West side story -- and I'm sticking to it.

So interesting that Bruce has chosen this week to point out the Bend east side/west side differences, in the Wandering Eye column. (As illustrated by the U.S. Census.)

Because I was about to come at the same subject from the opposite direction.

No doubt there are many difference between the two sides.

But you know what? Check out the foreclosure maps and you'll see an amazingly even distribution of red dots -- east, west, north or south.

And there also seems to be just as many, if not more, crime stories associated with the Westside of Bend, and even -gasp -- the Northwest side.

In fact, is seems like the Northwest crimes are the more deadly.

I'm guessing the financial stress is pretty widespread in Bend, and distributed alike between rich and poor and the middle class.

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

Funny thing about Facebook. The Pegasus page feels more like it's owned by people who know Pegasus, rather than by Pegasus itself. I mean, anyone could comment on my blog, too. Or on the Pegasus site. But they seem to prefer the Facebook. And there are potentially 30 years worth of those folks.

Maybe because it was started by my three young employees, or that there are more options to interact. Kind of cool that it seems to have a life of its own.

**********

It is so cool to be selling stuff that I have on hand all year, and suddenly there is an actual demand for them.

Like I said, Christmas is what sales should be like ALL year, you know?

What a shop I could have!

Fauvists -- wild beasts.

Interesting documentary on P.B.S. last night about the artist's renaissance in Paris between 1905 and 1930.

The idea that one could live on one dollar a week. In Paris. Or the little nugget that after being rejected by the "Academy" (as had the Impressionists before them, and so on...) the Fauvists (Wild Beasts -- I want to start an art movement where I'm called a "Wild Beast") in their own turn rejected Cubism. Hard to imagine anyone being rejected by the art community for being too out there nowadays. Maybe if you can accomplish that, you've succeeded.

And that necessary ingredient of cheap rent for an 'art' community. Downtown Bend has definitely lost that, and I don't think it's coming back...

(I think the best possibility of a bohemian conclave would be down in the cluster of out of the way stores near the Silver Moon. Can't much more out there than a Roller Derby shop.)

**********

Got irked at a woman and daughter who spent half an hour of mine and Cameron's time acting all 'helpless' at the nerdworld, and then only bought a 2.00 item. At a time when we had a store full of people and were trying to get our comics put away. Ten days before Christmas. So unfair to our enterprise.

I stomped around the store for a couple of minutes after they left. Then realized I needed to give myself at time out, and went downstairs to cool off.

**********

Had a dream last night where I was trying to write an important check and couldn't get it written, and tearing it out and ripping it up and starting over and getting it wrong again. Similar to the dreams I sometimes have of just not quite being able to complete dialing in a phone number....

**********

I'm down to my last copy of Carcassonne, the one major game I didn't stock up on. It was an oversight because I was feeling pressured and hassled by the game rep, who was a substitute to my usual guy. I think that is the last time I'm going to let that happen. The next time a salesman of any kind gives me the bum's rush, I'm hanging up and calling someone else.

(And yes, I'm aware of the irony compared to the statement above about the customer -- but I'll I'm saying is, there needs to be consideration on both sides...)

This oversight has pretty much nailed down a final reorder before Christmas.

**********

The east accounts are complaining that their invoices haven't been posted by Thursday morning. Since we western accounts don't get ours until late Saturday or early Sunday, it's hard to be sympathetic.

I was commenting to Cameron that I've never made an issue out of it, because I was afraid that Diamond's solution would be to make everyone wait until Saturday, and what's the point of that?

"Nice of you to be considerate of them like that," says Cameron.

"Nice of you to notice," I said.

Ripping off the wrappings and opening the box...

I'll be processing material for the next ten days, which will be fun.

I can take a kind of pleasure in virtuous austerity for weeks at a time, but let's face it -- buying stuff is more fun.

I hate to say it, but one of the pleasures of owning a store is being able to peruse the catalogs and select material and buy it and wait for it to show up. The anticipation of opening boxes of merchandise isn't all that different than Christmas morning for kids.

What you get is never exactly what you expected. You may be disappointed, or delightfully surprised. You may get a sinking feeling of -- "Oh, oh....I'll never sell that..." or you may get the satisfaction of -- "Wow. That's really cool. I need to get more...."

Maybe that's why people become shopkeepers. They get to keep that feeling all year long.

Of course, it's a terrible temptation, and I've seen many a shopkeeper over ordering to a ridiculous extent.

I try to keep my ordering to a slightly sinful level -- but never a completely crushing level.

Jingle bells, Christmas hells...

Not really. I enjoy the activity. It's the way the whole year should be.

Today is the start of the Christmas shopping season. Or at least, it should be.

It's a beautiful day out, white crisp snow and blue skies.

My beard is long enough and white enough, that I could be kind of a Santa Claus. ("You don't fool me! There is no Sanity Clause!") A very grumpy looking Santa Claus. ("You don't look grumpy!" Linda says.)

We're having guests this Christmas, so we may actually have to do the Christmasy thing at home. One thing about retail, it really does drain the spirit of the seasons out a bit -- at least until Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Eve, as I close the store and select a few last minute gifts out of what's left over, I feel the tension drop away, and I look forward to a whole day of relaxation.

But that moment is still ten working days away, and until then -- I can't help it -- I get excited by the possibilities. I try to keep my expectations down, but ...it's Christmas season.

Christmas falling on a Saturday is kind of an odd occurrence. Just about any other day of the week, it would've made buying any inventory for the store on the last week pretty hard to do. Two days ships and holiday and weather delays and the weekend interval, make the timing a little iffy, so I generally skip the last week for orders and go with what I have.

This time, I can easily make an order on Monday or even Tuesday and have a very good chance of having material by the day before Christmas....

It's an extra temptation.

Just what I need -- opportunity and an excuse to buy stuff....

**********

I'm in the middle of reading my 52nd book of the year, so I've accomplished my one book a week goal.

I'm upping the ante for next year. I want to read 6 books a month. I'm hoping the goal itself will pull me away from sitting in front of the T.V. and computer quite so much.

I'm also setting a goal of reading a couple of graphic novels at the store per week. Which will mean starting over with a whole bunch of series in which I read the first one or two books, and then didn't finish. Y- the Last Man, Walking Dead, Fables....etc.

I loved what I read of these stories, but always seem to get waylaid to a new story before the old stories are finished -- I've never quite gotten used to the sequential nature of comics. It's not my natural inclination. On the other hand, if I wait until the series is finished, it can be intimidating to look at 10 or 15 books to read. (Unlike what non-comic readers might think, I don't believe reading graphic novel reading is 'easier'. It just requires a slightly different approach, and a different part of the brain.)

It's like when I go see a sub-titled movie -- at first I'm conscious of reading, but if the movie is any good, by the end I'm not even aware of it. Comics are the same way for me. Possibly because I was in my 30's before I started reading them again, it's not completely natural.

Yet, when I'm finished, it's exhilarating to read a great graphic novel.

**********

Bursting at the seams...

Made my last strictly Christmas order today.

A game order to stock up on the big games, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Carcassonne, hopefully so I don't run out.

I'm leaving open the possibility of one more game, one more book, and one more comic order within the next week or so -- if business just booms, or if we get too many spot shortages of the best-sellers.

By holding off until now, I've still got some money to spend, and can justify spending much of January budget (since I won't be ordering much during the 'doing inventory' period. There is still a 50/50 chance I'll break-even this year, which considering that I've been pulling money out for the last three months for my retirement fund, means I will have actually turned a profit.
(A profit not counting my basic take-home pay....)

I sure wish it didn't come down to the last 10 days. Makes me nervous, like all our eggs are in one basket. Still, we're probably doing slightly better than I expected. Then again, I expected very very little.

I am extremely well stocked, I'll say that.

Wish lists.

When all was said and done, I ordered all but 17 of the books on my list.

I've been keeping lists of books I see online, or in other bookstores, with the intent of someday ordering them.

The actual replacement of sold books came to about 35% of the total books ordered. In most cases, I'd prefer this to be more like 80% of the books I order. But it's Christmas, and until this order, I'd probably not ordered more than 10% off the wish lists over the last three or four orders, so this was a bit of catch-up, clearing the decks, and getting Christmas product at the same time.

I don't know why I pick certain books -- they just look good to me, or appeal to me.

Awhile back, I was talking about having a more systematic method of choosing books, comparing best-seller lists, best-of lists, and so on.

But I keep falling back on my quirky method of buying what appeals to me. I have limited budget for books, and by the time I've completed my ordering of the books I know I want, there isn't a whole lot of room for best-seller types.

Is it foolish of me to skip THE HELP, and instead order, THE BEAR WENT OVER THE MOUNTAIN, by William Kotzwinkle? Probably. But opening a bookstore is foolish in the first place, and I might as well be consistently foolish to the end.

It's not like I'm depriving anyone of THE HELP, which they can find in stacks at Barnes and Noble. But would they stumble across THE BEAR WENT....?

Well, I enjoy Kotzwinkle, I love the concept of the book, the cover looks really cool. Whereas, THE HELP, looks to me like another socially heartwarming book written by a white woman about black servants. (I could be wrong, but really -- I like the idea of a real Bear on Wall Street, more than another Hallmark moment....) I know, I know. It sounds like a good book, but it just doesn't grab me.

Finding room for all these books will, as usual, be the real problem. But it's the direction the store is going in, and I'll make room.

You'll rue the day!!!!

When most of the specialty stores are gone.

Well, more like, sorta kinda miss us, as in "Whatever happened to so and so, I used to like going in there...."

I've started to explain why I think no market can really hold up at previous levels without the presence of brick and mortar stores with one phrase: "Out of sight, Out of mind."

Which might seem ridiculous, considering the omniscient presence of the Internet. I mean, EVERYTHING is there, probably cheaper, and only a button push away from showing up on your door.

Still -- I'll stick to my observation. I can't totally explain it, but 30 years of retail has shown me over and over again, that the less physical presence of a particular brand, the less it sells.

Sure you can get just about any brand of sports card online, cheaper. But frankly -- who cares anymore?

I think the air will just slowly go out of the tire -- so slowly no one will understand it until it's too late. Some will prosper, but most...will not. I think no market can truly do well once it becomes dominated by the online sales.

Books, music, games, toys -- everything will make less overall than they did before the advent.

Of course, the best solution is to have a mix of everything: small stores, big stores, and online.

But will they be smart enough to understand that?

Nope.

Not until it's too late.

I know that everyone will disagree with this -- they'll think it's a ridiculous proclamation.

But do you want to bet? I'm saying that the overall sales numbers per capita in today's dollars will be less in 20 years than it is today. Not the amount of material -- there will probably be more of it than ever, and therein lies the problem. Because so much of it will be discounted -- even free. I'll refine that further -- there will be less overall PROFIT per purveyor than before.

But online is ether -- it only has a physical presence in our minds. The product exists when we think of it, when we go to look for it, when we push the button to shop.

And that, my friends, is not going to be anywhere near as stimulative as actually having the product right in front of you.

I just think people overall are underestimating the importance of brick and mortar stores, and they may not realize it until it's too late. It would relatively easy to keep brick and mortars around compared to trying to bring them back once they're gone.

Just saying.

Budget fudget.

I know that writing about budgeting is probably the most boring thing I do here.

It's probably the most important thing I do at the store.

I'm at one of those decision points, that might make the difference between earning a profit and not earning a profit at Christmas.

Here's the situation.

In about 5 days, I will be in the January billing period. My budget isn't lavish for January, but it isn't skimpy either.

Meanwhile, I've pretty much spent my entire December budget.

So wait five days, right?

Generally, I find if I can just fight the temptation to start spending next months money early, that I'll be glad a did about this time next month. Easy to borrow off the future, tough to pay it back.

Then again, there are only about 14 days left in the Christmas shopping season. If I wait the full 5 days, it spills into next weekend for shipping, which mean I won't get product until 5 days before Christmas.

If I make my orders today, it ships tomorrow, gets here on Wednesday, and I have the product for the last 10 days before Christmas.

Then again, if I wait five more days, I'll have one last chance to get those special orders that might come in, or to replace spot shortages just before Christmas.

This may sound contradictory, but I've learned that I both: need product more in slow times, but need order product less in slow times. Especially, when everyone takes a breather after Christmas. It's traditional, almost, to sell off as much remaining inventory as possible in the week after Christmas....

Of course, what I'd really like to do is order today, AND order another batch in about week.

But that really would blow the budget out of the water.

You'd think after all these years I'd have figured out the best way to do things, but since I'll never entirely figure out customer behavior, I'll never probably get it quite right. I don't really even know, yet, if this Christmas is going to be good, bad, or somewhere in-between.

My inclination, as those who read this blog know, is to order the product today -- and try to address any shortfalls in January. But I don't know as I quite trust my inclinations -- I always seem to be playing catch-up.

Here's what I think is a deciding factor: I can order the stuff to arrive on Wednesday, and have five more days to see if sales are any good, and whether a second smaller order is possible.

Or I just take a breather for a couple of weeks.

Saturday splats.

I'm in the Bulletin this morning, recommending a couple of books for Christmas:

"THE HUNGER GAMES"
By Suzanne Collins.

This young adult novel is absolutely addicting. Young people are chosen to fight in survival games, which provides some exciting action, but there are deeper themes at play here, about freedom and independence, cooperation and empathy for others, and it's done with such sympathy you can't help but root for the characters. (First in a trilogy, followed by "CATCHING FIRE"and "MOCKINGJAY.")

'THE WALKING DEAD"
By Robert Kirkman.

There are already 13 graphic novels released in this story, with more to come. Surviving the zombie apocalypse: It's not really so much about zombies, though there are plenty of those, but how people band together and cooperate and try to get along.

--Duncan McGeary, owner of Pegasus Books.

Notice how I slipped in 16 books when asked for two? Heh.

**********

This is one wet winter.

**********

Paul was in and saying my blog was way too dark and he wanted something cheerful.

So yesterday, Pegasus Books finally had a big day and it brought us to within 3% of last year's sales.

Sorry, that's the best I can do....

**********

Bank of America was still stalking us after our last go around.

We sent in the money, got it back, got rebilled, talked to them and insisted they close our account.

I don't have the letter in front of me informing me that the loan was closed, but it was surprisingly snippy, something like:

"We warn you we are closing your account, and don't you dare ever try to use this again, and if you try again there will be dire consequences!"

WTF?

I don't WANT to use your account, I've been trying to close it for months, and you kept wanting to collect fees on it or something.

More to the point, you cut off access to the HELOC a COUPLE OF YEARS AGO!

For which I thank you. Now, one last time and I truly mean it: Leave us Alone.

Freaking banks. Man, if you can't even pay them off, in full, just a clearcut solution....I feel complete sympathy for anyone trying to find a middle ground.

**********
From Huffington Post:

"Assange's Lawyer Says He's Upbeat, Only Jailhouse Request is for a Computer."

I heard his counterfeiting jailmate was only asking for a printing press.

The dog fighting guy in the cell next door, only wants a pet.

**********

So a guy in a stolen car innocently passes through Bend with his trusty printer in the backseat, and passes a counterfeit 20.00 bill at a gas station/mart.

Probably been doing it for some time, passing through towns, getting a meal and some gas and on his way....

Little does he know that three young local guys have been all over town passing bad bills just a day or two before, and everyone in Bend is in high alert.

Oops.

Tarting up the bookstore.

After reading interviews with independent bookstores (on Shelf Awareness), it appears that many of them are imbibing the kool-aid of e-books. They seem to be totally buying into the notion that it "puts them in the game."

Well, maybe not totally. There is an air of desperation to it.

You know what it reminds me of? Those piles of books that show up at the BookMark occasionally about how to "Save your Marriage."

"Meet him at the door wearing lingerie."

"Cook him gourmet meals."

"Kiss his feet...."

Well, maybe not that last one. But it always seems kind of demeaning.

I still maintain that we're bookstores, not coffee shops, not internet cafes, not performance centers.

Have some pride.


I'm not saying you shouldn't diversify or try new things. I mean -- look at my store.
But I think it should be an organic, from the inside process, bringing on elements you're comfortable with, and can support.

Too much of what I'm hearing sounds like grasping at straws.

Yesterday's example of Time/Warner buying AOL. You can almost imagine the thought process behind it.

"Hey, I hear this internet tuby thingie is going to be really big. Let's buy an internet company!!

Whether it makes sense or not, whether they even understood it....

I've also seen this process in my own business several times over the years -- the sports card shops thinking they could reverse the decline by having "interactive" events. Game stores, the same thing -- in fact, the manufacturers have almost made it difficult to run a game store unless you have tournaments and game space and so on.

But if the fundamentals are weak -- no amount of activity will make up for it.

The fundamentals of bookstores are selecting, displaying and selling physical books. Let's encourage that.


I also believe that these types of change should be planned far in advance. That both intended and unintended consequences should be explored. That they should be instituted slowly, and examined every step of the way, and walked back if they don't work.

They should most importantly, be built on the walls of success, not thrown into the breach of failure.

Jumping on a bandwagon is dangerous -- you're taking other people's advice a little too much, the learning curse is incredibly steep, and the costs are high.



You have to wonder if booksellers have thought out the logic of such a strategy. Or have really examined the long-term consequences.

Let's imagine that they are actually successful at selling e-books (as you know, I think this is doubtful, but lets imagine...). I would ask the question; "Which is more likely? That publishers will see e-books selling at independent bookstores?

"Or that publishers will see e-books selling."

Will that impression rebound to the indy's benefit, or just encourage a trend that will be its longterm downfall?

It reminds me of when the sport card market started turning to the mass market -- suddenly some brands were only available in the mass market, and other brands were cheaper there than anywhere else.

I think just about every cardshop in the country except me started buying their cards at the mass market. When I would question this, most of them would replay, "We can't afford not to have what the customer wants..."

Yeah -- except, in the end the card manufacturers saw the sales numbers from the mass market, and compared them to the sales to the indy's and came to the wrong conclusion -- that most cards, (or more cards than in reality) were selling in the mass market.

Which only encouraged them to spend even more of their efforts toward that market.

If you can't beat them?

Google e-books.

"Indie bookstore customers no longer have to choose between reading digital and supporting their local bookstore — the American Booksellers Association announced today, Monday, December 6, 2010, that ABA member stores with Indie-Commerce websites are now selling Google e-books online. Google launched its e-book program today."

As another comic retailer mentioned, how are you independent if your partner is Amazon or Google?

I simply don't understand how either comic stores or book stores can effectively sell digital books. ALL EXPLANATIONS come across as fuzzy headed, self-deluding, gobbledygook.

I've said it before, but I think it bear repeating: It reminds me of watching the news conference about the merger of AOL and Time/Warner. After all the long, involved explanations of why they were doing it, I remember turning to Linda and saying,

"What they said made no sense."

**********
Nimby activism is often amazingly effective.

The Powers That Be will back down, given enough opposition.

**********

Being a doctor's son, I of course know medicine. Very annoying when I go to see the doctor and he tells me, "No ...that isn't it. No....you've got that wrong."

I was indoctrinated against most alternative medicines, as well. Though I think I might have come to those conclusions on my own.

I wonder if other people born in doctor's families feel like they know medicine.

**********

As I mentioned before, there is a lot of posturing yet to go on about the unemployment benefits -- as well as the tax 'cuts'.

I predict after much more posturing, the whole thing will pass and the money problem will be kicked down the road.

It's only money. We can just print more of it, right?

**********

This month is just whizzing by. Especially if I break it up in segments -- like, I was thinking, I can make orders next week, but then I realized that by the time they arrived, it would be in the last 10 days before Christmas. So really, next week is it, as far as effective Christmas orders are concerned.

Really not in the mood to push too many bills into January -- if any.

**********

So the new owners of Breedlove, Two Old Hippies, have two guitar factories in China?

China ....or Northwest Crossing.

Northwest Crossing....or China.....

Hmmmmmm.

Gee, I wonder which is cheaper? Of course, there are the usual "We don't plan to move, we are going to expand...." statements.

**********

There is starting to be a bit of a boardgame glut developing. I decided I would stock up on the big three, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Carcassonne, mostly. While these are getting more and more in the "I already have that..." category, and the "I saw this elsewhere..." category -- every other boardgame is much more of "I don't know what this game is..." category.

Have I mentioned the pace of change, lately?

After writing my missive about change, yesterday, I come home to an e-mail from Diamond Comics, informing everyone in the western U.S.A. that they are closing their L. A. warehouse. Starting in March, they'll be shipping from Mississippi.

Mississippi.

Hard to see this as a good thing for us. Too many things can go wrong between here and Mississippi.

I will no longer be able to get supplies in just a few days, I'll no longer be able to get comic reorders from L.A. in only a week. It will be a two week swing, at minimum, from Mississippi.

Also kind of worries me that they feel the financial necessity of closing all warehouses west of Mississippi.

Mississippi. (There, I've now spelled out Mississippi more times in this one blog than I ever have in my life, thus finally justifying the memorization of the word.)

As someone else mentioned -- closings are almost never a good sign.

Once upon a time, we got our comics from Portland, Oregon. If you can imagine.

Mississippi.

**********

So I'm watching Jon Stewart last night and he has a clip of Bernanke more or less saying, "Oh, we're not really going into the debt; we're just printing the money we need."

O.K. Color me naive.

I thought when critics accused the Fed of "printing money", they were speaking figuratively.

Printing money.

That can't be good.

**********

I should probably never forget that other businesses are also going through momentous changes. Probably MOST other small businesses -- and, well, large businesses too, I suppose.

Anyway, the closing of the retail part of Satterlee's Jewelers in Redmond just sort of reminded me how often in my conversation with jewelers, they mention that it's the repair and design part of the business that is thriving for them.

Walmart sells diamonds.

**********

The president of Brooks Resources "...accepts St. Charles position."

Knowing only what I read in the paper, you got to figure that being a land developer is probably not the most exciting place to be right now. Just saying. There is probably huge money in being a developer when times are flush -- even for management.

Now? Probably more a baby-sitting job.

Or....maybe he's just taking on a more fulfilling job. I don't really know.

Just seemed like a surprise

**********

There is a scene in the old Fritz Lang German movie "M", where Peter Lorre (who plays a child murderer) has been chased by every citizen of Berlin and is brought before the crime bosses and surrounded by menacing men -- and he does his patented cornered squeal. You almost feel sorry for him. The child murderer. Almost.

Julian Assange made me remember that scene.

Downtown Comings and Goings.

A few little name changes in the Bulletin.

Giuseppe's, which has been around a long time, is being replaced by Caldera. Decoy is being replaced by Bond Street Grill.

I noticed the Pine Tavern has changed ownership. This list isn't the proper place to note that, because it sounds like a pretty solid continuation of the business, (it's been kept in the family, so to speak), but I took note because it moves me up the list of the longest continually owned businesses in downtown, I do believe.

NEW BUSINESSES DOWNTOWN

Caldera Grill, Bond St., 12/7/10
Bond Street Grill, 12/7/10.
Perspective(s), Minnesota Ave., 11/20/10
Toth Art Collective, Bond St. 11/20/10
Boken, Breezeway, 11/20/10
Dalia and Emilia, Wall St., 10/3/10.
Antiquarian Books, Bond St., 10/3/10.
Giddyup, Minnesota Ave., 10/3/10.
The Closet, Minnesota Ave., 8/11/10.
Showcase Hats, Oregon Ave., 8/11/10,
Red Chair Art Gallery, Oregon Ave. 7/13/10.
Earth Sense Herbs, Penny's Galleria, 7/12/10.
Mad Happy Lounge, Brooks St., 6/2910
Common Table, Oregon Ave. , 6/29/10.
Looney Bean Coffee, Brooks St. , 6/29/10.
Bourbon Street, Minnesota Ave., 6/22/10
Feather's Edge, Minnesota Ave., 6/22/10
The BLVD., Wall St. , 6/13/10.
Volt, Minnesota Ave. 6/1/10.
Tart, Minnesota Ave. , 5/13/10
Olivia Hunter, Wall St. 4/5/10.
Tres Chic, Bond St. 4/5/10
Blue Star Salon, Wall St. 4/1/10.
Lululemon, Bond St. 3/31/10.
Diana's Jewel Box, Minnesota Ave., 3/25/10.
Amalia's, Wall St. (Ciao Mambo space), 3/12/10
River Bend Fine Art, Bond St. (Kebanu space) 2/23/10
Federal Express, Oregon Ave. 2/1/10
***10 Below, Minnesota Ave. 1/10/10
Tew Boots Gallery, Bond St. 1/8/10.
Top Leaf Mate, 12/10/09
Laughing Girls Studio, Minnesota Ave. 12/7/09
Lemon Drop, 5 Minnesota Ave., 11/12/09
The Curiosity Shoppe 11/5/09 25 N.W. Minnesota Ave, Suite #7.
Wabi Sabi 11/4/09
Frugal Boutique 11/4/09
5 Spice 10/22/09
Cowgirls Cash 10/17/09
***Haven Home 10/17/09
Dog Patch 10/17/09
The Good Drop 10/12/09
Lola's 9/23/09
**Volcano Wines 9/15/09
Singing Sparrow Flowers 8/16/09
Northwest Home Interiors 8/5/09
High Desert Frameworks 7/23/09 (*Moved to Oregon Ave. 4/5/10.)
Wall Street Gifts 7/--/09
Ina Louise 7/14/09
Bend Home Hardware (Homestyle Hardware?) 7/1/09
Altera Real Estate 6/9/09
Honey 6/7/09
Azura Studio 6/7/09
Mary Jane's 6/1/09
c.c.McKenzie 6/1/09
Velvet 5/28/09
Bella Moda 3/25/09
High Desert Gallery (Bend) 3/25/09
Joolz
Zydeco
900 Wall
Great Outdoor Store
Luxe Home Interiors
Powell's Candy
Dudley's Used Books and Coffee
Goldsmith
Game Domain
Subway Sandwiches
Bend Burger Company
Showcase Hats
Pita Pit
Happy Nails
(Fall, 2008 or so).

BUSINESSES LEAVING

The Decoy, Bond St., 12/7/10.
Giuseppe's, Bond St., 12/1/10.
Ina Louise, Minnesota Ave., 11/3/10.
Laughing Girl Studios, 10/21/10
Dolce Vita, Bond St, 10/21/10
Diana's Jewell Box, Minnesota Ave., 10/15/10.
Lola's, Breezeway, 10/8/10.
Oxygen Tattoo, Bond St., 10/3/10.
Great Outdoor Clothing, Wall St., 10/3/10.
Volcano Vineyards, Minnesota Ave., 10/3/10.
Subway Sandwiches, Bond St. 9/2/10.
Old Bend Distillery, Brooks St., 6/19/10.
Staccato, Minnesota Ave. 6/18/10.
Showcase Hats, Minnesota Ave., 6/1/10 (Moved to Oregon Ave., 8/10/11.)
Cork, Oregon Ave., 5/27/10.
Wall Street Gifts, 5/26/10
Microsphere, Wall St. , 5/17/10.
Singing Sparrow, Franklin and Bond, 5/15/10
28, Minnesota Ave. and Bond, 5/13/10.
Glass Symphony, Wall St., 3/25/10
Bend Home Hardware, Minnesota Ave, 2/25/10
Ciao Mambo, Wall St. 2/4/10
***Angel Kisses 1/25/10 (Have moved to 'Honey.')
Ivy Rose Manor 8/20/09
***Downtowner 8/18/09 (moving into the Summit location)
Chocolate e Gateaux 8/16/09
Finders Keepers 8/15/09
Colourstone 7/25/09
Periwinkle 6/--/09
***Tangerine 7/21/09 (Got word, they are moving across the street.)
Micheal Cassidy Gallery 6/15/09
St. Claire Coffee 6/15/09
Luxe Home Interiors 6/4/09
Treefort 5/8/09
Blue 5/2/09
***Volcano Tasting Room 4/28/09** Moved to Minnesota Ave.
Habit 4/16/09
Mountain Comfort 4/14/09
Tetherow Property 4/11/09
Blue Moon Marketplace 3/25/09
Plenty 3/25/09
Downtown Doggie 3/25/09
***King of Sole (became Mary Janes)**
Santee Alley
Bistro Corlise
Made in Hawaii
EnVogue
Stewart Weinmann (leather)
Kebanu Gallery
Pella Doors and Windows
Olive company
Pink Frog
Little Italy
Deep
Merenda's
Volo
***Pomegranate (downtown branch)**
Norwalk
Pronghorn Real Estate office.
Speedshop Deli
Paper Place
Bluefish Bistro
(Fall, 2008 or so.)

Books and memories.

A few years back, there were three businesses in Bend who opened within a short span of each other, who were profiled in the Bulletin, who for some reason were willing to give out some Costs of Opening figures.

Those costs were so high, I simply couldn't understand how they could possibly ever earn a profit -- and this was before the crash.

One lasted a very short time, the other morphed over time but eventually went out, and the third recently announced they were changing their name and management.

The two of them located in downtown Bend, left 'beautiful corpses' , as I phrase it -- the next people occupying the spots probably won't have nearly the opening costs.

Downtown Bend fails ever upward.

**********

The health news about Elizabeth Edwards is bringing back memories of my sister, Tina. They were diagnosed with the same disease at about the same time, though it's progressed differently. That and the Holidays, which we always used to celebrate at Tina's house have made me miss her.

UPDATE: Ms. Edwards has died. I wrote this earlier this morning, and just hadn't posted it. Sad. She was about the same age as Tina, too.

**********

Got in six large boxes of books yesterday, which I'm going to take my time filing away today. Last week, I thought it would take me all day to put a large game order away, and I got it done in a couple of hours.

I'm still finding it hard to read books at the store -- thank god for the internet, where I can fritter my time away endlessly.

**********

The electrical outlets at Pegasus are kind of weird -- very old wiring, I suspect. Anyway, lightbulbs tend to last for very, very short periods of time in the niches at the front part of the store, so I tend to not replace them most of the year. But from Thanksgiving through December, I try to make the effort.

I saw a picture of the front of the store on another Bend blog, and it gave off such a warm glow, maybe I should try harder the rest of the year. Buy a case of cheap lightbulbs, or something.

**********

The pace of change.

Just keeps speeding up.

Borders is talking about buying out Barnes and Noble; which once upon a time would have been a monopolistic concern, but nowadays, probably would be allowed by the Powers that Be.

Do two weakened giants -- one strong giant make?

Meanwhile, Diamond has sketched out an initiative where comic shops would sell digital comics.

My initial reaction was. No.

I don't see how this can work.

I don't see my wanting to do this. It isn't what I bought into when I started working here. It sounds both unnecessary and ...well, boring. Just boring. Here -- push a button. Yuch.

But my second reaction was -- I doubt it will really become an issue. For one thing, if Diamond rolls out this program at their usual glacial speed, I can start worrying about this in a few years.

I'm near enough to the end of my career, that a whole lot of concerns that I might once have had, are a little less pressing these days. If I owned a bookstore or comic shop while still in my 20's or 30's, or even 40's, it would be completely different.

Then again, there is the above stated Pace of Change -- which is astonishing.

Short Book Reviews.

I've kept the pace on my reading a book a week this year. (I was disgusted with myself for only reading 37 last year....) I've read 50 so far.

Book reviews are hard. So these are really more just short comments. This is the stack of books since October, which I'm taking back to the store after entering them in my book diary. I'm going to try to let this be my trigger from now on to write these little bullet reviews.

***The Reversal, Michael Connelly. Always a good, reliable mystery author, this has both Harry Bosch and lawyer Mickey Haller.

***Bad Blood, John Sandford. Also always a reliable good read. (Fucking) Virgil Flowers seems to be the main protagonist for Sandford's books these days, which is all right with me.

***Waiting, Frank M. Robinson. This had a great concept -- the next genetic level of humans living secretly among us -- I just didn't think much was done with it.

***Down River, John Hart. Edgar Award nominee. Unlike the Hugo and Nebula, which are very reliable indicators to me that a book is worth reading, I'm often disappointed in Edgar books. They seem to reward arch-typical characters, plots, and settings. Which, to me, often just seems more like stereotypical characters, plots, and settings... It's a fine line.

***The Unlikely Spy, Daniel Silva. First book by the writer of the Israeli spy novels I enjoy so much. Set in W.W.II, and it's O.K. But more or less a false start, I think, before he got going on Gabriel Allon.

***The Renegades, T. Jefferson Parker. Another really reliable mystery writer. What I mean by this, is that I read all these guys' books the minute I find a new one. (Connelly, Sandford, Parker) Real pro's.

***The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi. Deserves a more thoughtful review. I admired the setting, the complexity and the ambitiousness of this novel. The plot never really built momentum for me, though, because it was split among several characters equally, none of whom were terribly sympathetic. Reminded me of China Mieville's writing. This won both the Hugo and the Nebula.

***Catching Fire and *** Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins. Already talked about these, but would remind you again -- READ them!

***Anathem, Neal Stephenson. Wrote a fuller review a few days ago. Really liked it. Was totally challenged by it's complexity and ideas.

***Mister B. Gone, Clive Barker. Barker, like Stephen King and Robert McCammon and Dan Simmons, all of whom write so called "horror" novels --- which just seem like fantasy to me.
Let's just call it Dark Fantasy and call it even.

The customer wants what the customer wants.

Customer demands for quality never really change.

They expect you to have what they want. They don't want to hear about no downturn. What's that got to do with you not having the latest, hottest item in stock?

Well, of course, in some ways it has everything to do with it, as far as the retailer is concerned. (Less money, means less money to buy inventory, you know?)

But that isn't what the customer expects. He wants what he wants. Even if you have fewer customers, each of those customers -- in their own minds, and with their individual desires -- still wants 100% of what he wanted when you had more customers.

The retailer who can most fill demand, when business is down, will gain the most marketshare.

For example, if it takes 100 customers to carry the top 20 items, and you shrink to 80 customers, then you can probably only realistically afford 16 items. But each of the 80 customers you have left, still want the 20 top items. Does that make sense?

I think of a good store as being all of a piece. Think of it this way -- it's a movie that needs 100 people to see it to break even. If only 80 go to see it, you can't cut 20% of the movie out. People quite understandably want the full experience.

That's why when the bigger stores start to crack a little, they crumble. If you are Borders Books, your whole reason for being is that you have books -- lots and lots and lots of books. If you can't supply them, then what are you good for? You can have all sidelines you want, but ...where's the book I'm looking for?

Barnes and Nobles may be turning to games and toys, (to tide them over until they think that Nook will save them -- ha), but that isn't what people are looking for from them. In addition to games and toys, they are going to need to be very careful to keep their book inventory up. (Which means, that they can't just replace books with games and toys, but have to add games and toys --which has got to be causing some stress to their bottom-line...and isn't that exactly the tactic that Border's tried?)

When you carry specialty product, you can get away with not having EXACTLY what the customer is looking for, because -- well, the obvious stuff is pretty much covered by the mass market. The big boys have to have the whole gamut of material. That is the bargain they made with the customer -- that they will have it all, that they will have it first, that they will have lots of it, and that they will be cheaper.

They'd better not fall down on any of those things, or they become -- Borders, Circuit City, Linens and Things. Hard to recover from that, once the customer perceives that you're failing. While the big boys get the lion's share of business when things are flush, they are also damned quicker when they start to stumble. A specialty store doesn't quite have the same onus.

My job is to pretty much cover Comic books and Graphic Novels completely, no excuses -- that is what people expect me to do. So I have to be sure that I carry the 20% that the 80% of the customers want, but I also need to carry as much as possible of the 80% of product that the 20% of the customers want. I have to carry the whole movie, if you will.

However, with many of my other sidelines, I really only need to do the first part of that: the 20% of the product that 80% of the customers want. I can carry my favorite books, recommendations, cult classics and masterpieces -- but I don't try to carry all 50 of the new best-sellers. Costco does a pretty efficient job of that.

Gives me a bit of leeway that the giant chains don't have. (Bless their greedy little hearts.)

Don't get me wrong, I still have to do a good job. I can't disappoint customers too many times, or they won't come back.

To use another flawed movie analogy. A chainstore is like a 16 plex movie theater -- people quite rightly expect you to carry every new movie coming out. An indy store is like McMenimin's -- showing a single second run movie in convivial surroundings and not charging you six bucks for a small bag of overcooked popcorn.

That's the deal.

The customer wants what the customer wants.

Confirmation from an unexpected source.

Did you all see the graph on the front page of the Sunday Bulletin's business section?

If you've been reading this blog, you know that I've been chronicling the ups and downs of the sales for Pegasus Books -- and thus, I was assuming, the local economy.

At least, I was hoping I wasn't the only one going through what I was going through.

You know that I talked about a two year decline, from September, 2007 through September, 2009, with the sharpest decline from Sept., 2008 (Lehman Brothers) to Sept., 2009.

The Bulletin's graph shows the overall Bend economy beginning to drop in the second quarter of 2006, which was when I started my blog and when I thought there was the least awareness of the dangers we were in. It had already started, apparently.

Again, pretty much parallelling the graph, I started to see an uptick in the late 2009, which continued for 7 months. Then, starting around April of 2010, we started to see another drop, which has continued to this day.

However, unlike the earlier changes, which were pretty much documented through both the national and local media, I think this second dip -- the double dip you see on the chart -- was not only not acknowledged, but we were pretty much told it wasn't happening.

I knew it was happening, at least in my store, made my own adjustments, trusting in what I was seeing, and tried to stay ahead of the curve.

A curve that was apparently happening for the entire Central Oregon economy. Up down, up down.

There it is, clear as day.

So it's nice, in a terrible way, to see that my store's graphs pretty much mirror the graph you see in the Bulletin.

Doesn't really matter what the rest of the country does, does it?

Never rains but it....

...pours.

After getting the week of Thanksgiving's comics on Monday, and the next shipment a Holiday delay day late, this week's comics are minuscule.

The entire west coast is missing all DC, most Marvel, and most Dark Horse and Image. No one seems to know why. "Snow in New York..." is about all anyone has said so far.

I can't wait until next year when they ship early, and many of these problems will be ameliorated -- hopefully.

**********

Last two days have really been slow, after a pretty good first two days of the month. Not expecting much today, being Sunday and snow. Not the way I wanted to start the month.

This just reinforces my determination to be careful about next year. In about a week from now, any orders I make will have to be paid in January, and I really don't want to load too many pre-commitments into that month...

Just have to keep making sure my orders match my sales.

*********

Todd is home for a few days, and I always enjoy how much Linda comes alive when her sons are home.

We make a joke about Panga about how alive she is after she catches one of the critters on Vole Patrol.

What's funny is to watch Linda come alive in the same way. Life is worth living!

I am an incorrigible nicknamer -- I can't help it. Yesterday, I started calling Linda "Sparky."

Seems to fit.

Real Techishness.

Techishness: 1.) A feeling of irritation toward technology. 2.) Annoyance with younger people telling you all about the new technology. 3.) Displaying a 'know-it-all' attitude toward technology. (see, dickishness...)


Just once in my life, I'd like to coin a word that everyone picks up and uses. I may not get credit, but I'll know I did it.

I thought once, I'd done it with 'Blog Fodder', but it was already being used.