Sunday buffet.

I have been known, in the past, to sort of semi-mock some of these 'Tourist Studies."

People come here for the outdoor recreations? "Who'd have thunk?"

They stay with family or friends or at a hotel? "Really?"

They stay over the weekend? "How about that?"

And so on and so on.

Still, I did take something from this last survey that was useful; that the typical tourist is female, upper middle class, presumably middle-aged, and likes to shop downtown Bend.

You couldn't describe a customer profile that was more of an antithesis to my store's make-up. That is, Ten Years Ago.

Now?

Now I feel like I have a better chance of selling something to the 'typical' tourist -- the well-off middle aged woman -- than I do to a teenage boy.

So really, without any mockery at all:

"Who would've ever guessed?"

When I re-upped my lease in the middle of the boom, I was a little concerned. Rent was pretty high, so high that most of my neighbors bailed. But I felt that I had 25 years existence in the same location and that was valuable.

I also had the sense that my little corner of downtown was rapidly changing. I was already seeing signs of increased foot-traffic; it wouldn't take a whole lot more of that to at least pay for the extra rent in real terms, if not in break-even terms. (Breakeven: cost divided by margin = sales to cover.)

I started to morph my store more toward books and mainstream (euro) games. I took one whole side of the front of my store and put nothing but books into the display. I made the entry way almost entirely books and games. I came up with the phrase: "Used books are half the cover price, and are in the front of the store over there. New books on this side..."

And so on.

Now, the tourists seem comfortable enough in my store that even when they run into a pretty solid block of 'pop culture' weirdness they seem to go with the flow. Like good sports, you know -- everyone has a nerd in the family...

I will be continuing this mainstreaming of the store over the next lease -- while at the same time not cutting into the half of my business that caters to regulars.

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How the world has changed.

2005: Should we do granite or tile?

2010: Should we do bankruptcy or foreclosure?

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I always pay attention to Central Oregon building permits.

There was quite the jump in January. But there was a rather suspicious surge -- from one to 20-- in Redmond. Sounds like someone started a 20 unit project. I suppose it counts, but if I was keeping score in my store I would put an asterisk next to it as an anomaly.

Without those 20, the number of building starts would be 18 versus 20 last year...

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I don't usually comment on the political leanings of the Bulletin, except to note that I'm considerably more liberal.

But I thought the front page article on Judy Stiegler was pretty blatantly politically slanted against her. Both in context and where it was placed. Seemed like an ad for her opponent.

Of course, followed up by the 'actual' editorial on the editorial page: "Stiegler's district needs a centrist."

Hey, Bulletin. Central Oregon needs a centrist paper, too. Think you could provide that?

Ironically, John Costa's column this week was titled: "News That Belongs on Page 1." heh.

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Seems apropos that the biggest traffic argument we've had in Bend recently is about "WIMP WAY."

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