The store with everything.

I think I was permanently scarred by comments early in my career from customers: "Is this ALL you got?"

I don't get that remark much, these days. Well, once in a while, but some people simply can't be pleased.

Anyway, I've always wanted a store that had everything in it that I wanted.

Recently, I've almost reached that goal. Without meaning to, without making a conscious decision, I've more or less reinvested in the store. Put capital in. Which is a shift in strategy.

Almost all my buying for the last 10 years or so has been cash-flow buying. I pay as I go. Every six months or so, I might buy 'extra' product if there is a particularly good deal or a one time chance to get something or because I want to save on postage.

I then proceed to pay that off that 'temporary' debt within the cash flow of the next couple of months.

This year, I've decided to push sales; to see if I can get sales higher.

With six months in a row coming in at above the previous years sales, (an average of 10% growth, which is the perfect sustainable number), I decided this month to completely stock the store, from top to bottom, filling every nook and cranny.

I make some orders only once a year. For instance, specialty dice. I can get dice made out of metals and precious stones; and they sell, slowly but surely. I order stand-ups only once or twice a year, because of postage and because I want to sell down as much as possible. I order from book liquidators only twice a year, because it takes that long for enough good books to accumulate in the backlist. Once a year, I order from an online art site which sells only retail, but which has enough good deals to give me a small profit margin.

These are the cream on top of my regular orders. The stuff I'd like to have, but usually can't afford.

Inventory level has always been a compromise, for me. When I started, I realized I basically needed an entire store's worth of inventory. It isn't simply a case of buying all the inventory; because I'd sell down on some of it, and have to reorder, and pay for the original stock, and so on.

Like I've said, you basically have to sell an item 4 or 5 times to get full retail and still have the item in stock.

It was a moot point, though. I've never had the kind of money it took to inventory a store from top to bottom. For the first 10 years I was scrambling just to keep up with sales -- I'd take pretty big risks on inventory, and STILL run out; and then bigger risks, and STILL run out; and then bigger risks.

You can see where this is going, and how it ended. One day, I turned around, and I had entire store worth of inventory NOT selling, and two more store's worth coming in the door and demanding to be paid.

Which I pulled out my credit cards and did.

And then struggled with that debt level for another 10 years.

Looking back on it, I can see that I was probably a little conservative early in the cycle, and then a little too reckless later in the cycle; if I could've turned that around, I'd have been better off. (And indeed, when it came to later bubbles; pogs, beanie babies, pokemon, I did exactly that.)
But one feels one's way, at first. One becomes slowly accustomed to risk....

At one point, pre-millennium, I had no credit, no money, and no terms with my suppliers.

So, for the past ten years, I've been slowly building and building.

Usually I pick a product line -- say, new books -- and I concentrate on using most of the 'extra' cash flow on it, maybe even take a little advance risk on it. Then I'd usually have a couple of other product lines I make incremental improvements on; and then a couple of others that I keep even; and a couple of others I purposely run down.

But I am careful to try to pay within cash flow; and back in the day when I had no credit or cash or terms, I simply HAD TO PAY WITHIN CASH FLOW.

Don't get me wrong, I took plenty of risk during those lean years, because I had no choice. I had to have inventory, and often it wasn't clear I could pay for it, and I'd take a leap once in a while because I had no choice.

But taking risk on by choice, that I haven't done in years.

I should probably make it clear. I'm not taking on dangerous risk. It's more that I'm willing to expend any capital at all, that's different. I'm like a riverboat gambler who's been surviving on his wit for years, and suddenly someone hands him a bankroll. He's got the experience, and if he doesn't change the way he plays, he should be able to come out ahead.

I've got 30 years experience of what sells, now. Everything I'm buying fits within that criteria.

I've only slowly come back to the idea of it. The Great Recession struck just as I was finally at the point where I could've taken risk; and thus, I retreated and spent the last two and half years being very careful.

It's paid off. In terms of real profit, the last three years have been the best years in my career.

Strange that.

As things have slowly improved, I've begun to feel more comfortable spending money again.

Mostly, I've been buying up bargains.

Because I carry 8 to 10 product lines, there is usually at least one of them which is unloading decent product for sale prices. All I have to do is sit back and be opportunistic. Buy when they are offered.

More often than not, this product is just as good as anything else I'm selling; apparently, the wholesalers just have a different dynamic than me; they want to unload everything, and I'm willing to take that product on and give it some life.

It seems to me, that just about everything I carry sells -- eventually.

Of course, it's impossible to have everything. It wouldn't take much searching to find truckloads more stuff. But I currently have everything in the store, that I'm currently aware that I think I should have. Oh, there are a few pricey items I'm still hesitating on: Absolute editions of graphic novels that cost 100.00 each; the Complete Calvin and Hobbes, which I'd have to try to sell for full retail when my customers can usually get it for half price; that sort of thing.

Even though my store is already incredibly full, it turns out that the 'nook and cranny' stuff still amounts to a large amount of money; more an investment than a cash-flow purchase.

I've made deal with myself to pay it off by July 1, thus giving me several extra months than is normal to carry debt.

It's a bit of an experiment. First, because I can afford it and because I haven't made such a move in years so it's time to find out if I'm missing anything. Secondly, because I really want to see if I can make some strides forward while everyone else is retreating, which the hope that I'll be rewarded for my boldness in the long run. And third, well, it's just fun.

I really like having a store that has everything I think it should have. I never really thought it would happen.