Getting new stuff is fun.

I dreamed of rising floodwaters; not slowly rising, but torrents of gushing streams.

It's been a long time since I let loose the spending reins, and I'd forgotten how much work it is to deal with an influx of product. I spent about 2 hours just trying to fit a batch of new boardgames into my space -- because they're all different sizes and shapes, it was a jigsaw puzzle. But I was determined to make them fit, and eventually, after much trial and error, they did.

It takes time to receive and process and organize and price and stock and deal with the empty boxes and packing and also deal with the normal store stuff. I'd forgotten I had an employee last time I was dealing with so much product.

My UPS driver is going to hate me. Just ordered 300 new books, many of them hardcover and all the rest of them trade paperbacks. I don't know how many boxes that will take, but probably dozens. Of heavy, bulky boxes. Over this weekend, I intend to order at least a hundred more new books from a different supplier.

The day goes whizzing by, too. Which is good, I suppose. I got a batch of books in a day or two ago, and I looked up and saw one of my regulars standing there, and I said, "You aren't going to stand there and watch are you? I hate that?" I heard a voice pipe up from the other side, and there was a couple smiling and saying, "We want to see, too."

I chuckled, cause I knew how they were feeling. "It's like Christmas, every day. What's in THIS box?"

Eventually the store will fill up again. Probably I'm the only person in this here world that sees any gaps in my store, but they are there and itching to be filled. Then Christmas, and then another long slow hiatus between Jan. and June. This plan of attack worked wonders last year, so I expect it to work again. In fact, last year, I was still ordering stuff into late spring, and I don't think I'll have to do that this year.

I've decided to give up on audio books. (See previous entry: Reading is not a group activity.) And I have a few miscellaneous non-fiction books that simply aren't moving: cooking, history, gardening, architecture and design, photography. I got these when I was still experimenting, and I'm going to bequeath them to Linda's store.

This will make more room for fiction books. I have the quirky, weird and pop-culture non-fiction, and a section of mainstream art books, which I'm going to expand a little.

Sales have remained good two/thirds of the way through the month, so much of the new stuff is already paid for.

This is fun.