Specialty and general relativity.

Specialty stores contain a paradox at their very core.

If the specialty is successful it will become so ubiquitous that it's no longer special.

Almost by definition, a specialty store will appeal to the hardcore enthusiast. That's why it exists.

The trouble is, while only some 'soft' (moderately interested) customers will become hardcore, almost all hardcore customers will eventually become soft.

The same holds true of the specialty itself. Whatever increased interest impelled a specialty store to open will start to become diffused. If a specialty store is successful, it will spawn copycats. Eventually, if the specialty becomes big enough, it will attract the attention of the chain-stores.

The more interest, the more product; the more product, the cheaper the competition and less "special" it all seems. In a word, supply ALWAYS catches up to demand.

At a guess, most specialty stores -- be they sports cards, or scrap book, or coffee shops -- have about a 5 years span when they are the main focus; but very few can maintain that for 10 years or longer. If the interest is strong, then the specialty is diffused, if it weakens, then it becomes harder to support. It's almost impossible to keep a -- one on one -- correlation between interest and support.

At the same time, a specialty store is almost required to carry 100% of the product available in that specialty, or at least a sample of each thing. This, in order to get say 80% of the customers. This is a valid business model, as far as it goes.

But if the customer base drops to 70% of the customers, the 100% full-service, 'all things to all people', model becomes harder to maintain. So the specialty store cuts from 100% support, which means that even fewer hardcore will stay customers, and down they go.

I finally arrived at a survival mechanism where I attempt to carry as much product as I can to attract 20% of the customers of a specialty. The hardcore are never terribly interested in my store, especially while they still have the option of going to a full service specialty store.

I will support a specialty 100% as long as I'm getting 80% of the business. Comics, almost by accident (bubbles burst, difficult business conditions) has managed to maintain a workable equilibrium. The mass market mostly hasn't figured out how to do them. (But I'm constantly aware that this could change through competition.)

But just about everything else I carry is predicated on picking up the casual customer, sometimes because they wander in, sometimes because they're in my store for something else, and sometimes -- and these people are golden -- because they stay loyal thick or thin. I think of myself as a pop-culture general store.

Over time, I'm able to carry much more of the product than I need to maintain that casual customer base; I suppose I'm always dreaming I'll get the hardcore customer back when they have no other options.

Usually, though, the hardcore customer simply stops altogether.

When the base of support for a specialty starts to sag, the hardcore customer is often contemptuous. They feel that they have options -- other specialty stores, the mass market.

But by becoming so diffused, the specialty starts to fail up and down the line. What is left, usually, is a couple of shelves at the mass market, and a few stores like mine which still carry a smattering of product.

In a sense, if I carry 8 different product lines for casual customers, at the 20% rate, I pick up the equivalent of 160% of the possible customers. Plus I can constantly adjust the level of support for each product line. It's a lot more work, it required an expertise on many more levels, and makes the store packed from top to bottom, (it requires more investment of time, energy, space, or money), but it also allows me to stay in business.

I didn't arrive at this conclusion until I'd seen one specialty after another collapse, and I was too stubborn to give up completely but too smart to keep trying to fully support a specialty that didn't return the favor.

I've always said, a specialty store will always do better in the short run, but the general store will always do better in the long run.

Sorry this is so wonky, but this is the kind of 'mom and pop' stuff that I never see written about anywhere else.