Off to the races...

This blog is going to become a bit of a horse race for the next 3 to 7 months, because that's where my focus is going to be.

Housing? Boring. Haven't read the Housing Bubble Blog for months.

The discussion has turned to the economy (and other equally disgusting things) over on BB2, which is all right by me. Despite all predictions of boarded up buildings downtown, new businesses keep opening. But as I said yesterday, this isn't so much a predictor of success as an indication that people are still willing to take a chance.

My two little stock picks, (2000.00 invested in each, Eaton Vance and Evergreen Global,) have increased by about 30%. I'm not sure this means my portfolio has gone up the same, but it's fun to watch anyway. You can see why stock picking could become addictive. Going to plop a big 5000.00 more into them by the end of summer.

Anyway, my main focus will be to stick to my budget, come hell or high water. Sales I can't really control, since I'm unwilling to discount to bump them up, or spend more than maintenance money on inventory.

But summer usually takes care of that. Tourists come. Christmas takes care of that, despite the Sheriff of Nottingham's threats to "Cancel Christmas!" People still buy gifts.

Buying I can control. The budget will be tight. I'm not sure it's completely possible with this tight budget to get absolutely everything that sells. My standards for what I consider an Evergreen will probably have to be raised.

I'm not sure about that. If enough of the 'liquidation' product I buy sells, it might be possible to keep tooling along.

Either way, the budget is written in stone this time.

May was my best month of the year, so far. Running about 12% above the average of the previous 4 months. We're down about 20% overall for the year, which is the least amount I expected it to fall. We should start lapping last years dramatic declines in September. (Last fall was Armageddon for retail.) There has been a small but noticeable increase each month this year.

COMICS: Down about 15%. Lost a whole bunch of subscribers, but seemed to do all right with the off the counter sales. Off the counter sales are preferable in some ways. I'm not in a hurry to talk customers into signing for a shelf, and thus getting an automatic 10% off. Nor to tie up my cash flow for weeks and sometimes months.

ANIME: Up 25%. Numbers are so small in this category, not sure it's significant except to show there is still some life in it.

SPORTS CARDS: Down 80%. Simply had no box buyers in this category. I can carry it, though, for awhile.

CARD GAMES: Down 45%. A lot of my magic customers disappeared. I've decided not to get too upset about it, just order more moderate quantities. But I take note of the fickleness of this category.

BOARDGAMES AND RPGs: Up 20%. It's fun when a category starts to respond to tender loving care. I'm liking my selection of games, right now.

BOOKS: Down 15%, but still very strong. Last year I was throwing money at books, this year I was more maintaining them. The number is a very strong number. Between books and games, they represent 27% of sales. These are two categories that barely existed in my store 3 years ago, so I shudder to think what sales would've been like without them!

TOYS: Down 33%. Another fickle number, and not necessarily indicative of the strength of the category. Next month could be 3 times more, and so on....

GRAPHIC NOVELS: Down 6%. Basically even. Again, these are mostly off the counter sales, thus I get full price. Like boardgames, this category has lots of juicy product to sell and reorder.

Like I said, I'm pleased with these numbers. The categories that are low, I can respond by keeping just enough flow of new stuff to keep them interesting but not lose money. For the categories that are doing well, I'm not in the expanding phase but just keeping them humming along.

Off to the races....