Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Kindling a bonfire.

Damn, I'm going to have to reverse track.

When sales first started dropping this month, my response was to cut back on spending even further. Despite a rather steep decline, I'm still in profitable territory -- which is quite an achievement, actually.

But my instincts are now telling me to make strong orders of books and games and graphic novels, which have become the strong base of my business. Magic sales have all but collapsed, toy sales are down, and so are sports card sales. Not sure what's going on with Magic, but it certainly isn't due to not having product. Toys sales and sports card sales are impulse buys these days.

My sort of off the cuff estimate is -- I'm getting lots of folks in the door, but not a whole lot of impulse buys.

Games are strong -- even though I'd expected much more of the 'new' customers, instead of sales to regulars. Book sales are even stronger -- despite the news about Kindle outselling hardcovers on Amazon. I don't really carry many HDC's. Mostly tradepaperbacks (the larger P.B.'s) . The price point on T.P.'s has always been better for us -- not so outrageously high as H.D.'s -- which I'm not surprised readers are foregoing.

Anyway, I'm going to make strong game and book orders for the month of August -- which means starting today.

Build on what's working.

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