The effect of a drop.

A 10 or 15% drop in sales sounds dreadful, I know. But its actually a fairly easy number to accommodate. Big chains have a bad month if their sales are down 2 or 3%, whereas for my small store 2 or 3% is an almost insignificant number. I think a single small store is going to have more extreme swings, both up and down, because the %'s aren't averaged out over a large number of stores.

The caveat, I suppose, is that you have to react in time for the drop to be canceled out. Or, if you are buying for a 10% increase instead, it can be a double whammy. That's why dramatic increases in sales can be dangerous to the store if not handled properly.

I believe a good, healthy store should be using somewhere around 10% of their budget for increasing inventory; by trying experimental, or the whimsical, or the good product that might have been overlooked.

You've got to constantly try new things, at the same time you're maintaining your core inventory. At least that's what I do.

I also save up around 10% of my budget to buy "SALE" product, stuff that's been discounted. It's another way for me to try material that I ordinarily wouldn't carry. Stuff that I passed on the first time around.

I suppose it points out that I'm more interested in having a good store than a bottomline store. Then again, it wouldn't be hard to make the case that this extra effort is what has made the store survive all these years.

Most customers aren't going to notice that you didn't order something you didn't have before, but they are eventually going to notice if your core product is run down. However, keeping the core product in stock isn't that difficult for me, as long as I'm not out there spending money on other things.

I tend to alternate. One month of not buying "SALE" material; the next month not buying the experimental and quirky; the next month foregoing the "SALE" material, and so on.

When there is a slowdown, I tend to ask myself: "If I don't order this product, will anyone notice?" Obviously, that's a different question than asking, "Will it sell?" Or "Will people think this is cool?"

Anyway, I don't think maintaining the inventory rather than expanding, hurts the store in the short run; months, perhaps even a year or two. Especially a store like mine which has so much odd and offbeat material already.

But I wouldn't want to go forever without the quirky, the experimental, the offbeat. Every good comic store is going to have the same core product.

It's the unusual stuff that makes your store unique.