Store restock.

I have restocked the store in every category to the levels I think I need for Christmas.

I held off for as long as possible. Every week that went by without reorders was agony, and I kept expecting to run out of everything. In fact, only a few items actually sold out. I suppose the other side of slow sales is that you still have the inventory.

Of course, a few spot shortages developed, but I think in this modern world of "Just in Time" ordering, that is unavoidable. I cringed recently when I visited a new store that had 5 copies of every item: I thought to myself, they could have five different items for the same price. Selling even one of each per month would be an incredible turnover rate. Even for my best-selling titles, I usually keep it to two books in stock, and a one week lag in reorders.

Anyway, I was trying to pick my spot for reordering so that it would have to most impact.

I still have a bit left in my budget for next week, for last minute special orders, but after that -- anything I buy would be too late for Christmas and would go into January.

I want January to be as free of obligations as possible.

I'm having to completely ignore all the liquidation sales. I can get twice as much stuff if I buy them, but I only really have enough money in my budget to make sure that I have the evergreen, best-selling, classic material. I'm back to my, "If I don't order this, will anyone notice?" mode of buying.

Too bad. If my store was hurting for inventory, I'd probably order nonetheless, but, well, my store is packed.

I'm really surprised that with sales being as bad as they've been lately that I'm having so little trouble. No trouble in fact. This is the first real slowdown that I've managed to both predict and force myself to get ahead of the curve.

Even if I fell behind, which is unlikely at this time because I'm so focused on avoiding it, the consequences would be carrying a relatively small debt.

Still, I just don't like seeing it.