"I'd rather have something to sell."

I was talking to some friends last night about how, despite having been in business for so long, things were as uncertain as ever. There apparently never does come a time when you can rest on your laurels.

It's funny how things work. Who would have thought that New Books would be the product that is making up for some of the lost revenue in other categories -- categories that aren't challenged by digital?

It's not really known, but physical book sales aren't really down all that much nationwide. Certainly not the holocaust that seems to be everyone's impression. But there is an obvious slow encroachment.

To my mind, the original Borders and Barnes and Noble cut into any fat that independent bookstores had (probably not much fat to be cut, but..you know: "You've got mail!") Then Amazon came along and cut into the muscle. And now e-books are cutting into the bone.

The article in today's Bulletin about bookstores had the usual mantra of things that are going to save bookstores that boiled down to two things: promotional events and discounts.

Yet, somehow, those things don't appear to be working all that well. I'm convinced as always that you need inventory, inventory, inventory. And anything that costs extra labor (such as events) or extra space (ditto) or giving away margins (discounts and clubs) should be avoided as much as possible. The accent here is on "extra" but I'll be darned if I can see how you can provide all these things without either spending extra on space and time and margins -- or working those extras yourself -- which is a recipe for burnout.

The head of the Bend Downtowners was in the other day, and he mentioned a rule of thumb that said, "You'll lose 20% of your customers every year, that's why I keep encouraging you to do more advertising..."

"I pay the high rent in downtown Bend to pay for a location where I get walk by traffic," I said. "That's my advertising."

(What I could have said, is : Well, my store is still profitable while a full third of the downtown stores have turned over in the last two and a half years...)

From my perspective -- I have a certain amount of money to spend. I always know of dozens of products that have recently sold, that have sold over and over again, and that I'm pretty sure I can sell again.

So I can order that product, or divert that money and time and space and effort into advertising and promotions.

If there ever comes a time when I've run out of things to sell, and I have extra money and time and space, then maybe I'll advertise.

Until then, I'd rather have something to sell.