Working in (and on) the margins.

I worried as I took more time off over the last year that I would lose connection to the store.

I don't think that is going to happen.

I've learned that, without being totally conscious of it, I was pacing myself when I was working full-time. I knew that opening at 11:00 instead of 10:00 had been a huge deal. I knew that stringing days off together mattered, instead of having them interspersed through the week. I'll probably never again let my employees dictate MY hours: I'll either hire enough part-timers or have employees who work the hours I want.

Working less days has been nice. But on the days I do work, I'm working much harder. I'm not sure the energy expenditure is diminished as much as I would have thought. I find myself going to the store on my day's off to finish some of the tasks I haven't competed.

Anyway, the store is always going to be a challenge. That is never going to change. I'm always going to need to be plugged in.

Just in the last two years, the rise of the digital and e-book has created a whole new set of problems to deal with.

My answer to this is to continue to diversify, to move to the margins -- as it were. Up until now, I've had the benefit of comics and graphic novels being half of my business. More or less solid and reliable and with a profit margin that stayed somewhat constant. I'm not sure I can count on that forever, as each comic company announces 'digital' initiatives.

The other half of my business was already made up of product that were "sidelines" if you will. Sports cards and non-sports cards, manga and anime, toys, games (role-laying, collectible card games, and boardgames), new and used books. I look for niches in each of these categories that I can exploit. Either better margins, or specialized knowledge and selection, or simply having them when no one else carries them.

I went into euro-style boardgames with full knowledge that they might eventually hit a tipping point and appear in the chainstores at discount prices. (In fact, I'm a little surprised it hasn't happened quicker.) I went into new books with full knowledge of the challenges from the mass market, the big chain bookstores, and Amazon. (Though I didn't really see e-books coming on so strong.)

But I can make these product lines work in the margins -- and also get better margins in the buying process. The "margins" is a pun for both the placement of the product and the prices I pay.

I'm guessing that I'll need to deal with a slow erosion of sales in comics, graphic novels and books, as the e-world gets bigger. There may be compensations, such as decreased competition (hard to see how Barnes and Noble can be in it for the long run). But basically, I'll need to make each of the margins I'm currently getting improve to compensate for e-book incursions. This isn't going to all happen immediately; but the time to deal with it is now.

My New book sales are still increasing -- because I'm getting more and more and better books and displaying them better.

I look at the products I have in stock, and I'm pretty confident that I can keep adjusting, keep responding to which products are selling at the moment, to keep sales above my break-even point. Or increase my profit margins by being selective and efficient, which the longer I do it, the more I become.

Finally, I'm really having fun bringing in new books. The more I do it, the more I feel comfortable taking chances on new titles. I'm carrying best-sellers more than before, such as Stephen King's 11/22/63 or The Night Circus; because I'm figuring out how to do it.

My new book section is like a new toy, and I'm really enjoying making it work. And that too is keeping me engaged in my business.

My budget is constructed so that there is enough of a margin that I take home the same amount of pay whether sales are strong or weak. (If they got super weak, they might change -- but probably not even then, since I can adjust other things.) (If they got super strong, I might put more money into savings.)

All that usually happens is either I buy more stuff or less.

So my focus has been on making the store something that I can be proud of.

Banks are our friends. .... .... .... ....what?

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is suing five of the nation's biggest banks: "Our suit alleges that the banks have charted a destructive path by cutting corners and rushing to foreclose on homeowners without following the rule of law." Huffington Post, 12/1/11.

I remember way back when a mountain of foreclosures looked like they were about to fall on our heads, I asked: What was to keep the Banks from playing this? Holding back properties they wanted, dumping others, delaying and hurrying, using their clout to bully and so on?

Good old RDC, who has never seen a corporation he doesn't like, said, Oh, no, they will have to follow proper procedures, the rule of law.

Heh.

What say you now, RDC?

Biz bits.

Big excitement over a potential employer of 6000 people in Redmond!

Except:

1.) the company is obviously shopping, having supposedly committed to DC last year, and then looking at four or five other places.

2.) the company currently has 10 full time employees. Not 100. Not 1000, where even then we'd be asked to believe they can increase by 85%. 10 employees.

3.) a change in state laws to allow a financing mechanism for the company to do all this.

I recognize such customers. I usually tell them they'll be happier shopping elsewhere.

**********

American Airlines files for bankruptcy. I remember reading once that if you take the airline industry as a whole from its beginnings, it's LOST money.

I read this in an article about "dysfunctional" industries.

I'm convinced that once a industry tips into this kind of dysfunction, it never comes back, but just flails around from then on.

**********

Speaking of Redmond.

A 50-year plan. 10,000 jobs by 2030.

Wait a minute, aren't you going to get 6000 jobs in one fell swoop?

Oh, and a 50 year plan?

Forgetaboutit.

I write speculative fiction, too. I don't mistake them for "plans."

**********

That picture in the Bulletin of a huge crowd of people applying for 50 jobs at Deschutes Brewery?

Where the hell is everyone going to park? (Employees and Customers?)

I never thought to ask this but: Is this business getting too big for downtown Bend?

"Don't throw away!!!"

There's this cardboard ....THING....that's been hanging around the store. Just kind of there, not really noticed, picked up and set aside every once in a while. Kind of looks like a couple of bookmarks, taped together. I think I've picked it up several times, and always put it back thinking I'd figure it out later.

So today, I finally picked it up and read it again.

"DON'T (underlined three times) Throw This Away!!!
Warning -- on Pain of Death and Dismemberment."

Under this, in a different handwriting, in smaller letters, is this: "Why are we saving this again? Psychology experiment?"

And under that, in different handwriting, and even smaller letters:

"It's purpose will be made clearer in the coming days. All glory to the Creator!"


I finally took this home and show it to Linda and asked, "Is this yours? What does it refer to?"

She couldn't stop laughing. "I vaguely remember this...."

"Yes, but now it's become it's own Thing -- eternal and everlasting.... who would dare destroy it? though it's purpose be long forgotten. Even now I hesitate!"


What a wonderful dirty trick. Go into a store with a nice label, and put it on a random object. Then check every few months to see if it's still there....

The wrong kind of role-model?

First I was the inspiration for the drunken, sloppy spaceship captain who saves the solar system in Jared's story. Now, Cameron tells me he's using me as a model for his main character in his screenplay for my "awkward" way of phrasing things.

(After which, I spent most of the day being self-conscious of my phrasing of things.)

Gee. Glad to be an inspiration, guys.

Wednesday WTH?

Found a fascinating new site called, Literature Map. You type in an author's name, and a cloud bubble is created with the names of similar authors. The closer the name is, the more other readers have recommended the author.

I noticed that it seems to be more about similar styles of writing or storytelling.

Not so much about the quality of the writing. Putting Terry Goodkind and George R.R. Martin together is like putting spam and steak together -- they're both technically meats.

I've put it on my computer at the store and the next time someone mentions that they "like" an author and who else would I recommend (?), I'm going to use it.

Really, though, it's pretty much what I've always done as a bookseller -- so this will just give me a gentle reminder. I'll try to tell the customer which is spam and which is steak.

***********

I've decided to double the space I devote to "classic" books, which seem to sell consistently.

I've all but given up on used hardcover mysteries, and I'm just going to pile those at the bottom of a couple of bookcases and sell them for a flat 5.00 each.

This frees up enough room to put all my 'non-fiction' against the east wall, and gives me two bookcases to put New books into. One, as I said, for classics. The other bookcase I'm saving is the one that I'm devoting to themes; a bookshelf for Pirates, and Retro Future, and Weird Western, and Steampunk, and Robots, and Dragons.

There's still room in this Tardis.

**********

I was joking that just getting the covers to the New Yorker was enough to pay for the subscription, with the inside cartoons as a bonus.

The last two covers have been great.

In one, the picture is of illegal immigrants Pilgrims crawling under the fence and racing for the border. Makes it's point.

The latest (which I haven't actually received yet, but which I've seen online, is a Dan Clowes (great to see great graphic novel artists get work with the big boys) picture of a 'future' bookstores. In a store full of t-shirts and toys and e-books, a clerk is pointing out to a dismayed customer a small, neglected row of books at the bottom of a rack.

Weird Barnes and Noble ad campaign.

I've been making the joke that Barnes and Noble is busily making themselves obsolete. That their goal was to put their own brick and mortar stores out of business.

After seeing their Christmas ad campaign, I don't think it's a joke anymore.

They have a customer asking about a Nook, upon which everyone in the store dances around with an e-reader in their hands, singing that their "sole purpose" is to sell you a Nook.

"Sole purpose." Their words, not mine.

Incidentally, there are paper books in the background, as if anyone still cares. Certainly, none are trying to be sold. None are shown, except as spine out far background props to the Nook. You get the sense that there would be sooooo much more space to dance with your Nook if you didn't have these stupid bookshelves in the way. Which, come to think of it, may be the intended message.

I kid you not -- you have to see these ads to believe them. It seems to be an almost gratuitous insult to books. I have to believe that such a clear statement of intent will have to impact on their book sales -- if nothing else, in how motivated the workers there are going to be. How dispiriting to think you work in a bookstore, when you really work in an electronic hardware store.

I haven't been in B & N in a long time, but I wonder in the next few years if they won't be following Borders down to closing all their stores. I'd say, "Stop pretending that you care about being booksellers," except this ad pretty much says they've stopped caring.

But hey, if that is their attitude, then they'll leave the field to those of us who still WANT to run bookstores.

NINJAS, STEAMPUNK AND PIRATES!

I currently have a ROBOTS! bookshelf. And a PIRATES! bookshelf. And a DRAGONS! bookshelf.

I want to add: STEAMPUNK! and NINJAS! (Ordered a bunch of new books to fill those shelves.)

If I can find enough material, I'd like to do WEIRD WESTERNS! shelf.

ZOMBIES! and VAMPIRES! and WEREWOLVES! would seem obvious, but they are pretty diffused right now amongst the humor, horror, and paranormal romance. So I'm not sure that would be the most effective way to display them, though I may have enough overflow to do both.

I've just ordered a book that comes with Word Balloon stickers -- so I can plaster the store with directions.

Any others you can think of?

Sunday night shows.

We watch a lot of shows on Sunday. And some of them seem to tread water week to week. Last night, finally, some momentous things happened.

But before I start talking about BIG SPOILERS/WARNING SPOILERS! I wanted to compare T.V. shows to books. Reading a book is pretty much an A to Z experience. But T.V. seems sometimes to get caught somewhere between H and N and hover there, trying to maintain the experience.

Problem is, how do you kill off main characters in a drama and still have a show?

Anyway, last night was one of those times when all the shows seem to lurch forward a bit.


In Dexter, the big Sixth Sense reveal finally happened -- not much of a reveal, actually, since it was pretty easy to guess from week one. The evil Professor Geller is a figment of Colin Hanks mind. On the other hand, they did some fancy footwork to try to fool us over the last few weeks.

Oh, and I have a new catchphrase whenever Linda says something off the wall: "You're a chair."


Homeland kind of disappointed me last week when they did the double/triple switcheroo. Is he a traitor? No? Yes? No?

I guess the answer is -- kinda, sorta?

But they redeemed themselves somewhat by showing a pretty convincing motivation for his turncoating.


Hell on Wheels is still in the initial inflation stage where the story is propelled by its newness.


Walking Dead finally had an episode where something happened, and where all the talk actually counted for something.

I suppose I'm supposed to feel some sympathy for the Hershel's viewpoint -- but, really, it's pretty hard to be on his side. So Shane's over the top reaction doesn't really look all that over the top.

Dale, too, is supposed to be a more sympathetic character -- but having him try to hide the guns? Idiotic.

The little girl coming out of the barn was very effective, though, and something I didn't see coming.

Now we have to wait until February for more episodes.


Boardwalk Empire really put together a solid episode, finally. I was getting impatient with this show. They may have killed off a non-essential character, but they did it in a very chilling way.

And I kept expecting Mrs. Schroeder to ask God for her money back.


Yes, Buster. I watch too much T.V.

They've Madoff with Black Friday.

Every Black Friday, I give it the Old College Try. I come an hour early, stay a couple hours late. Wait for the crowds to appear.

And every year I'm disappointed.

The funny thing is, I had a huge Wednesday, and I would be happy to do, say, 75% of that. It's hard to resist the Hype, even for me. I still remember how big a day this used to be.

Thing is, I think the mass market has effectively Madoff with Black Friday. Give the devil his due, they've been very effective in co-opting this day. But I still get a little excited by the prospect of B.F. and then -- well, I say, next year I won't be such a knucklehead.


Oh, well. I had some of my normal Thursday work to do, so nothing lost.

I'm writing this before the day, so we'll see how it turns out.


O.K. I made in the first hour 10:00 to 11:00, when I'm usually not open as much as I hoped to make the first two hours. So this time, coming early worked. Most of it to one customer.


So not a great result at the end of the day. Did about 60% of Wednesday total. Which I believe happened last year, too. Cameron said he didn't do much business between 5:00 and 7:00 but did some in the last hour, 7:00 to 8:00; the tree lighting?


I think I'll hold off posting this until we see what happens on Saturday. "Small Business Saturday." We'll see. I'm going to open an hour early, again, at 10:00 and do some paperwork.

(By the way, looking at pictures of the mad rush, I'm not sure that I'm sorry that corporate America Madoff with Black Friday. Wow. Maybe we should just let them have it... It's not like one day out the year should make that much difference if you are doing a good job the rest of the year...)


Came an hour early on Saturday, and it was an effective hour. Did about the same Sat. as Fri.: so much for "Small Business Saturday."

So, not a great weekend, not a disaster. I had pretty low expectations, and we came in a little below those expectations, unless Sunday is unexpectedly good.

Nevertheless we are going to beat last year for the month, which will make it 5 months in a row we've beaten last year.

Bordersnakes.

Apparently, my subconscious felt the screaming need to write a book review.

I've been waking up at 4:00 and 5:00 in the morning over the last few weeks, which is a new insomnia. Usually I get back to sleep, eventually.

Anyway, I had this review pretty much written when I woke up and who am I to deny it?


BORDERSNAKES, James Crumley.

I've enjoyed Crumley books in the past. He's like a cross of Raymond Chandler, Hunter S. Thompson, and On The Road -- with a bit of Cormac McCarthy's Texas in the mix.

He writes in first person, with an engaging, authentically quirky voice.

But this book's plot seems to be all over the place. It's as though it's been weeks since I read the last chapter, instead of just days. I'm losing characters and plot lines. That could be on me, I suppose.

Meanwhile, the protagonists imbibe enough alcohol, drugs, sex, and dirty language to sink a battleship. Thing is, it feels uncomfortably like an alcoholic trying to justify his binge.

The sex part seems contrived -- beautiful women who keep coming on to these two 50ish aged guys.

It seems more like an alcoholic dream, like a couple of depraved oompa loompas.

Yet, like I said, his first person "voice" is still really engaging, so I'll be finishing the book.

I would still recommend his earlier books.

(O.K. That's weird. I looked him up on Wiki, and they too use the Raymond Chandler and Hunter S. Thompson as comparable authors -- Hey, I thought of it on my own!)

The value of "Sales."

So it turns out that when you really examine "Sales" they turn out to be as much a negative as a positive.

They turn out not to generate return business, or customer loyalty. In fact, they hurt future sales because the customer is likely to feel like they've done their shopping already.

At the same time, they also hurt margins.

They devalue product.

They make the customer cynical about real 'value.'


But. This being America. Stores do it anyway.

Cause, you know, that's the way it's done....

P.S. This not the same discussion as having real 'value'.

Or even getting a deal. I can often give a customer a deal on an item, when I know what I paid. There is something to be said for striving for a regularly "fair" price, instead of cut throat pricing (and that goes for both higher and lower prices.) In other words, I won't either overcharge you or undercharge you.

I read a book in 1987, called the Big Store, which as about Sear's resurgence. (Obviously -- it didn't take.)

Anyway, I remember the part where the new C.E.O. decided to pull out all the stops in having a bang up Christmas. So they priced everything they could competitive with other stores, tried to beat other stores in other pricing. All predicated on the idea that overall sales would make up the difference.

So the management got all excited by the news that they were having record sales all Christmas.

Until they added it all up. All the "Sale" stuff had sold, but most of the regular stuff hadn't. (Or, more accurately, the sales of the regular prices material hadn't made up the difference.)

They'd lost money. They'd emptied their stores. They had, in effect, "Given Away the Store."

I always remembered the phrase, "giving away the store," because it's easy to do. I see it all the time, in fact, often when another store seems to be selling more than seems possible, it's probably because they are being imprudent.

Even after reading this book, I didn't quite get it. I probably sold millions of dollars worth of sports cards over a 18 year period -- and had nothing to show for it. I call it, "Churning the cash."

I want "everyday regular prices" -- to paraphrase Walmart.

I recently had a woman return a book. The crime? I had charged the regular price of the book.

Oh, well.

Black Friday.

I write a version of this blog every Black Friday.

I doubts the deals on this day.

Sure there are a few overwhelmingly good deals, but because of limited numbers, those deals become mostly the basis for bait and switch.

There's an article today in the Bulletin: "Black Friday Doesn't Have The Best Prices, Research Shows."

My guess is that even lowered prices are simply the new baseline for prices in a month or two. In fact, chances are that prices will be cheaper in a month or two.

Hell, there are stores (furniture come to mind) were 50 and 60% off are the norm.

One final thing -- there are ALWAYS deals. More deals than you can afford.

Not that anyone will be convinced.

Besides, it's probably beside the point: according to an article yesterday, people shop because the "love crowds" and it's an excuse for a family event and stuff like that.

But never mind all that, go shopping anyway. Especially downtown. Especially on Minnesota St. Especially in that quirky little pop culture store you've always meant to go into.

Small business Saturday. Shop local!

You know, I'd rather you guys didn't skip Friday either. I'm a little afraid this focus on Saturday will kill Friday even further. The way it used to work is, people would shop the mass market early in the day, and the downtown later in the day. Sounds good.

(Do I have a right to complain about the long list of store hours listed in the Bulletin -- that almost all of them were big chain stores and not local? What's with that? The article itself, had quite a few quotes from local retailers, at least.)

Geez, that sounded Grinchy. Never mind. Just have fun.

Anyway, we'll be open extended hours on Friday; 10:00 to 8:00.

Hope to see you!

The fractured time machine.

I dreamed last night that I invented a time machine.

But the time machine could only be used to go back as far as the invention of the machine.

So there is all the time up to the time machine, which is unchanging.

Then there is all the time after the time machine. Which becomes fractured and diffuse and confusing as people go backward again and again to fix earlier mistakes and stumble across each other (and earlier versions of themselves) and eventually no one can remember where they started.

Might make a good short story.

I think I had the dream because I've been watching Fabric of the Cosmos on Nova, which is trippy and mindblowing and confusing and makes me feel both stupid and small. How do they come up with this stuff? But which is also fascinating.

Also a good sign when I dream a story, because it means my subconscious creativity is hard at work.


Happy Turkey Day!

Measure the true goals.

Having a great store is NOT the same thing as having a highly profitable one, as counter-intuitive as that may seem. In fact, the two goals can be at odds.

It took me a long time to learn this, and personally, I think having a satisfying workplace is at least as important as making money.

"Wait a minute!" I hear you saying. "You have to make money to survive!"

True enough, but I'd argue that you also have to have a satisfying experience to survive as a small business.

I'll say it again -- I think as many businesses quit because of 'burnout' as quit from not making money.

Sure, there are people who open small businesses with the sole purpose of making lots of money. I think that's usually a forlorn goal -- you'll make enough to get by, probably, if you do a good job and you don't burn yourself out along the way.

But other people open small businesses, in a sense, to buy their own job. To be their own boss. To be in a congenial place selling to friendly people and enjoying what they do.

What I see around me, is that people underestimate that aspect of business. They do things they don't want to do because everyone tells them they should and because it makes them more money and then they wake up one day and it isn't fun and they ask themselves why they are doing it.

I mean, why do you own a business if isn't something you like doing? So, you know, try to avoid doing things that will make you dislike what you're doing!

Every advice column you read will advise you to overextend the effort you make. So you have to maintain an inner gauge as to how much you can handle -- that extra service you just offered that brings in a few more bucks a month, is it really worth it? Extended hours? Extended menu? Extended everything?

Measure your workload, your satisfaction, the same way you measure your money.

Time, energy, space, stress....satisfaction....ARE money.

The store I want.

As I've created my store -- and that's what it is, an act of creation -- I've pretty much had in mind a pop culture oasis, a jewel in the high desert. A store that would stack up to any store in a bigger city, with the space limitations taken into account.

In reality, this is kind of silly to try to do.

For instance, I rarely sell independent graphic novels. Books that are well reviewed in the New York Times, and which every comic web site in the world thinks your a 'fanboy' shop if you don't carry. All well and good, but the truth is they don't sell all that great.

Same with statues, same with deluxe editions, same with heritage collections, same with designer toys.

Yet, I carry a full selection.

Lately, I've even replenished the manga and anime sections, though they more or less died off several years ago. (I've just brought in every Miyazaki movie I can, as well a Studio Ghibli, and some big movies like Steam Boy and Patlabor).

I've been keeping up the sports card and nonsport card sections for years, even though they are extremely erratic in sales.

In other words, I've created the store as I THINK IT SHOULD BE, rather than perhaps what the dictates of the marketplace would suggest.

Because the marketplace is fickle and unpredictable and ...well, I'd even have to say, treacherous.

What I'm trying to do, in some ways, is impose my own reality on the store. By force of will, I'm saying: "This is what SHOULD sell."

And I find, that indeed, if I really do an informed and curated job, that it more or less works out that way -- sometimes by accident, sometimes because I'm there to push it, sometimes because we get enough people from elsewhere who are appreciative of what I've done.

Because it's so much more satisfying this way.

Christmas for the retailer isn't quite the same.

I almost went back to work last night because I was so worried about the stress level today.

Yesterday, in just two hours, I felt overwhelmed. I had to give it up as a bad day. I walked away with all the graphic novels and toys undone, the games unpriced, with some of them still on the floor.

No real harm done. Cameron was there to do business as usual. But it bugs me not to complete tasks.

I spent about 10 minutes staring at the game stacks, as if that would suddenly open a space for the excess games....

There is always a solution, I find, if I think about it long enough. Cameron calls Pegasus the "Tardis" of stores -- like the Dr. Who travel machine that looks like a telephone booth on the outside but has expanses on the inside.

I wanted to stock up on games, so that I never run out of them during the Christmas season. So that a run of buying 2 or 3 in one day, won't mean I'm out.

But where to put the extras?

Plus, I ordered everything on the Blizzard Sales list from my main supplier, which means that my overall margin in the last few weeks has dropped more than 10 percentage points, which I'll be happy to have over the long run.

But in the short run, I've probably overdone it.

This is the first Christmas in years that I decided to pursue completely. Usually, I use it as a profit making opportunity. (By profit, I mean making enough to pay off all bills, actually.)

What usually happens when I buy like this isn't that I suddenly get a 10 or 20% boost in sales. But that I get a 1 or 2% boost in sales over the course of the year. In other words, it's an investment.

It's all in the timing.

I'm getting an extra 5% in December from DC and it's my intent to order extras of every single DC evergreen I can get. Even if it means borrowing money.

So anyway, back to the original point about stress. Today is going to be a lu lu. But I'm going to shrug it off, not let it get to me. If I start feeling the tension build up, I'll walk away and sit in the corner for a few minutes.

I did make one concession. I asked Cameron to come in for a few hours, so that will help.

In return, I intend to show up on Friday morning to help out for a few hours.