Memorial Day weekend. Very good Saturday, average Sunday, very poor Monday. Still, I didn't get the sense we had as many tourists in town. Paul-doh asked how we were doing, and I mentioned my bang-on Saturday, to which he said:
"Yeah. I've come to expect Dunc's stores performance to be poorly correlated with downtown retail in general.
He's sort of a quasi-monopoly. Not a Me Too store, like 90% of downtown. You got plenty of places to buy shoes, for example. Pegasus probably'll be OK come hell or high water...."
Yessiree. We are the cockaroach of downtown businesses.
No, I know what he means.
But it reminds me of a time I was bemoaning how few of some graphic novel I was selling in comparison to Rory Root's Comic Relief, and telling him he was lucky to have such a prosperous and populated area. In his very gentle way, Rory said, "Well, it wasn't an accident I located here."
(This is a small memorial to Rory Root, who was one of the nicest guys I've ever met online and who died last week.)
Anyway, I've made a conscious effort to attract regular local business as well as tourist business. I've made an effort to pursue product that the mass market ignores, and which other small businesses haven't been able to make work.
I think it's interesting that almost all my competitors from even 2 years ago are gone; Gambit Games, American Sports, Anime Mountain, Fun n Games, even the Book Barn. How is it that so many of these niche businesses are having trouble surviving -- and yet we see a multitude of small businesses opening in downtown Bend. I think the fact that full time game, toy, sports card, anime and bookstores (along with Boomtown) haven't found Bend to be lucrative enough to keep going is more an indicator of real business conditions than another clothing store opening. Another jewelry store. Another restaurant.
While I don't know if I'd call them "me too" businesses, they are pretty generalized and hard to get a handle on.
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- Too far?
- Visions of Sugar Plums, Dancin'
- Weather argument.
- Soggy mess.
- Left out.
- Me too stores?
- Dark Tower
- Lookey here! We have industrial space! Afterall.
- Orders weekend.
- Penus drawing.
- Volatility?
- Staying focused on the negative.
- Step Two complete.
- Scapegoats?
- Cha,.cha....cha...Changes......
- Step One complete
- Bubble news, redux.
- Bubble news, old news?
- The 'Local' card.
- Step One
- The Store Makeover.
- Recreational sales?
- Recession proof?
- Middle of Nowhere nomore.
- Comic capsule reviews.
- Real Estate brokers...blah, blah...
- Cash flow.....?
- Comic bingeing
- Too Doomy and Gloomy?
- Reversion to mean.
- Shifting the dollars.
- Diamond; three legged critter.
- The budgeting entry has started a whole string of...
- Damn budgeting.
- Iron Man musings.
- Downtown turnover.
- The Life of a Small Business.
- Small Price to Pay
- So THAT's what happens!
- FCBD rampage.
- Nau no more.
- Free Comic Book Day!
- Let Them Eat Cake?
- I love to Have a Beer with Duncan.
- Perfect Example of Temptation.
- Book Barn closing?!
- I'm on a roll...or my ADD has kicked in.
- Wrong is Wright.
- Hip and Cool?
- In Defense of Comic Shops
- Other Discount Shoe Drops
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About Me
- Duncan McGeary
- I'm Duncan McGeary, owner and/or operator for the last 39 years of Pegasus Books in Downtown Bend, Oregon. These days I'm writing books as well as selling them. I'm the comic book guy. But even more so, I'm a book book guy. Books of all kinds. Big books and little books, children's and adult, fiction and non-fiction, hardback and paperback and trade paperback and graphic novels. Books with more words than pictures and books with more pictures than words. They are all part of the book world to me, and I love being surrounded by them every day.
10 comments:
Do you think the closing of similar businesses is due to the lack of a sufficient demographic base, or to a failure of advertising?
Lack of sufficient demographic base.
I'm not saying it can't be done. Just that it's harder than it looks, and ultimately, maybe just not worth it. There might have been other mistakes made, obviously. And there are always exceptions based on exceptional circumstances or talents. But, I just think a Mom and Pop business is just that -- a modest living for Mom and or Pop. How many people are willing to accept that in this day and age? Or the concept that they actually have to work their stores?
I was a customer of two of your competitors who went out of business in the last two years. They're Gambit Games and the Book Barn. My impression is that their owners were neither as flexible nor as resourceful as you have been with Pegasus. I think that those owners, unlike you, weren't adaptable. They weren't committed to do what it takes to stay in business.
As a more than 30 year Bendite who's seen businesses galore open in downtown and, sooner or later, almost always close, I believe that no one's done more with less and with worse prospects than you have at Pegasus. Who'd buy comics, cards, used books, and games from a hole-in-the-wall store in a rundown building on a side street in Bend when he could get the product online, at bigger stores, or cheaper elsewhere? That's what I think. That people buy from Pegasus and that you've managed to make a fair business of what was no business for your gone-out-of-business competitors, amazes me. If the Bend Chamber of commerce gives an award for the best businessman of the year, the decade, or the generation, you should get it. Hands down.
Maybe if all the owners of those downtown shops which closed their doors had taken some how-to-do-it-in-good-times-and-bad lessons from you and Pegasus their stores would still be open and they wouldn't be licking their financial wounds. Maybe those business people, whose stores are suffering now, should come 'round your back door and ask, "Duncan, what should I do to stay afloat?" But they won't and they won't.
"....a hole-in-the-wall store in a rundown building on a side street..."
No, a 'quaint' store in a 'historic' building in the middle of 'beautiful downtown Bend!'
Heh. Far too often I see the "gamer who owned a gaming store because it was cool and then realized it was a lot of actual work." Great idea, but no solid business plan. :P
Having not been to your re-arranged store, is there any any plans to give a little more space to roleplaying games, or is that really not one of your better selling categories?
As you know, Elizabeth, 4th Edition D &D is coming next Friday. I probably ordered more than I should, but I wanted to give it a good start.
We'll see, won't we? I think the current space is adequate for current sales, but I'm always willing to adjust.
Any new edition, particularly for one of the leading RPG lines, is almost guaranteed to sell well, particularly the core books. I think if you keep more Player's Handbooks in stock than say the Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide.
Speaking of a demographic base, I know there is a dearth of good places to meet up and game on a neutral ground. Has there been any consideration for a game room, either at your current location (which I don't think you have the room for), or at another nearby location?
Who'd buy comics, cards, used books, and games from a hole-in-the-wall store in a rundown building on a side street in Bend when he could get the product online, at bigger stores, or cheaper elsewhere? That's what I think.
Buying online is certainly cheaper, but you don't get the opportunity to actually hold the product in your hand, nor do you actually get to, I dunno, talk to people.
Weird.
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