All in for Christmas.

So I'm all in this Christmas.

My general tendency is to spend money in the slow months, and try to make money in the busy months, which means sales on the slow months are better than they might otherwise be and sales on busy months are maybe less than they might otherwise be.

I do this for the sake of cash flow and consistency and -- well -- because it works.  People tend to buy stuff in the summer and Christmas, my store is well stocked, so I make money if I don't immediately restock.  And vice verse on the slow months.

But once in a while I also feel like I need to actually go all in and see how high sales will go if I'm completely stocked through a busy season.  Maybe don't make as much cash, but often I can push sales high enough that I can then coast a little in the slow months.

It's just an opposite strategy than normal, a change-up  --which I think is necessary on a regular basis -- say every third or fourth year.

So this is an all in year -- stocking to the gills on every category and immediately restocking on a regular basis.  Still hope to make some cash for the slow months.

I'm very very close to beating last year in overall sales, which I didn't expect considering how conservative I was on spending through the first 10 months of the year.  So I'm letting loose (with a generous Christmas budget -- but a budget never the less.)

The formula, the mix of product, that I've arrived at over the last 5 years seems to be basically working.  At this point, I could probably increase sales slightly by putting in a ton of research on exactly what's selling and when, but I think it's working at a relatively high efficiency with a moderate amount of work and effort.  In other words, the inventory is doing all the heavy lifting.

So I want to keep that up.