The biggest problem I've been dealing with at my store for the last five or ten years, isn't money. It isn't overhead, or profit margins. It isn't the amount of work, or the inventory.
It's space.
I don't have enough of it.
I like the mix of product I have now, all of which contribute to a steady flow of business, all of which have a variety of profit margins which average out at the margin I need.
But I simply can't do a great job at displaying any of them, because of lack of display space.
I've gotten very good at using every available inch. I've learned to consolidate and compact the product. But, really, for a few years now, I haven't been able to do much.
I still have a couple of product lines I can consolidate, and I plan to put in about 6 more bookcases. I'm going to try to use about half of the bookshelves to better display would I already have, and the other half of the bookshelves for new paperbacks.
After that? Well, I've thought I reached the max-out point before, but give me a while and I'll figure something else out.
In some ways, being constrained has probably been a good thing. It's made me make choices about what product should be highlighted, and which product can be retired. It's made me put the 'best' stuff I have in the little space I have.
Still....I constantly daydream about having a space 2 or 3 or even 5 times bigger than I currently have.
Five times bigger? Yes. And I could easily fill it. I'd have to invest in some fixtures, but that's O.K. I also have enough fixtures in storage to take up much of the extra space.
I also think I could make it work financially. Rent would obviously have to be less per foot than I am currently paying, but for larger spots, that's common. I'd just try to make enough to pay for the extra rent.
I have the financial resources to both pay for it, and to take on some risk.
So why don't I?
First of all, I've been in the same location for over 27 years. Moving would almost be like starting over. The figure I hear and which I believe, is that I'd lose 30% of my customers, maybe more because of the longevity of my location.
Move from downtown? After finally seeing the rewards of waiting for it to come back? Leaving a space that has foot traffic to kill for?
Still -- I think it would be interesting and fun to create my 'perfect' store. I know I could do it.
In the old days, my main goal was to push sales. To fill my store with great inventory and sell the hell out of it. Later, I learned that I need to pay some attention to profit margins as well. (Duh.)
But there are two extra elements that I never used to pay any attention to.
Workload and Endgame.
It always seems easy in the planning, but I know how stressful and how much work it is to expand or move. I have a nice workload right now. I'm earning a profit. Why should I take on a new job? A space triple or quadruple the space I have now would probably need more workers. I'd have to get better at inventory management.
Secondly, I'm nearing the end of my career. Sometime in the next decade, probably. So would I have time to recoup the investment?
I suppose it's all a moot point, since I have several years left in my lease. It would be difficult, but probably not impossible to make arrangements. And I wouldn't leave for just any old space. I have one perfect spot in mind, but it's occupied. The second spot is available, but I suspect the rent would be out of reach.
Still, I can dream, can't I?
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3 comments:
If you could stay downtown, secure a bigger spot within your price range, I'd recommend it. I don't think you'd lose much customers by moving somewhere else in the immediate downtown area. As it is, I think you storefront is pretty obscured. As long as you don't go any further east than Bond street, and no further west than Wall, you should be fine. Just don't go underground.
One of these days, your bookcases are going to be tipped over by a clumsy fella and it will make a domino effect and crash into half of your product! Only in the movies right?
There is a space downtown that if it fell into my lap, and if I reached out to my current landlord and they were o.k., and if everything else came together, I might, ......MIGHT....take it on.
Since all of this is unlikely, it remains a pipedream.
However, luck happens to the well prepared, so it doesn't hurt to be waiting opportunistically, with some of the plans already sketched out.
yep the 'net' as we remember it is soon over, ...
verizon now owns the backbone, and google owns the client, nothing left to fight over, hardware is almost free, and software is free for advertising and google gets all the ad dollars,
most notable to me is that now I can't run skype on my mobile unless its verizon, as verizon now owns skype, the next big move is google bought gizmo,
seems like google is going to become the largest TELCO in the world and own the internet, and probably buy verizon, no wonder now that google OWNS the world, they no longer want 'competition',
sounds a lot like a complete monopoly like std-oil had in 1908 and the supreme court had to break-up, but that will be years, ... but in the meantime expect all kinds of TARIFF's and fee's and shit, and be nickeled and dimed on the 'internet', but honestly who gives a fuck, deeez days the internet SUCKS and is boring, ...
Lastly has anyone noticed that virtually every where in town has NO free internet anymore?
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