Status report.

Approaching the 4th of July weekend, I still don't know what to expect.

Usually by now, we would have seen an upsurge in tourist business. I don't think we've really seen it.

Pegasus Books is on track to my middle-case scenario, mostly because I was on track earlier in the month, and it has pretty much stayed there. Flat. Usually I would have seen a bit of a boost by now, what with the kids being out of school for over two weeks. (Not so much because of kids, but because people spring for vacation....)

Meanwhile, however, I'm pretty astounded by the foot-traffic count. I can see averaging 100 people a day in the door for the July and August period. When I last did customer counts a few years back, it was probably a third less (or more) than that. I attribute that to growth of retail around my store.

The books on the sidewalk are probably bringing in 10 or 20 extra people a day. I may only make a dollar or two off them, but I think it's really helped my book sales. I'm constantly getting the remark, "I didn't know you had books."

The biggest thing, the thing I'm most proud of, is the broad reach of the store. No one product is really carrying us now. All 8 product lines are producing. (Well, maybe not so much anime...) It makes the store very stable. Many more of the sales are to the over-twenty crowd, probably something like 90%, nowadays. Again, a relatively more predictable age-group than the old teenager/nerd/collector axis that the store used to be.

I get tons of people who once never would've stepped foot into my store actually being intrigued. "An interesting mix," the people who don't buy will say. "I love your selection," the people who do buy say.

My budget?

Well, um, you know.......err........I, ah,.......

Don't ask.

Actually, I haven't Quite Tipped Over yet, but I have used every bit of cushion I had, and the real summer hasn't really begun. I wouldn't fall into the red unless I was to fall back below my Jan and Feb levels, which isn't going to happen. That would be like getting snow in June, ....no, wait......

Anyway, I'm still optimistic. As opposed to having a certainty earlier in the summer if I'd just stuck to my budget better.

On the other hand, the store is and continues to be fully stocked. My reserves are untouched. I've actually turned a good profit in the first half of the year which almost never happens. (I spent years falling slowing into the red -- like a stretched rubber band -- from January through June, and then pulling back into the black in summer, then falling into the red in Sept. through Nov., then pulling ahead again at Christmas.) So I've managed to flip that around. Now, instead of having to constantly catch up, I have a cushion for the slow times. Which is a double improvement -- first I had to catch up, and then I had to pull ahead.

My other goal is to get through the rest of the summer without any conflict with customers. That'll be something like 6,000 people I'll be dealing with, all of whom I need to handle well, no matter what they do. Even one tenth of one percent of problems, would be too much. It's within my capacity, especially if I make it a goal.
I'm getting better at it. When I first started working everyday, I wasn't quite ready to handle it, I think. As the spring has progressed I've gotten a bit better at figuring out customer behavior; so what I want to do is refine that to a 100% success rate. It'll be a day to day thing. (Either allowing certain things to happen, or being the most diplomatic I can be.)

I'm going to just focus on the store for two months. Not worry about anything else. Just go to the store, and if I crash on the couch at night, so be it...