Friday, May 25, 2007

A Bridge Too Far.

Carrying new books and new board games has been a relative success. These two new product lines are almost half a year old now, and the inventory has been filled in to an nice level. (It was never my intent to be a full-line bookstore or a full-line game store.) The easy sales were at the beginning, and sales have slowed, but neither summer or Christmas have been tested yet.

Still, I'm satisfied. It seems as though my daily totals are reached through the combination of 10 product lines easier than they were through 8 product lines.

Earlier this spring, I'd thought to add new movie dvd's and new music cd's. But then decided that I'd wait until summer, and continue to work on the books and games until then.

Well, summer is here, and I'm backing off. Trying to add two new product lines, on top of the existing ten, would make my head explode. I just can't fit it into my brain. I have limited room, time, and money, and if I'm EVER going to turn a profit, I need to quit adding inventory lines at some point. So, I've decided not to do it.

It doesn't help that more than half the 'cult' movies I wanted to carry aren't available through the vendor I have lined up. If I can't get the director's cut of Bladerunner, the original Evil
Dead II, and so on, why bother?

Meanwhile, I'm hopelessly behind on new music. I'd planned to check out College radio lists for groups I should carry, since they usually have the kind of music I like, but it would require more research than I'm willling to invest.

So, back to doing the best job I can on comics, graphic novels, used books, new books, card games, role-playing games, board games, toys, anime and manga, and sports cards. That's quite enough.

1 comment:

Duncan McGeary said...

Forgot to mention the complicating factors in both movies and music.

Not only would it be dicey to try to carry an inventory of dvds with the HD material on its way; but trying to decide which format will win out is beyond me.

I spent a lot of money on anime videos, because I read some 'expert's take on how long I would have before the consumer adopted the dvd. What I didn't take into account was that anime buyers would be about the earliest adopters possible. I had to start all over again.

And of course the problem with downloading music is ongoing. So again, investing in inventory is iffy.