When you've had a year of 30% increases, (this over the best year you've ever had) you get kind of spoiled. So when that rate of growth finally subsided in June to a mere 15%, it felt like a disappointment. But really, it's a more sustainable level of growth. I was a little worried about what would happen in August if we kept growing at that rate. I don't think our bandwidth, so to speak, could handle that many customers.
What's happened is that we had a big surge in summer last year, with Pokemon and Magic and books and back issue comics all hitting new peaks. So I knew that as of June, we'd be piggy-backing on major growth which had already factored in.
I think that's exactly what happened.
It's harder for me to know what's happening with the broader market and economy. I believe Magic has settled down and Pokemon is not quite the mania it was last year. Books continue to grow, but it's a mature product line for us now so the rate of growth is good but not overwhelming. As I said, it's the rate of growth that has slowed.
Bend is popular and downtown Bend is very popular, and we continue to benefit from that. I don't know how much longer people will defy the rising costs of everything, but so far it doesn't seem to have slowed down the flow.
My workload is increasing. I'm going into the store for a few hours before opening to put away books and clean and straighten and break down boxes--all the things that is becoming increasingly hard to do during official store hours. Then I spend at least a couple hours most nights reordering books.
I don't mind. I actually like it. And if I wasn't around, it would be a real cost in time or money for Sabrina. (I'm very, very fast both ordering and stocking.) So I'm hoping to stick around--with Sabrina the owner. She seems OK with that.
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