I'm gonna whine if you don't mind.

First of all, to make clear, we are running a full 20% better in sales for the first 3 months of the year, than last year, which is pretty dramatic growth for a mature business. Secondly, a fair portion of that growth is in comics, again a mature part of my business.

Still.

All the comic news sites are abuzz with all the 'sell-outs' in comics. Most shops were having to beat off speculators for the Captain America 25 with a stick. Buffy #1 comes out and its an instant sell-out. Record days, record weeks.

My store. Pretty darn average, if not a little below. I counted how many Buffy #1's I have left on my shelf to see how many I sold.

None. Not one. I had 3 people signed up, and that's it. I bought 25 copies even though the last Buffy series I carried sold less than 3 issues. This is Season 8 of the the T.V. series, as written by Joss Whedon (with an "unlimited special effects budget.")

So what's going on here?

Yet again, I'm reminded that we have a smaller, more isolated population. There isn't alot of tourism going on at the moment. The demographics have always been problematic.

But I also have to believe that Bend residents have a different mindset. I think we're just a bit more laidback around here, a little slower off the mark, a little more isolated and out of the loop.

Maybe I ought to be thankful for that.

Linda says this sounds condescending to Bendites. Well, no. I'm glad we aren't scurrying around trying to grab the next hottest thing, today, now, this minute. We got better things to do.

But as a business I have to be aware. In the old days, I used to get a hot comic in, and my locals would ignore it. Then the out-of-towners would hit the store on the weekends, wipe me out of stock. Then the locals would finally get word, come in and find it all gone. I've learned to reserve a number of copies whenever possible for the locals. (Though, sometimes, I wish when I point out a 'hot' comic they would believe me....)

I just have to ignore all the talk of record days -- of other retailers talking about selling not just dozens of Buffy's and Capt. Americas, but HUNDREDS and THOUSANDS.

I've always had a suspicion that any new business coming to Bend, especially any business that has existed in a different market, must go through a period of shock as they realize that what happened in Portland and Seattle and even Eugene or Salem wasn't going to happen here. Add in new businesses, who almost always think that shopkeeping is all about ringing up sales at the cash register and it must be somewhat disillusioning. This is the one of the reasons that many businesses sell or go out of business -- not because they aren't technically profitable, it just isn't as busy and exciting as they thought it would be.

I've just heard of another potential high end dress shop opening downtown. That would be the 7th dress shop within a hundred yards of my store. Pretty crazy.