Part of me just wants to hunker down. Yesterday's posts seem like daring bad luck to me. (knock on wood, knock on wood). And yet, I can't help but comment.

My store is in a different place than it's ever been. First it was an under-capitalized startup, then it was on the sports card roller coaster, then it was up and down survival mode, (booms and busts of a succession of bubble product), followed by free fall, and then, over the last three years, in build-up again.

Now, it's more a' keep it going' maintanence phase, which I've never been in before. I need to organize, clean, reorganize, spruce up, and buff. I need to make certain that I keep the merchandise quality high, and the sales as near the peak as I can keep them. (Without the constant increase in merchandise, sales may actually drop a bit, while profits should increase.)

At any rate, I'm still adjusting to this new world. Things haven't really changed from the outside much, so far, except that the foot traffic outside my store is noticeably strong. So the housing crunch, and the possible recession, is all theory at this point.



That said, I still have a few observations about Boomtown. 12 employees and 7000 square feet would be difficult for a destination store. (You wonder if they wouldn't have been better off staying in their Wall Street location.) Also interesting to me is that their diversification efforts evidently weren't enough. Because that's been my strategy as well. But I've been aware for awhile now, that its working because of the downtown foot traffic.

Finally, just a small mention of partners, but it made me wonder if the real reason Boomtown is closing is because the building is worth so much more than the business could ever bring in....


Greg Oden. I KNEW it! Damn. The Sam Bowie curse.....