The traditional start to the summer season is coming up this weekend. Now that they keep kids in school past Memorial Day, I think of my store's season as beginning about mid-June.

Wait. Haven't I said that kids and young families are no longer my customers? Yes and no. Local kids and families are a very small percentage. Tourists are a very large percentage. And tourism can't really get going until the families are freed up to travel.



Barnes and Nobles has announced that despite an increase in sales last quarter, they actually lost money through discounts. This is known as giving away the store. The reason I bring it up is that the Harry Potter books is about to be released, at more or less wholesale price, so the next quarter is almost bound to be the same thing. Nevertheless, their stocks went up.

Too bad I'm not a corporation, with my growth rates I'd be a star. We've doubled in sales in the last 3 years. Now if I could just turn a profit.

I'm still not sure if I'm even getting the Harry Potter book. I had to go through the process of swearing that I wouldn't sell early THREE times! Pages of documents. When they called me a fourth time and said I had to do it again, I said, don't bother. The rep mentioned that I "might" get the books anyway, since the system was so screwed up. Either way, I'll get the book within a week of publication anyway.



The fates have handed us a chance to do a bit better in sports cards this year. The Blazers have the first pick!. So I may be selling a lot of basketball cards, which hasn't happened much since the glory days of Drexler and Porter. One of the reasons that sports cards have been hard to sell recently, except for the Blazers, we really don't have a local team.

It's scarily reminiscent of their choice of Sam Bowie over Micheal Jordon, however. Pick a dominant college center with a history of injuries, or a flashy scorer, who was Player of the Year in his freshman year? I'd go with Greg Oden, since good centers are impossible to get. Allen can go out a buy a strong forward, and they already have Roy in place. Finally, a team worth watching -- and worth selling cards of.