Bypass.

Apparently I was wrong about the Bend bypass happening before 1962. In my defense, I was all of 9 years old at the time. It shows how light the traffic was back then that the highway could turn right angles at Wall and Franklin.


New books and card games are nip and tuck near the finish line of the month; with books a nose ahead for second place behind comics. However it turns out, it's an impressive achievement for a new product line. Of course, it's still only 20% of the revenue I'd need to survive as a bookstore; and I have a sneaking suspicion the first 20% is the easiest.


For years now, I've been debating with myself over the cost/benefit ratio for getting a two day ship from the main warehouse. Diamond offers us 'ground shipping' rates for 'air shipping' from their hub in Memphis. The regular Wednesday shipment is shipped to L.A. and then trucked up here.

As often seems to happen in these debates where there seem to be equal merits on both sides, the decision has been made for me.

Last weeks regular shipment, 15 boxes from L.A., cost about 3.5% of COG's, a little above the historical average of 3%. My two boxes out of Memphis cost 20% of Cost of Goods,(!?) well above the historical 8% average. The two boxes cost exactly the same as the 15 boxes. So....can't do that anymore.

It means changing my tactics. I've had the reorder system down to a science. Now I'll have to do a bit more ordering up front, and be a little more aware of what's selling out. It'll be inefficient for awhile until I get it figured out.

Oh, well. Makes the decision easy.