Do you want good? Or do you want GREAT!

I like to encapsulate my business strategy with a single phrase -- a theme, if you will.

I think my theme going forward will be: "Keep the Store Up."

That will put the emphasis on maintaining the very high level of inventory the store is currently at.

Just keep asking myself, "Will this keep the store up?" (Is this extra? Is this really necessary? Is this something new I need to keep the store up? Is this something I can let go of, and still keep the store up?))

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Linda and I went to our meeting with our accountant about taxes yesterday, and today I went to see the doctor so I can get my prescriptions.

So got both chores out of the way in just two days, and I don't have to think about them for another year! Don't know why these things are stressful to me. I feel limp, like the starch was taken out of me....

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The article on foreclosures in today's Bulletin was parsing the numbers pretty finely. Yes, there might have been a slight drop in the increase of foreclosures in the latter part of this year, but it doesn't seem all that significant.

3,031 so far this year, and 221 in all of 2006.

This town is hurting.

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Again, I showed up at work after a relatively slow day to find the register full of 10's, 5's and 1's;
instead of 50's, 20's, and 10's. Another sign to me that the customer is willing but the wallet is weak.

Tourism numbers are interesting in that they are apparently up; but I think most of those dollars are in motels; not necessarily in stores...

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We have great books and we have good books and we have mediocre books and we have bad books.

The great books are few and far between, and I generally recommend them away when they show up at all.

So to make sure I have them in stock, I carry them New.

I read so many books, and I have talked to so many people, that I know with a pretty high degree of accuracy what books a customer is likely to like. If they tell me half a dozen authors they like, I can point them to the very best authors and books in that particular part of the genre.

So a woman tells me what kind of mysteries she likes, I know from what she tells me that she would love the Jane Whitefield mysteries by Thomas Perry. I enthusiastically tell her all about them. I put a copy of The Face-Changers in her hands.

"Do you have them used?"

"No," I say, in defeat. "But I have plenty of good books over there."

I go show her all the 'good' used books, and she buys one and leaves.

But she leaves behind the GREAT book, the book she'd have always remembered, the character she would've wanted to find the next in the series and so on.

I mean, you know. She'll probably enjoy the 'good book' just fine.

But she left behind the GREAT BOOK!...............