course, I may be kicking myself in a decade or so for not being able to prepare better -- or perhaps, I'll just be a 70 year old pop culture dealer.

How old can you be selling pop culture? I mean, when I check out the Living sections of newspapers, and especially online sites like Huffington Post, I don't recognize most of the names. Reality stars, obscure T.V. shows, etc. etc. Don't care about red-carpet style, don't care about the inane opinions of actors.

Will comics switch from being kid stuff to old guy stuff? Will only baby boomers still read real books? Will boardgames still exist? Will anyone want 'collectibles' (or keepibles) when their closets are bursting with stuff? Will it be sad to sell X-Files figures to white haired folk?

Oh, well. I'm 57 and feel perfectly comfortable selling this stuff, nor does it seem weird to most people.

Anyway, I have been moving steadily toward books: Never too old to read.

Stuff and nonsense.

Again, with the B.S.

Bend Oregon Real Estate Blog: "The Recession is Over. Existing Home Sales Move Up in August."

Except, if you dig a little deeper, like over on KTVZ:

"....August"..." the second-worst month for sales in more than a decade."

"Sales were down 19 percent from the same month a year earlier. July was the worst month for sales in 15 years."

That's nationally, of course, which probably bears little resemblance to Bend, Oregon.

It's like saying, "Hey, I think that corpse just twitched!"

I mean, I could see muttering to yourself, while quivering in the corner, that "things are better.....it's better than last month....really, I think things are getting better......"

But to go on Bend Blogs and trumpet it, is just stuff and nonsense.

Technically, true. And totally false.

**********

There seems to be a ton of things to comment about -- none of which are of earth-shaking importance. So I write an entry, then ask myself if it has heavy enough content to post. If not, I move on.

So today, I'm going to post a bunch of these little posts into one and hope that all together they say something.

**********

The Bulletin editorial about minimum wage. Well, here's one employer of minimum wage employees who isn't worried at all about the .10 increase. In fact, I start my employees at 9.00 an hour, anyway.

Really, either you can afford an employee, or you can't.

**********

There is a whole lotta gloom in the comic biz these days. 20% drop in comic sales nationwide in August. There's a whole lotta gloom in the book trade, too. There's a whole lot of gloom in the game business, for that matter. Hell, cards and toys have already suffered Armageddon.

But string them all together?

We gotta winner!!!!

**********

Talk about lowered expectations.

I went into September expecting very, very little. In fact, if you had told me in March of this year, that I'd be expecting the kind of numbers I'm getting today, I would've been shocked. I guess that's what happens when you have four down months in a row.

Basically, we're back to 2008 numbers again.

Oh, I could put a shine on it. "I'm doing my projected numbers," I could say. But what the hell does that mean? I can project any old numbers I please.

Still, it does mean something. If I 'expect' and 'project' lowered numbers, and I adjust my spending accordingly, we can come out the other end just fine. I've always said, it isn't what you make it's what you spend.

So I've been totally relaxed this month -- in fact, rather pleased with the sales level. Which just seems weird, when I think about it. But it's true.

It's expectation that can be disappointed. As long as the expectation is realistic, I'm just fine with it.

As I mentioned before, once I realized -- about mid-August -- that we weren't going to come even close to the kind of profits I was hoping for, that we were probably only going to break-even, it totally removed the pressure. Breaking even is a much easier goal, a much easier expectation to meet.

It's the Great Recession, after all. And the W of the double dip is starting to look more like a little squiggle tailing off at the end.....

To put the biggest cliche of the last few years to work: "Breaking Even is the New Black." I use it because it's true.

**********

The high cost of cheap.

I'm quoted pretty extensively in a Bulletin article today:

"THEIR LOSS (Leaders)

"How to use retailers' profit-losing specials to your advantage."
By Eleanor Pierce.


*****

In fact, I think I'll just quote my section in whole out of the middle and comment on it. The reporter quoted me accurately, but of course there is always a little context and info left out of any article:

....

"Duncan McGeary, who has owned Pegasus Books of Bend for 30 years, said it takes more than just good customer service to make it. He said he watched bookstores fail with the advent of Amazon.com, plus the arrival of discount retailers like Walmart and Costco and the national chain book seller Barnes and Noble.
He said businesses can keep most of their customers by offering great service. But they can't keep all of them, and the few they lose can mean the difference between success and failure.

(O.K. The failing bookstores I'm talking about are almost all the bookstores that existed in Bend when B & N arrived. The crop we have now have come in since.

This also makes it sound like I think service is more determinative of success than I probably really do. It was in reaction to the "Expert" in the article saying that small business can "compete" by offering more service. I didn't know this expert's comment would be directly before my comments, but -- you know -- it's what all the experts say....)


"It isn't the fact that they take all your business, they take the cream. It's that little bit extra you need to make it work," he said.

(Can I rephrase that? "It isn't that they take all your business, but they can take the cream off the top. The little bit extra you need....")

McGeary's approach is to specialize.

"I purposely carry material I don't think chain stores are going to carry at all," he said.

"For instance, I carry lots of new books, but I don't make a huge effort to get the best-sellers. They're almost always in the stacks at Costco. People can get those for half price, so why get them? But I'll carry all the Hemingway books, all the Ken Kesey books. I know those are not going to be loss leaders, so my price is the same as their price."

(A bit of conflating everyday low prices versus loss leaders, but the principle is the same.

"He said there have been a few times he's been hit over the years. Sometimes a specialty item goes mainstream, and he has to give it up.

For instance, McGeary sold sports cards from the mid 1980's until the early 1990's.

"I did very well with them," he said. But then they went mainstream.

"I remember a cold chill going down my bakc the day a customer came in saying, "I just bought this box of baseball cards at Costco in Eugene for this price." It was $2 less than I just paid at a wholesaler."

So he stopped selling them."

(Actually, I didn't stop selling them -- I just stopped depending on them as a main product line.)

"That just didn't work for me any longer as a specialty item."

(The expert goes on to say that:)

"....smaller businesses also tend to draw customers by offering services big-box stores can't."

( True enough, except that these services often don't really result in higher sales: the 20/80 rule applies. The chain stores scoop up the best-selling 20% and leave the other 80% to be serviced by the specialty stores.)

(There is one great quote from the expert:)

"There's a calculus as a human," Kahle said. "As you go from store to store it costs you time. You're going to end up spending a lot of money on travel and a lot of time, and time is also costly."

(I'm amazed by how little people value their time, energy and travel costs. For instance, I might have the book I'm looking for at full retail price, but they prefer to look for it used: Never mind that I've pretty much told them that they aren't likely to find that book used -- either because it's too new or too popular -- but the retail price is often just a few bucks more....Hell, minimum wage is 8.50 an hour and many of these folks would never deign to work for 8.50, but they'll keep looking for an hour to save a couple of bucks...."

All in all, a pretty good article.

Picky, picky, picky.

"I'm looking for a blank notebook," a customer said.

"O.K. We have a shelf of them right here...."

"I need it to be smaller..."

"You mean like this?"

"Yes, only I need it bendy, so I can put it in my back pocket."

"You mean like this one?"

"Yes, but I need it to be more nondescript...."

".....?"

"Is there any other place downtown selling these?

"You might check the Paper Jazz down on the corner..."

"Too fancy. Any place else?

"No."

"Is there...."

"No."

"But...."

"No and NO!"

O.K. I made up the last five lines, but I wish I could have said them....

Wearing blinders....

When do I put blinders on? When do I admit that I simply can't keep up with all the new books and comics and graphic novels and games and toys and cards and anime and manga and card games and......?

Is it ever appropriate to be purposely blind to new stuff? Or benignly neglecting to reordering old stuff? To saying, No mas? Please, my brain will explode if I try to squeeze another title or author into it?

I think, perhaps, new books have been a tipping point for me. I used to joke that I didn't carry video games because the new volume of knowledge would splatter my brains all over the walls.

But I thought I could handle books because I'm very familiar with them; and I read a heck of a lot of them.

Little did I know.


Most books look pretty good. Most books have intriguing covers. Most of them are recommended by other authors who I trust. Same thing with boardgames. They ALL look interesting....


I have an in-store analogy to this phenomenon:

Every week, I get my new comics in, and every day I get regulars in to pick them up. Many regulars have 'subscription shelves.' When I try to get them to look at the 'new' arrivals, most of them demur.

"Don't have time."

"Can't afford them."

"Don't need to be tempted."

I used to be somewhat impatient with this attitude. What harm is there in looking?

The other day I got a phone call from a reputable publisher, offering to send me free samples of some of their titles.

I demurred.

The lady on the other end of the phone said, in a slightly sarcastic tone, "Well, you wouldn't want too much information, even if it's free."

And I felt like saying, "Exactly."


It's not just a matter of money and space. It's a matter of trying diligently to get the best stuff for MY store; the material that best represents what I'm trying to do and has the best chance of selling.

I'm not talking about whether the books worth reading, or the game is worth playing. I'm talking about selection.

I guess the new big word for independent booksellers is "Curating." We are supposed to function as quality curators -- the job of hand-selecting the very best titles and authors. Not just the mass market best sellers, but worthy books that need a nudge, for the discerning reader. A little individualism and idiosyncrasy welcomed.

Oh, I could do a "Cheat Sheet" method. Just ordering from the best-selling and award winning and 'best of' lists.

But these are the same books that are in stacks at Barnes and Noble, and at huge discounts.

It's not so much that I begrudge the hard work and energy it requires. I have a Five type personality, I'm an INTJ, and you couldn't find someone who enjoys this process more than me.

And it's not that I worry about the money or the space trying to keep up, though of course that's a concern.

No --- it's that I'm afraid of losing balance and perspective.

When I'm selecting material for the store, there is always a sense of: "This is right for my store. This fits. I have a place for this, and I know who might want it." Or maybe I just like a certain book, or I think, "This is the kind of book that every good store should have."

But like a kid with a giant bag of Halloween candy, it can all be too much. It all becomes just a huge mass of sugar. Until I throw up all over the carpet.

Oh, well. It may be that it's because I'm really at the beginning of the process of deciding which new books and games to carry. It seems overwhelming because I haven't quite figured out how to weed out the chaff.

I keep saying that I need to find a process to pick and choose which items to carry.

I suspect that it will, indeed, require some kind of filtering system. Something that passes through a buffering system.

I just haven't figured it out, yet. I think I probably can't wing it any longer. I need to work out a plan of attack.

Too much of a good thing.

Sunday snippers.

A gloomy, comic book reading kind of day. I like it. I'm weird that way.

***********

I foresee wet straw in every nook and cranny of my store.

************

Jeter Cheater? Don't really care. Just like the rhyme.

**********

Dog went flying out the sunroof instead of into Crater Lake? That's one lucky dog.

**********

I blog rather than twitter, 'cause I should humbly be omnipresent in only one medium at a time.

**********

Linda said, "It's the 100th Anniversary of the Pendleton Roundup." "That's alotta bull," I said.

***********

The W of a double dip, looks more like a little squiggle to me.

**********

Someone dropped a watermelon off the parking garage. Wonder if they had an audience?

**********

Customers say, "You have a lot of collectibles, here." I've started responding, "No....we have a lot of keepibles...."

**********

Could I twitter? All day long....

**********

I do seem to be getting more vague compliments about the store. From people who have barely looked around yet.

**********

Sure looks to me like there's a beer bubble brewing in Bend.

*********

Reckless disregard for the American Democracy. That's what the Tea Party is starting to look like.

*********

I'm torn about Labor Unions. I think they ought to be easy to start, but ought to be easy to disband, too.

**********

Little side bonus to a makeover at the store. I always lose about 5 pounds. I basically forget to eat, I'm so busy.

**********

Bank of the Cascades has 8th extention from "investors." Truth is, they have no choice. The investors are in for a pound, in for a dollar.

**********

I continue to have doubts about Westside retail. It requires a big city neighborhood buying pattern, and what we got in Bend is a city-wide buying pattern.

**********

My god there are a lot of books. When you start to look to buying them. Crazy.

*********

Moses the camel falls into a sinkhole. We have lost our way in the desert.

Godzilla dustballs 5.

I figure some of you are probably getting tired of the whole makeover thing, so this is probably the last post devoted mainly that that subject, at least for awhile.


It's like I've turned on a new Compliment Spigot at the store. It seems like every other person in the door is telling me how interesting my store is. (Hopefully, not in the neutral answer of "How did you like it?" "Interesting....." way.) Or "cool" or "neat."

Weirdly, though, it's mostly newcomers and off-the-street browsers who are saying it; as if they can tell something has been improved, even if they don't know what. They often say it having just walked in the door.

Customers are psychic, I tell you.

Regulars are just sort of oblivious to it, until I call their attention to the changes.

So lot's of compliments; but not a lot of buying. As I always say, a compliment is just another way for the customer to think they're paying you -- but a compliment and .50 won't get you a cup of coffee anymore.

"Oh, my god." I'm thinking. "What if I've made my store attractive to people who aren't interested in what I actually sell?"

Like a cat making itself really attractive to a dog. Or something.

I'm kidding......I think.


I finished stocking the new bookcases, yesterday. I was able to get some of my old thematic shelves back together; my Pirates shelf, my Dragons shelf, my Robots. (Find me another bookstore that has Zombies and Vampires and Pirates, etc. on their own shelves....)

One entire bookcase has the Fairy stuff -- which looks nice.

It turned into more display space than I thought. Every art book shelf now has at least one book facing out, and many of them have two. As well as books laying flat in front of them.

If anything, it may be a little too much. I have to admit to myself that simply doubling the number of art books that customers can actually see may not actually increase overall sales. Afterall, I had nearly 50 art books face out before, and if a customer couldn't find something they liked in that, I have no real belief they'll find something with 100 books face out.

Anyway, it looks great for now. We can give them a chance to prove themselves, and meanwhile it adds to the overall appeal of the store.

I suspect that about half that space will be taken back, eventually, for one simple reason: I happen to know that I have several hundred "classic" and "cult" books that I'm pretty sure will sell -- because they have sold before, or because they are of the same type as the books that sold before. These are my "Evergreens" when it comes to novels, and I just need to get back on task in ordering them.

One of the nice things about books, is that I don't necessarily always have to reorder, as long as I keep a good selection in stock. On the other hand, I'm probably depriving myself of sure sales when I don't immediately reorder Catch-22, or Desert Solitaire, or Sometimes a Great Notion.

So, now that I'm done, and now that I have the shelf space, I need to get back to keeping up, and keeping a lookout for other "great" books.

By plan and design, my new budget is now available to order, so I'll be restocking the store over the next couple of months. Which is always fun.

Godzilla dustballs 4.

O.K. The modem came in yesterday, (pretty quick, since we reported it on Tuesday) and is hooked up.

The last bookcase is built.

I moved all the novels into their appropriate spots. Pretty much filled up on young adult, general fiction, and science fiction and fantasy. Still have a bit of ordering to do on mysteries, but not as much as I thought.

So I have three large bookcases that are blank slates. Which I'm going to finish off today.

All and all, it feels just great.

One customer said, "It doesn't so much look like a big change, as it does an upgrade." Which is good, I think.

I can see already that my regulars are perfectly capable of coming in and following their normal routes and barely seeing the changes. The changes, if they are going to have an effect, are going to affect people off the street who don't even realize there WAS a change.

Again, I'm not sure that it will necessarily increase sales on books. It's probably too soon to really come to any conclusions, but just from the reaction over the last few days, it seems as though more people are buying Used Books -- which is a bit unexpected, but very welcome.

Also, I just think it probably makes the store more attractive to the casual browser. Getting more compliments than usual -- but as usual, that doesn't always, or even mostly, result in more sales.

I've been bugging Linda to come by and look things over, so my first hour today I'm going to try to get displays nice and attractive for her. I hope she likes it.

Anxiety dream, anyone?

I dreamed last night that I bought a hardware store.

I'm visiting the store, and beginning to realize that I know NOTHING about the store. The former owner is acting evasive and shifty. I keep meeting more and more and more employees. One of them takes me aside and says, "The free beer is a problem...."

"You guys get free beer?!"

Everywhere I look, there is old tired product, that doesn't look like anyone has ever even picked them up, much less bought them. Weird, odd and singular stuff.

And yet more employees. I take out a notebook and start writing their names down. And meanwhile, I haven't seen a single customer the whole time I'm there.



I think it comes down to my computer glitch and the makeover and a comment Chuck Arnold made while visiting the store yesterday: "Do you have a lot of Shrinkage?"

Cameron says, "What's Shrinkage...?"

We both laughed, but then I said, "You know ... that really is a jargony word. Why the hell don't we say theft? Or shoplifting?"

(I suppose shrinkage is used because it covers both employees and customers....)

Anyway: Anxiety Dream, anyone?

Godzilla dustballs 3.

My employees reactions to these kinds of changes is always a bit funny.

First of all, they're always extremely doubtful I can pull it off.

Secondly, most people like things the way they were when they first saw them. Especially, EMPLOYEES like it the way it's always been. I call it the rubber band effect.

(This is true of writing, as well. You read a chapter to someone, and then come back with a revised chapter, and most of the time the listeners will say they liked the first version better. Because it's what they heard first, I guess.)

But, I just have to keep the faith that I am actually improving things, both objectively and subjectively. Eventually, like I said, the store will get that 'lived-in' look, the look that says, 'everything in it's place, and a place for everything.'

It just takes awhile.

At first, it can be rather disorienting. Jasper was saying that one of fixtures was obscuring the line of sight. I just looked at him, and said, "Errr....it was already that way."

Thing is, once you start changing things around, it casts doubt on everything else. Everything starts to look new -- or out of place. It's like staring at a word for too long, and the letters just become a jumble.

This is both good and bad. It highlights material that people haven't noticed before -- but it is also a disquieting feeling, and you really don't want too much of that. People shy away from changes -- I've always noticed that sales go down when I'm doing makeovers. Not because we're not available to help; not because we have less inventory or that it's harder to get at.

Just because of the change itself.

I'm not sure if it's because they don't want to bother you (Yes! Please bother us with your money!) or because they aren't seeing their stuff in the same place. It's dangerous to make changes, but if they are good changes, eventually people come around to seeing it that way.

Or -- eventually -- it just becomes the normal, again.

(Yes, crew. I'm talking to YOU. Trust me. You'll like it.)



Meanwhile, Matt made a suggestion that I use the new bookcase on the graphic novel side to have "Staff Picks."

So we're going to try that for awhile. I picked Rocketeer: "A fun Adventure, Great Dave Stevens Art, and best of all --- Bettie!" And I picked, AMERICAN VAMPIRE: "Uncute Undead. And written by Stephen King!"

Cameron picked POWER GIRL: (from memory) "Cheesy Fun, and great art."



I now have 3 fresh bookcases on the book side, and I'm trying to decide which categories it would be best to show face out: I'm thinking fantasy art of the fairy-tale realm; Pop Culture art (book covers and so on, cult work from the 50's and 60's); and 3 shelves for my mainstream art and movie books, and 3 shelves for Overstock Artbooks. Something like that. Won't really know until I do it.



So the question that keeps coming up in my mind is: Will this result in higher sales?

The answer, I suspect, it not so much. At least not at first.

But it will FEEL so much better, and that is very, very important to me.

I'd have to say, the change is more a "Shoring Up" than anything.

I was thinking about how a store is like a dike holding back a river-- it needs to be fairly strong across the whole width of the span, or it doesn't work. One weak spot, and the whole thing cracks.

I've never been one of those who thought you should carry "Best-Sellers" only. This seems like a short-sighted strategy for all kinds of reasons. Like making one part of the dike higher and stronger than the rest of the dike. So I tend to take whatever 'extra' money I have to spend to try to shore up the weaker elements of the store. Try to lift the category into a viable position. And keep trying.

The only other alternative is to remove the product and replace it with something else.

But for reasons of diversity and design and being a specialty store, I think it's important to not have too many Dead Zones. And not to narrow it down to what's currently hot. You need to have mid-list stuff; the long-tale theory of retailing.

But, like I said, in the end it comes down to the FEEL.

Casey, my U.P.S. driver thought it looked "Tight" in the slang meaning -- sharp. I heard someone say it looked more like a "mall store." (I think that's good -- I'm not too worried about losing the Funk.) Most people thought it felt "roomier..."

Of course, to all this I replied: "Right Answer." They knew what I was wanting.

There were also a whole lot of folks who simply didn't notice the changes at all. Or just noticed that 'something' seemed a little different. Like shaving your beard off -- "Did you change something?"

I filed the science fiction and fantasy paperbacks, and there isn't an urgent need to get more. Mysteries need more fill-in, and I've decided to just order all my favorite authors. Most of the other categories just need to be incrementally improved in selection. By Jan. 1, I want to have a complete ordering plan; one that is sustaining (easy and routine) and up-to-date and within budget.

One final reason for the changes.

It's Fun!