Every year I can't wait for summer business to get here, and every year I'm more than ready to see it go.

Yes, I get a 25% boost, but I have to work at least twice as hard to get there. There last few years have been especially difficult because a large percentage of my foot traffic are young families. My store looks very alluring to them....and yet, there is little they really want. Indeed, if they don't look at the Star Wars stuff, or Pokemon, my chances of selling much are pretty low.

There is a short article in the paper today that parents are in total denial about how overweight their kids are. Well, they are also in denial about how little their kids want to read. Since my store is more than half made up with reading material, you see the problem. This is going to sound weird, but my main job with young families is to try to manage them. Most are just fine, but there are a few who feel their kids are priviledged and entitled, and I have to find ways to manage them so that don't displace or damage so much product they hurt my store. (I buy everything in the store, I can't return it, and I usually can only afford one of each item.) And a very few young families take offense if I say anything, no matter how mild or careful I phrase it.

I have always found it fascinating that the kids that most need instruction, are the same kids who have parents who take the most offense at their kids being instructed. Kind of goes together, don't it?

It's very dangerous to criticize kids in this culture. So I want to make it clear; most kids are a delight. But the few who are little brats make it hard.

So, well, I'm sort of glad when they go back to school.

I just have to budget a little tighter and lavish more attention on the fewer people coming in the door.